Munich: The Desire Is Real — The Guardrails Aren't
By Mark Perera
Munich on Tuesday for The Shift roundtable with H&Z Management Consulting and Zip.
Amazing group of attendees — honest, open, and super optimistic about the future.
Chatham House rules, so here are my personal takeaways:
The desire is real
The desire to adopt AI in procurement is real — and boards aren't asking *if* anymore, they're asking *when*. But when the solution landscape shifts every quarter, traditional sourcing doesn't apply.
Two paths to value
Two paths to value stood out:
- •Augment key individuals — it unlocks insight fast and shows people what frontier models can actually do.
- •Partner for workflow orchestration of low-level, repeatable tasks — the ones that cause daily pain. Less change management, less pushback, faster adoption.
The combination of these two allows the function and the business to get more comfortable and confident with an agentic approach — and over time, let AI augment more strategic workflows and decisions.
Guardrails and ambition
But it's clear that corporates need guardrails and accountability on more strategic agentic flows. That confidence comes from building solutions the right way — with the right policies, controls, and trust established from the start.
Are your guardrails keeping pace with your ambition?
That's the real shift.
The Shift so far
Munich was the fourth stop on The Shift series, following London, Amsterdam, and Zurich. Each city has surfaced different tensions and patterns — but the through-line is consistent: the operating model is moving, and the leaders in these rooms are the ones shaping where it goes.
Barcelona next.