An AI guided buying agent takes a plain-language need such as a laptop, a design tool or a consultant, and works out the category and the buying route your policy sets for it.
Reads what the employee says they need.
Preferred suppliers, contracts and catalogues.
Finds existing contract, catalogue or preferred source.
Offers the right form or supplier with a reason.
The employee picks an option or asks for another route.
Passes unresolved needs to procurement with context.
It checks what already exists, such as a negotiated contract, a preferred vendor, a catalogue item or spare licences, and suggests those first.
It then opens the right request with details prefilled, or explains why a standard route does not apply and who to ask.
Employees do not know the buying rules and should not need to. They pick whichever route is quickest, which is often a card or a new vendor, and procurement hears about it later.
The policy exists but nobody knows which part applies.
Staff buy at list price from a vendor the company already has a contract with.
People choose the wrong form and wait for it to be sent back.
A request for a tool does not say what problem it must solve.
Corporate cards and personal accounts bypass the process.
The agent asks short questions to establish what is needed, for whom, by when and roughly how much.
It looks for matching catalogue items, contracts, preferred vendors and unused licences.
It tells the employee which route fits, such as order from a catalogue, use an existing agreement or raise a sourcing request, and why.
Where a request is needed, the agent fills known fields from the conversation and checks completeness.
It shows what approvals will follow and roughly what the requester should expect.
Bring a small sample and watch Flo work through it.
| Aspect | By hand | With the agent |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the route | Employees guess which form to use or ask a colleague. | The agent suggests the right route from a plain description. |
| Preferred suppliers | Staff buy from whoever they know. | Preferred and contracted sources are shown first. |
| Policy knowledge | Rules are in a document few people read. | Relevant rules are explained at the moment of choice. |
| Unresolved needs | Odd requests bounce between teams. | They go to procurement with the conversation attached. |
| Learning | Procurement does not know what people search for. | Unmatched needs reveal gaps in the catalogue. |
| If | Then | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Need matches an item on an existing contract | Offer the contract and its price terms | Category manager |
| Need matches a catalogue entry | Offer the catalogue purchase | Catalogue owner |
| Need is a software tool | Offer the app request route and show existing tools | IT application owner |
| Need is unclear or vague | Ask one or two clarifying questions | Employee |
| Need matches no source | Create a request for procurement with the details | Procurement analyst |
| Employee asks for a specific supplier outside preferred | Explain the preferred option and offer to continue with a reason | Category manager |
The agent splits the need into parts and proposes a route for each. The employee confirms the split.
The employee can note the constraint and continue. Procurement decides whether a non-preferred supplier is allowed.
The agent shows the catalogue entry with its last update and flags a possible mismatch. The catalogue owner fixes it.
The agent asks for the end user and cost centre and passes it along. The budget owner approves as usual.
Talk it through with the team. We will map it to your steps and show where a person stays in control.
Make sure contracts, preferred suppliers and catalogues are current before the agent uses them.
Handle the few categories where staff most often pick the wrong route.
Extend to rarer needs once suggestions are consistently accurate.
Use the unmatched list to add contracts or catalogue items.
A low rate suggests employees are buying outside the process or the guidance is unhelpful. Read with the rate of redirected requests.
Quick answers to what people ask most about guided buying.
Book a demoIt is a purchasing approach that steers employees to the correct supplier, contract or form at the moment they need something. It aims to make the compliant route the easy one.
A catalogue lists items to order. Guided buying also handles needs that fit no catalogue by asking questions, checking existing agreements and recommending the right process.
No. It sends the request down the right path, and the normal approvals still apply. Some items may be pre-approved by policy, which is your choice.
A current list of contracts, preferred suppliers, catalogue items and policy rules. The quality of guidance follows the quality of that data.
Request prioritization is ranking incoming purchase requests so the most time-sensitive or consequential ones are handled first.
→An AI purchase request agent is software that takes in employee requests to buy something, completes the missing details, checks them against spend policy and existing contracts, and routes them to the right approvers.
→An AI request triage agent is software that sorts incoming procurement requests by urgency, risk and type, so the right request reaches the right person first.
→An AI purchase order agent is software that drafts purchase orders from approved requests, checks them against budget and contract terms, and tracks what happens afterwards, from supplier confirmation to receipt.
→Bring a small sample of real items. We will show what Flo handles on its own and where it hands over to your team.
