AI & ADHD to drive Innovation!
AI & ADHD NEURONS mixed to do what hasn’t been done ‘in a long time’; Procurement Innovation!
Procurement leaders are grappling with a world changing faster than any spreadsheet can track. The next decade will reward procurement teams bold enough to invent the future rather than polish the past. This article is my human-centred view of where Procurement is going, why it matters to innovate, grow, change and simplify, and how our human superpowers, amplified by AI, can make us an unstoppable force in 2025 + beyond.
I’ve always said solutions should be “best-fit.” for an organisation, the industry or a team. I’ve changed my mind. Best-fit is about the past, breakthrough is about the future.
Innovation isn’t tweaking an outdated process or adding a shiny bolt to a broken machine. Innovation truly means “creating what doesn’t yet exist” big thanks to Asem for making this definition stick during my time within the BHP Innovation team in 2020.
Futurist Steven Jeffes put it, it’s an “unrelenting drive to break the status quo and develop a new where few have dared to go.” Dr Albert Szent-Györgyi said it’s “seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” For procurement, this means creating what hasn’t been created, not waiting for change, but building ahead of it.
As discussed at a recent Think Fresh Advisory (TFA) industry event ‘The Executive Spheretable’ the worlds first innovative, multidimensional and dynamic forum, “change is no longer an occasional event, it is the standard operating environment”. Geopolitical upheaval, regulatory tsunamis, pandemic aftershocks and climate events have turned supply chains inside out. In 2024 alone, procurement faced supply-chain disruptions, inflation, geopolitical instability and currency fluctuations. The lesson? Procurement cannot afford to simply react. We must think miles ahead, design resilient networks, develop contingency plans and recognise signals before they become crises. As TFA recognised, the most Innovative teams are already thinking about 2035, 2040 & 2050 to build supply networks fit for risks beyond the future.
AI is no-doubt reshaping procurement, from spend analysis to contract management. Its ability to process vast data and recognise patterns can elevate decision-making. But AI on its own doesn’t innovate, empathise or create. Procurement’s future belongs to those who blend AI neurons (speed, scale, pattern recognition) with human neurons (curiosity personality, creativity, empathy, judgement, and laughs).
“When AI’s relentless logic connects with human imagination, procurement stops cutting costs and starts inventing value”.
“AI will never fully replace our Procurement teams unless we let it”.
Paired with human superpowers, AI liberates us from drudgery and amplifies our impact, allowing us to focus on foresight, strategy and innovation. Procurement people carry superpowers: introverts who listen deeply and build quiet trust, extroverts who mobilise ecosystems and energise partners, neurodiverse thinkers who see patterns others miss, risk-analysts who foresee turbulence before others blink, visionaries who dream ten steps ahead. The point – together, complimented by AI, we are unstoppable.
I embrace my own superpower, ADHD. I love it. It means I can juggle 23 million things at once, I start conversations that I end three days later, but I stay hyper-organised, and show up 100%, one-hundred-percent-of-the-time. My ADHD fuels my hunger for innovation, constant change, and the refusal to accept “best-fit” when breakthrough is possible.
My strongest belief is that, when done well, procurement serves as the nerve centre of the enterprise, connecting everything and everyone, everywhere. Our work is never truly finished. In today’s VUCA world, procurement is the one function positioned to create, generate, and secure the greatest value for any organisation.
Modern procurement is not about transactions, it’s about foresight, resilience and innovation. It means knowing our markets, scanning risk, navigating regulation, leveraging emerging tech, coordinating cross-functional teams and shaping proactive strategies. Done right, procurement becomes unstoppable.
Procurement professionals who joined our innovation incubator at The Executive Spheretable by TFA, bringing provocative perspectives and fresh insights from each continent: Europe, Middle East and Australia, concluded that four of the six top challenges were cost-related. Executives agreed that supplier spend represents three-quarters of company expenditure, and that “people hold the key to unlocking innovative value - AI can’t do this alone. It’s humans, with their relentless curiosity, resilience, and empathy who empower and reimagine procurement’s role”. Curious people spark innovation. Is AI curious? No (well… not yet). That’s our gift. Procurement must stop forcing everyone into the same mould. Otherwise, we’re just building another bot. Instead, we must embrace the uniqueness of our people and connect them with AI’s power. That’s the winning DNA formula.
The future of procurement will be shaped by digital acceleration and constant change, but the qualities that make us human, commercial nous, market intellect, natural curiosity, and smiling remain irreplaceable. We need to read, learn, travel, meet suppliers, ask questions and stay human.
The call to action is simple: be brave enough to imagine what doesn’t yet exist, think ten steps ahead when others are staring at quarterly budgets, leverage AI to free yourself from routine, but never outsource empathy, judgement or problems.
Procurement’s superpower is it’s people: brave, curious, diverse, and bold, firing their neurons together with technology. That is how we do what hasn’t been done in a long time: Procurement Innovation.
The future should not be something that happens to us. It should be something we create.
By Stavros Seremetis
Co-Founder & Director, Think Fresh Advisory (TFA)