The procurement function of 2030: AI, critical thinking, and the talent pipeline

What does procurement look like in a world where AI can automate the tactical, democratize data, and run scenarios in real time? In this episode, Tom Mills sits down with Dr. Britta Lietke, Distinguished Expert in Procurement at McKinsey & Company, to explore one of the most important questions facing the profession: how do we evolve procurement's role, skills, and structure for the decade ahead?

Britta brings 16 years of deep procurement expertise — from advising global organizations on indirect spend to leading McKinsey's internal procurement academy — to a wide-ranging conversation that covers the full sweep of where the function is heading. She makes a compelling case that AI won't make procurement obsolete, but it will fundamentally reshape it, automating the transactional layer while amplifying the need for strategic judgment, human influence, and critical thinking.

The conversation digs into one of the profession's trickiest emerging challenges: if AI removes the junior, task-based roles where procurement professionals have traditionally learned their craft, where does the next generation of seasoned category managers come from? Britta and Tom explore what this means for talent pipelines, how organizations should be rethinking how they hire and develop people, and why critical thinking — increasingly at risk in an AI-native generation — may be the single most important skill to protect and cultivate.

They also get into the geopolitical pressures reshaping supply chains, the rise of digital twins for real-time scenario modeling, and why procurement's future lies in becoming the function that connects the dots — the orchestrator of value across finance, supply chain, and the wider business.

Packed with insight from one of the world's foremost procurement thinkers, this episode is essential listening for anyone trying to navigate the opportunities and responsibilities of AI in procurement — and prepare their teams for what comes next.

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