Table 5 AI techniques and algorithms for... | Emerald Publishing

Table 5

AI techniques and algorithms for supplier scouting

Technique	Quotes from the case studies	Role
Natural language processing	“The potential of natural language processing is exploited in the collection of information for supplier scouting”. – Provider I “NLP technology can be used to populate a database in a very short time with all the most interesting information”. – Provider E	Search for detailed information about a specific supplier or for the supplier delivering the required product or service Support the decision-making process and monitor trends and performances Extract data from Excel sheets and align them with a standard classification
Image and video analysis	“The information gathering process can be improved through image and video analysis”. – Provider J “Image processing algorithms can access the catalogue of potential suppliers, and after a comparison with the bill of materials (BOM) in the buyer ERP, they find the best option to fulfil the procurement requirements”. – Provider G	Extract unstructured data from image sources and convert them into structured data Define the technical specifications of the product required by the new supplier or provide information about the supplier itself through the extrapolation of maps, photos and videos
Recommended system	“Recommendation systems support the choice of the best supplier, or group of suppliers, identifying the best fit based on the data collected during the training phase of the algorithm”. – Provider G	Understand the preferences of the organization and define its clusters of suppliers that match the criteria

Technique	Quotes from the case studies	Role
Natural language processing	“The potential of natural language processing is exploited in the collection of information for supplier scouting”. – Provider I“NLP technology can be used to populate a database in a very short time with all the most interesting information”. – Provider E	Search for detailed information about a specific supplier or for the supplier delivering the required product or serviceSupport the decision-making process and monitor trends and performancesExtract data from Excel sheets and align them with a standard classification
Image and video analysis	“The information gathering process can be improved through image and video analysis”. – Provider J“Image processing algorithms can access the catalogue of potential suppliers, and after a comparison with the bill of materials (BOM) in the buyer ERP, they find the best option to fulfil the procurement requirements”. – Provider G	Extract unstructured data from image sources and convert them into structured dataDefine the technical specifications of the product required by the new supplier or provide information about the supplier itself through the extrapolation of maps, photos and videos
Recommended system	“Recommendation systems support the choice of the best supplier, or group of suppliers, identifying the best fit based on the data collected during the training phase of the algorithm”. – Provider G	Understand the preferences of the organization and define its clusters of suppliers that match the criteria

Source(s): Table created by authors