June 4, 2025
In Episode 3 of the AI in Motion podcast, host JP Morgenthal speaks with Sarvy Sharma, Senior Director at Alvarez & Marsal, about how artificial intelligence is reshaping supply chain and procurement functions, particularly in Asia-Pacific. Sarvy outlines four top priorities for companies today: leveraging data for performance insights, maximizing resource efficiency, managing supply chain risk, and ensuring compliance—especially in tail spend management. He explains how AI is being used to analyze low-value, high-volume transactions for policy adherence, flag fraud risks, and enforce procurement rules.
JP & Sarvy discuss the current maturity level of many companies—often stuck at Industry 3.0—and the challenges in justifying ROI for adopting Industry 4.0 or 5.0 technologies. Sarvy highlights the need for better data infrastructure and how AI is evolving from simple data cleansing to acting as a procurement negotiation advisor. They touch on inventory management complexities due to global supply disruptions and the growing importance of tier-n risk visibility. Neuro-symbolic AI is introduced as a promising future capability that blends logic with pattern recognition. Sarvy concludes that while AI is accelerating turnaround and generating new insights, sustainable transformation depends on organizational change and internal champions—not just tech adoption.
