Procurement teams now use AI to draft specifications, screen suppliers, compare bids and review contracts. This two-day workshop teaches them to do that work faster with AI, and to catch the AI recommendation that is biased, incomplete or wrong before it becomes a contract award.
Procurement, category and contract managers, tender committee members, and the governance, audit and compliance staff who oversee procurement. Public and private sector.
Two days (the main edition), one day, or a half-day overview for tender committees and senior management, and a certification edition.
In person, led by a facilitator, with decision practice on StepSim, the AIR APAC simulator.
Record of Completion for everyone. An optional, separate assessment can lead to an AIR APAC credential.
Status: designed, not yet delivered. Available to commission for your group. Case files and materials are completed for the first group that confirms.
AI can now draft specifications, compare bids, screen suppliers, flag contract risk and summarise spend. Each of these speeds work up, and each moves a decision closer to a recommendation that no one checks.
In procurement, an unchecked decision is a cost, a legal risk and sometimes an integrity risk.
Most AI courses teach either how to use the tools or the risks of using them. This programme does both on the same task, in the same session.
Two days is the main edition. The one-day edition runs Day 1 morning, Day 2 morning and the governance session. The half day is an overview for tender committees and senior management. A certification edition adds a separate half-day assessment sitting.
In each session participants first use an AI assistant on the fictional case file to do the procurement task, then check the result. They use an AI assistant their organisation permits; whether a shared tool is provided for the session is agreed in the proposal.
| Session and stage of the cycle | Hands-on work |
|---|---|
| Day 1, morning: need and specification | A StepSim Practice mission played the usual way. Find the real need behind a purchase request. Use AI to draft the specification, then find and correct the wording that quietly favours one supplier. |
| Day 1, afternoon: market and supplier assessment | Use AI to summarise the supplier market and screen the suppliers. Then test the screen: one high-risk supplier ranked first, one good supplier screened out. Find why. |
| Overnight: own work | Map the participant's own procurement process and mark where AI already sits, and where it could save time safely. |
| Day 2, morning: evaluation and award | Use AI to build the bid comparison, then check it against the evaluation criteria. Prepare and defend a recommendation to a mock tender committee. |
| Day 2, afternoon: contract, oversight and governance | Use AI to summarise a draft contract and check its flags. Design the control set for one AI use: who approves, who checks, what is disclosed, what is recorded. An unseen Practice mission of the same kind. One named action with an owner. |
Each facilitated edition opens with a StepSim Practice mission played the participant’s usual way and closes with an unseen one of the same kind. The programme formats page describes the half day, the one day, the two days and the certification edition.
Two days (the main edition), one day, or a half-day overview for tender committees and senior management, and a certification edition.
Practical cases based on real procurement situations, written for the programme with fictional organisations and suppliers: a hospital equipment tender, an IT services contract, a facilities management renewal, a supplier integrity check. The two-day edition carries a regional case set: one Gulf public tender and one ASEAN private-sector sourcing decision.
All four, applied to the procurement cycle: Structure at the need, Test at evaluation, Engage at approval and disclosure, Perform at award and contract.
The half day ends with a written session report. The one day ends with a transfer file that goes back to the desk. The two days end with a transfer workshop, a report for the sponsor, and a manager review within ten working days.
An example written for this page, in the style of the programme's cases. The organisations, people, figures and AI tools are fictional.
A hospital is buying 40 patient monitors. The published tender gives technical quality 60% of the score and price 40%. An AI screening tool, "SupplierScreenAI", returns this ranking with a confident summary: "Supplier A offers the best value and meets all requirements."
| Supplier | Price | Technical score | SupplierScreenAI rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supplier A | USD 212,000 | 71 of 100 | 1st |
| Supplier B | USD 238,000 | 84 of 100 | 2nd |
| Supplier C | USD 229,000 | Not scored | Excluded: certificate missing |
| Supplier D | USD 251,000 | 79 of 100 | 3rd |
In the StepSim Practice missions, the facilitator looks at how people decide, not at whether they reached a particular answer. For an exercise like this one:
This is practice evidence from the session. It shows what changed in how the group checked AI work during the programme; it is not proof of better results at work, and Practice never counts toward certification.
For a first delivery, the lead facilitator is Indhran Seghar, director of AIR APAC Pte. Ltd. and the author of AIRS-J/1, the standard this programme is built on. Later deliveries may be led by a training provider's facilitator, named in the proposal.
A procurement practitioner co-facilitates and brings the procurement expertise. AIR APAC is an authority on judgment when AI is in the work, not on procurement law or practice. The co-facilitator is not yet named on this page; the proposal names them and their qualifications before you commit.
AIR APAC certifies facilitators under section 20.6 of AIRS-J/1. No facilitator holds that certification yet, because the first facilitator cohort has not run. If your organisation needs a trainer accredited under a national training framework, say so in your request; we will tell you plainly whether it can be met.
| What | What it is | In this programme |
|---|---|---|
| Record of Completion | A record, issued by AIR APAC, of what the person attended and practised. It carries no score or level. | Included for everyone who completes. |
| AIRS-J/1 certification, Professional track | AIR APAC’s own credential for judgment in AI-enabled work, under a published standard. Verified free by code on a public register, valid for two years. No regulator, university or professional body recognises it, and no certifying sitting has run yet. | Optional. The certification edition adds a separate half-day assessment sitting within 30 days of the programme. Attending the programme does not count toward the result. |
| A qualification from an outside professional body | A procurement qualification, such as those from CIPS, or continuing professional development hours from a procurement body. | Not offered. It would need an arrangement with that body, which does not exist today. |
StepSim is a decision simulator, an AIR APAC initiative built and operated by Exeter Labs. Participants play short workplace missions in which AI tools give advice, and they decide what to do. STEP is the method every AIR Academy programme teaches: four questions a person asks before acting on an AI answer (Structure, Test, Engage, Perform). AIRS-J/1 is the AIR APAC standard for judgment in AI-enabled work, which defines those four areas.
The cases are written for the programme and can be set in your sector and your country’s rules; say which in your request. Cases about your own organisation are used only with its written consent. Programmes are delivered in English today; if your group needs another language, say so, and we will tell you plainly whether it can be arranged.
The facilitated editions are led in the room. The half day is built for 15 to 30 people; group size for the longer editions is agreed in the proposal. Whether a live online edition is possible is also agreed in the proposal.
The price is quoted per group in the proposal. It depends on the edition, the number of participants, the location, and whether the certification edition is included. No price is published. The programme is designed but has not yet been delivered: case files and materials are completed for the first group that confirms, so the earliest date is agreed in the proposal.
No. The exercises use fictional case files. Where participants work on their own tasks, they use only an AI tool their organisation permits for that information, remove identifying and confidential details first, or use a fictional version instead. Nothing they show in the session is kept or recorded, and it is never used for certification. Your organisation receives these conditions before the programme starts.
Each edition opens with a Practice mission played the usual way and closes with an unseen one of the same kind, so the group can see what changed in how it checked AI work. The half day ends with a written session report. The one day ends with a transfer file that goes back to the desk. The two days end with a transfer workshop, a report for the sponsor, and a manager review within ten working days. This is evidence from the programme, not proof of better results at work.
Not on its own. Everyone who completes receives a Record of Completion. Participants who take a certification edition can earn AIRS-J/1 certification, issued by AIR APAC; no regulator, university or professional body recognises it. See the credentials table.
AIR Academy programmes are delivered through training providers, who own the client relationship and invoice the client. For a first delivery AIR APAC provides the programme design, the case files, StepSim Practice missions and the lead facilitator. The fit to your client, the subject co-facilitator and the commercial terms are agreed directly; no terms are published. Facilitators who want to run StepSim sessions in their own programmes can join the facilitator programme.