SAP NOW AI Tour: Joseph Harrison on Operational Priorities
At the SAP NOW AI Tour in London, operations leaders gathered to compare notes on AI's impact across finance, procurement and supply chains. Joseph Harrison, Head of Procurement Operations & Third Party Risk at The AA, shared a clear, practical view on what to prioritize to drive real change.
His message was direct: focus your teams, pick the highest-value use cases, and build the skills to use AI every day. That's how you move productivity, reduce risk and support sustainability targets without adding noise.
Inside Procurement at The AA
The AA goes far beyond roadside recovery with financial products and insurance, and that comes with tight regulation. Harrison leads third-party risk and procurement operations, bringing a background in procurement transformation and finance from global FMCG companies.
Procurement is mostly indirect: IT, marketing, corporate services, and contingent labour. Closer to the product, the team manages the purchase of the iconic yellow vans and a large garaging network with thousands of suppliers.
The strategy is shifting toward strategic partners and stronger supplier relationship management, moving away from constant retendering. The goal: deeper partnerships, fewer pivots, more value.
What Operations Leaders Should Prioritize
Harrison's panel on finance and spend surfaced one theme: skills must evolve as tech evolves. You'll see two tracks of impact-AI inside the tools you buy, and AI that touches every minute of a workday.
- Build AI literacy across teams, not just in a center of excellence. Tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot change how people write, analyze and decide.
- Automate contract management early. It's high-volume, rules-based, and ripe for removal from someone's daily workload.
- Redefine the category manager role so more time goes to supplier strategy, risk, and value creation-less to admin.
- Prioritize 2-3 use cases with clear metrics and short payback. Prove value fast, then scale.
AI Readiness: A Practical Sequence
- Set outcomes: productivity, contract cycle time, policy adherence, and risk throughput. If it can't be measured, it slips.
- Map the work: intake, scoping, contract creation, clause checks, approvals, renewals, supplier onboarding, risk checks.
- Pick the right tool for the job: embedded AI in procurement platforms for structured workflows, and assistants for day-to-day analysis and drafting.
- Build controls early. The AA is financially regulated-compliance, data security and auditability are non-negotiable.
- Run a pilot with champions. Train, test, collect feedback, and codify playbooks before wider rollout.
- Scale with a clear comms cadence and a backlog of the next use cases. Keep momentum visible.
Change Management That Sticks
Change lands faster when it's owned by the teams. Harrison's approach: embed champions (super users) in every function and keep a consistent drumbeat around how AI is used, how roles shift, and which skills matter.
- Set up weekly show-and-tells with real examples from your own data.
- Publish a one-page skill map per role: what to learn, where to apply it, and what "good" looks like.
- Offer office hours and fast, practical FAQs. Remove blockers within days, not weeks.
- Reward adoption-spotlight wins, not just tech features.
Learn From the Community
You move faster by borrowing what already works. Harrison stressed the value of comparing patterns with peers so you don't rebuild the same solution from scratch. Events like SAP NOW help teams pressure-test assumptions and validate priorities.
Third-party risk is a core focus for the next 18 months at The AA, shifting from Excel and legacy workflows to modern platforms with continuous monitoring and smarter due diligence. For regulated teams, this is where AI can cut cycle time without sacrificing control.
KPI Starter Pack for Procurement Ops
- Contract cycle time (new and renewal)
- Percentage of "touchless" renewals
- Third-party risk assessment SLA hit rate
- High-risk suppliers with active mitigations
- SRM review cadence completion
- Spend under management and PO automation rate
- Supplier consolidation rate in key categories
- User satisfaction (requesters and stakeholders)
Bottom Line
Don't chase every use case. Pick the few that free real time-contracting is a strong start-equip champions, and keep the skills conversation front and center. Learn from peers, replace manual spreadsheets, and let measurable wins set the pace.
If your operations teams need a fast lift in AI skills, explore practical learning paths by role at Complete AI Training.
Your membership also unlocks:
