Know What Every Supplier Price Should Cost, and Why Know What Every Supplier Price Should Cost, and Why

Securing a lower price than last year feels like a win, but it doesn't show whether that price reflects the product's true cost.

This podcast, based on GEP’s whitepaper, “The End of Price-Based Procurement: Why Cost Intelligence Is Procurement’s Most Important Competitive Advantage”, explains why procurement must move beyond price-based negotiation and build continuous cost intelligence with AI.

Suppliers understand their own cost structures in detail. Buyers often see only the quote. Agentic AI closes that gap by reading engineering drawings, building granular cost models, and updating them as new information arrives. In one engagement, agentic should-cost analysis uncovered more than 15% savings from the highest-volume supplier, and the benchmarks were then shared with two other suppliers so they could cut their rates too. With that clarity, teams can anchor negotiations in identifiable cost drivers rather than general price movement and act with greater confidence in dynamic markets.

What's Inside:

  • Why price stops reflecting cost in volatile markets
  • How agentic AI makes should-cost analysis continuous
  • The six-step loop that turns cost insight into action

Negotiate on cost drivers, not just price.

Listen to the podcast now.

 

This is a audio recording of a recent podcast.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Cost intelligence breaks down the elements behind supplier pricing, such as materials, labor, overhead, and logistics, and connects them to current market conditions. It gives procurement an independent view of what a product or service should cost today.

Price visibility shows what was paid and how quotes compare, but it does not explain which inputs are driving the movement. In volatile markets, historical data loses relevance and benchmarks can lag reality, so price and cost can diverge.

Traditional should-cost analysis is slow, manual, and dependent on a handful of specialists. Agentic AI continuously digests new information, updates cost intelligence in real time, and flags where procurement needs to act, so teams can challenge supplier assumptions and sharpen negotiating positions.