Why manual comparison loses
Price lists arrive in every format going — spreadsheets, PDFs, emails — with different units and part numbers. Merging them into one table and comparing honestly costs hours per purchase. So the order goes to the usual supplier, overpaying purely out of inertia.
What an AI procurement assistant does
- •Collects supplier offers from files, emails and permitted sources,
- •Normalises the line items: units, part numbers, equivalents,
- •Compares prices and terms — lead time, minimum order, delivery — not just the number,
- •Highlights where the better deal is and prepares the requisition,
- •Keeps price history, so it is visible when a supplier pushes rates up.
| By hand | With AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Merging price lists | hours per purchase | minutes |
| Matching equivalents | from memory | matched by meaning |
| Price monitoring | occasional | continuous, with history |
The limits
The AI gathers and compares; the purchasing decision and the contract belong to a person. On how document data gets extracted from those price lists in the first place, see AI document OCR and how accurate it is. More about the product on the AI procurement assistant page.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the AI get the prices from?
From supplier price lists and quotes — files, emails, exports — from websites where that is permitted, and from your own requests for quotation. The formats are normalised so that line items can actually be compared.
Does it place the order itself?
No. The AI collects and compares offers, highlights the best value and prepares the requisition. The purchasing decision and the contract stay with a person.
What if suppliers use different units and part numbers?
That is the normal difficulty, and it is exactly what the model handles: it matches items by meaning, converts units and finds equivalents, instead of demanding perfectly aligned price lists.