What do you mean by conversational AI?

Conversational AI belongs to the family of AI (Artificial Intelligence), it’s basically a family member that can help you (a toddler) simulate language, to be more precise – human language. When you log in to a customer support webpage of a company, the first pop-up that you see asking you “How can I help you today”, is a classic example of conversational AI. This is one of the most common examples of a “Chat-bot”, which is a highly used application of conversational AI.

How is conversational AI relevant to Procurement work?

Now you know what conversational AI means but how is its implementation relevant and necessary to CPOs and other procurement stakeholders? Let’s have a look: a lot of processes involved in procurement currently require a human touch for its completion. These processes can include supplier selection, contract formulation, negotiation, e-procurement, compliance checks, and delivery and return process of products and services. These comprise roughly 60% of a practitioner’s daily tasks. These processes are time-consuming and prone to delays and human errors.

Conversational AI is one solution for the quick and error-free deployment of all activities across the procurement process, an assistant that will do most of the work for you and is available 24×7 at your beck and call.

Read our blog on: Leveraging Conversational AI in Procurement

According to a Deloitte survey, around 51% of procurement professionals believed that AI and cognitive technologies would play a significant role in their procurement process in the next few years.

Introducing Merlin Assist, a next-generation B2B chatbot and a cutting-edge conversational AI tool that can unravel your cognitive procurement.

Current Challenges and Industry signals:

• No tracking mechanism for requests
• Time consuming, error-prone, cumbersome manual process
• Lack of readily available information about the process and suppliers
• Huge disconnect between business users and the procurement team

Behind every innovation lies a story of genuine need. The inception of Merlin Assist is aimed at addressing real challenges in the procurement landscape. We understand that a CPO’s priority is to increase adoption and usage, reduce complexity, and make procurement a “Self-service”

How does Merlin Assist overcome the above challenges?

Zycus’ Merlin Assist is a cognitive source-to-pay software that can enable your team members to focus on strategic tasks leaving tactical tasks and queries in the hands of a trusted conversations AI assistant.

Let’s look at the benefits and features of Merlin Assist along with a few areas where we can apply this chatbot in the procurement works and stages:

1. Touchless:

Merlin Assists’ touchless feature can be used across the procurement cycle. It intelligently identifies, extracts, and analyses clauses in a contract. It also automates invoice intake and intelligently extracts key business fields making invoice processing error and human touch-free, thus improving efficiency and compliance across your source-to-pay journey.

2. Easy to Use/Access:

Merlin Assist is an extremely user-friendly and easy-to-use conversational AI tool. With simple prompts and commands, it can help you automate 95% of all your everyday and mundane e-procurement tasks

3. End-to-End Digitization:

With the help of Merlin Assist, you can automate the buying process end-to-end. Using the Merlin chatbot, you can create a catalog, non-catalog, contract, and supplier requests. Track all the requests made in real-time. Approve or reject any requests at a click and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders seamlessly and cut time due to reduced invoice processing and contract management time.

4. Consumerized and Familiar User Interface:

Merlin Assist can be integrated with your everyday communication app – Microsoft Teams! This omnichannel conversation tool needs no further logins and is super user-friendly.

Achieving Excellence: The Hackett Group’s Story with Zycus Generative AI

Witness The Hackett Group’s journey toward achieving excellence in procurement. This video highlights their strategic use of Zycus Generative AI to overcome obstacles and set new benchmarks in the industry.See Their Journey – Click to Watch!

 
Get ready to change how procurement is done. With the help of Merlin Assist, you will have the power to control and streamline your procurement process.

Want to see Merlin Assist in action yourself? Visit the Merlin Experience Center and start your cognitive procurement journey or request a demo today!

Related Reads:

1. How Conversational AI Chatbots Drive Procurement Adoption
2. Why Conversational AI Tools Will Make You Rethink Your Procurement Strategies
3. Challenges of Conversational AI in Procurement And How CPOs Can Overcome Them
4. Chatbot Solutions for Procurement
5. White Paper – Advanced Spend Analysis: A new offering for your procurement initiatives
6. Merlin AI Platform: 3 Things You Should Know Right Now!
7. Podcast – Remote Working for Procurement Professionals – Lessons and Way Forward