A Flight Simulator Tool for Better Procurement Negotiation

Posted on March 31, 2022


The other day, I spoke with the innovators behind LavenirAI – the world’s first AI-powered procurement negotiation training platform.

With a collective 97 years of industry experience, Clive Heal, Bill Michels, and Linda Michels have what is recognized as a deep industry subject matter expertise. This expertise comes in handy when teaching avatars in the “procurement metaverse” important negotiating terminology.

In combination with a conversational AI capability – which enables humans to have free-form conversations with an avatar in a virtual reality (VR) 3D environment, LavenirAI encapsulates the real-world subtleties of the negotiation process. As a result, professionals can use AI in a “positive way” to improve their negotiating skills.

According to Heal, LavenirAI is how the next generation of procurement training on-demand can elevate skill sets that are ‘customized” to the individual’s needs. In other words, the negotiation training platform will enable a professional to build on their strengths and expand into new areas of capability or competency.

To create some context, in watching a LavenirAI demonstration, the first thing that came to my mind was its similarities to the evolution of the Flight Simulator model. According to ScienceDirect, “the appeal of the VR simulator is obvious,” as it “creates a safe space for users to practice and fail without the consequences risked in the real world.”

Even more impressive is that the ongoing “intuitive interaction” with the sales avatar based on extensive past negotiation experiences will create new dialogue scripts through AI learning – including expressions and emotions.

The Procurement Metaverse

Delving deeper into the intent and technology behind the platform’s development, Heal expresses his opinion that the metaverse will consume the internet, which is where all our procurement technology presently resides. He then says that the ubiquitous keyboard and screen will eventually be “replaced” by conversational AI. His observations made me think about a recent exchange I had with Alexa, who automatically prompted me to reorder my favorite coffee through Amazon. Now that’s what I call intuitive AI interaction.

Integrating technology and bringing it into the metaverse will also move provider solutions into a VR format. The end result, of course, is an enterprise-wide, seamless integration of procurement capabilities that will remove many of the barriers that have limited digital transformation success.

Measuring Success

LavenirAI Release 1 will initially launch with one sales avatar (Stefan). The subsequent four releases (quarterly) will each add a new sales avatar, so Release 5 will have five alternative avatars, each with a different persona, i.e., the logical step-by-step negotiator, the emotional negotiator etc. There will also be an introductory framework of different negotiating scenarios.

Why are these variables so important to the learning process?

Through the use of advanced analytics, the platform will create a personal performance scorecard in which the procurement professional will receive the supplier proposal based on the strength of their negotiation. In other words, the outcome of negotiations will be unique to each individual and will also identify their strengths and areas for improvement.

Another advantage worth noting is that the advanced analytics will also generate rankings based on individual performance within both the procurement professional’s organization and the global LavenirAI community.

Of course, the procurement professional won’t have to go it alone, as LavenirAI will also provide a digital mentor who will give timely tips throughout the negotiation process.

What impresses me the most is that LavenirAI promises to be a powerful tool to move performance assessment from subjective to tangible measurements in a real-world (metaverse) environment.

Check out the promotional video below.