Autonomous sourcing startup Globality Inc. is injecting some trendy new generative artificial intelligence capabilities into its platform “Glo,” which is available to all customers from today.

Globality is the creator of an AI-powered enterprise procurement platform aimed at helping companies save money when buying various supplies and services necessary for their business operations. Its platform serves as a modern replacement for the outdated request-for-proposal process that attempts to solicit lower bids by approaching multiple suppliers.

Glo is an intelligent conversational chatbot that’s designed to help companies make more informed decisions when it comes to purchasing products and services. It guides users throughout the buying path, identifying suitable suppliers and providing negotiation insights while enforcing the company’s sourcing policies throughout. In this way, it serves as a knowledgeable and fast-learning virtual member of business procurement teams.

Globality said Glo can aid users at every step of the procurement process, engaging in conversations and help by answering procurement-related questions. It uses natural language processing to understand the complex intent of strategic high-value projects and accurately scopes project requirements, according to the company, generating a professional brief along the way that can immediately be sent to best-fit suppliers.

No matter what the product or service the user is attempting to procure, it will find the most ideal buying path, Globality promised, considering multiple sourcing types each time. It will generate a long list of potential suppliers, and then attempt to give users an edge when it comes to negotiating any deal by offering insights and tips that can be used as leverage to achieve better terms or prices.

Other advantages of Glo include enabling smarter collaboration between the various employees involved in procurement to reduce costs and avoid overbuying, while centralizing all spend activities in one place.

Globality says multiple big enterprises have already adopted Glo to assist in their procurement processes and have benefited from indirect spend costs savings of around 10% to 20%, while achieving efficiency gains of up to 70%.

One of those customers is the British telecommunications giant BT Group plc, which said it has been using Glo to coordinate more than £3 billion ($3.74 billion) in annual procurement spending. “We aim to provide our people with a consumer-grade user interface that reduces the need for extensive training,” said BT Chief Procurement Officer Cyril Pourrat. “With Glo using generative AI, no one needs to be trained on how to make the absolute best decision when sourcing.”

Globality co-founder and Chief Executive Joel Hyatt said companies struggle to cut costs using outdated buying processes. Yet doing so is necessary if they’re to remain competitive, he said.

“None of this is possible if the archaic purchasing process consumes everyone’s energy with minimal impact,” Hyatt said. “Glo not only captures the hearts and minds of its users but also plays a strategic role in enabling intelligent buying decisions, reducing costs, and assuring optimal utilization of funds to drive growth and innovation.”

Image: Globality