Gartner research found that chief procurement officers needed to treat AI as its own category because AI had become part of software, cloud tools, services and everyday work across the business.
The research said organizations were buying AI in many different ways, which made it harder to keep track of what they were using and how it fit together.
“AI capabilities are being purchased across the enterprise, often without a unified view of how those investments relate to one another,” said Katarzyna Fonteyn, director analyst, IT services, Gartner Supply Chain.
The research said traditional category management focused on suppliers and contracts, but AI cut across those areas. Managing it properly required help from procurement, IT, legal, security, HR and business teams.
The research explained that treating AI as its own category helped organizations understand what they had and where important capabilities should sit.
“Treating AI as a dedicated category management domain helps organizations improve visibility, strengthen governance and make more deliberate decisions about where critical capabilities should reside,” said Fonteyn.
Gartner recommended keeping a clear list of AI tools and spending, setting simple rules for buying and using AI, checking whether AI investments support business results.
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