Sandra Cikic, Technology Alliances Manager at Ivalua, and Niels van Nieuwenhuijzen, Partner Manager at Altares Dun & Bradstreet, discuss how AI is changing procurement, why trusted supplier data matters more than ever, and what the next generation of procurement intelligence could look like.
What is keeping procurement leaders busy today, and what has changed over the past year?
The procurement market is clearly moving from discussing AI to thinking about how to actually adopt it. There is a strong willingness to start, but that immediately raises practical questions around ROI, people, processes and budgets.
As Niels explains, the conversation is increasingly shifting towards: we need to adopt AI, but how do we actually make it work within our organization? For example, if AI can handle a significant share of customer service questions, what does that mean for the people currently performing that work? And what does it mean for the way organizations structure their processes?
At the same time, the market is showing real interest in new AI capabilities. Sandra sees this directly in the response to Ivalua’s recent developments, including the expansion of the integration of D&B’s data into Ivalua using an MCP server. While some organizations are already piloting with these capabilities, others are still figuring out how AI fits into their procurement strategy.
From data to guidance: where can AI create real value?
One of the most interesting developments is the move from simply displaying data to actually helping procurement professionals interpret it. Within IVA Studio, for example, a user can ask whether they can work with a particular supplier. Instead of simply displaying a set of data points, the AI can provide context around the answer, such as explaining why a supplier’s risk profile is rated in a certain way.
For Sandra, this illustrates an important role for AI in procurement. It does not necessarily replace the person making the decision. Instead, it adds an educational and guidance layer, helping users understand the information and make better-informed decisions.
The same principle applies to questions around supplier structures. Before signing a contract with a provider, one might want to ask, “Who is the global ultimate?” and “Do I already work with companies that have the same global ultimate?” According to answers, it can be used to have a more global contract and better negotiate prices.
Why does the combination of Ivalua and Dun & Bradstreet matter?
The value of the partnership becomes particularly clear when looking at the supplier record itself. The Golden Record, for example, utilizes on the D-U-N-S Number to identify companies uniquely. This allows supplier information to be connected and de-duplicated in a way that creates a more reliable foundation for procurement processes.
In an AI-driven procurement environment, that foundation becomes increasingly important. The more organizations rely on AI to interpret information and support decisions, the more important it becomes that the underlying data can be trusted.
For Sandra, the partnership is also valuable because it combines two complementary perspectives. Ivalua brings the procurement technology and workflow, while Dun & Bradstreet brings business intelligence and company data. The close collaboration between the two organizations also makes it easier to think along with customers and guide them from both the business and IT perspective.
What happens when you stop looking at suppliers individually?
The next step could be even more significant: moving from analyzing individual suppliers to understanding the wider ecosystem of companies connected to them.
Corporate structures and linkages can reveal dependencies that are not immediately visible when looking only at a direct supplier. Once different data sources can be connected and analyzed together, the boundaries between those sources become less important. What matters is the insight that emerges from the combination.
This could fundamentally change how procurement teams approach risk. Instead of simply asking “What is the risk of this supplier?”, a CPO could ask questions such as: “What happens to my supply chain if this supplier loses 20% of its capacity?” Or: “What would be the impact if the Strait of Hormuz were closed for four weeks?”
That moves procurement from monitoring individual risk indicators towards scenario planning. Financial strength, supplier data, compliance information, corporate relationships and external developments can become inputs into a broader analysis of what could happen next.
For Niels, this is where the partnership could ultimately create a different kind of value for CPOs. The opportunity is not simply to provide more data fields, but to connect the data in a way that enables organizations to understand dependencies and model potential scenarios.
From data to software: Sandra’s perspective from both sides
Sandra has a particularly unique perspective on the partnership. Before joining Ivalua, she worked at Dun & Bradstreet. Moving from a data company to a procurement software company changed the way she looks at the market.
The two organizations engage with customers at different levels and at different stages of the buying and implementation process. Data is relevant across virtually every company, while procurement software involves a more specific set of stakeholders, a longer software lifecycle and implementation considerations.
For Sandra, however, the two perspectives are highly complementary. That also makes the joint proposition easier to explain to customers.
One example is the Golden Supplier Record, where D-U-N-S Numbers can support supplier identification and de-duplication directly within the procurement environment.
And that direct integration is important. When trusted data becomes part of the platform and the workflow itself, users can access it as part of their normal procurement process rather than having to find and combine the information separately.
Where does the partnership go next?
The ambition is to move beyond simply connecting data sources. As AI becomes capable of analyzing information across different domains, the distinction between where a particular data point originated becomes less important. What matters is whether the combined information can answer a business question.
For procurement, that could mean moving from supplier risk monitoring towards much more sophisticated scenario planning: understanding how financial, operational, compliance, geopolitical and supply chain risks interact, and what those interactions could mean for the organization.
The question then becomes less “What data do I have?” and more “What can I understand and anticipate because these data sources can work together?”
If you could give one piece of advice to a CPO who wants to make their organization AI-ready over the next two years, what would you tell them to focus on first? What does that mean in practice?
I believe step one should be cleaning up data. AI won’t necessarily clean it up, but it will use that unclean data and therefore amplify issues. The biggest benefit that AI can drive for procurement organizations is providing insights within the specific context of your business.
Clean data is necessary to drive this context.
