(lively electronic music)
-: We all know that a beautiful BMW i4 M50, like this one,
is made out of thousands of components.
(machines whirring)
And procuring those components to the right price,
right quality in the right time is hugely complex.
I'm now heading to BMW's Research and Innovation Center
to discuss how GenAI has changed the game here.
(lively music continues) (car engine purring)
(lively electronic music continues)
If you think of GenAI, GenAI is so strong
on unstructured data and managing complexity.
How do you describe the complexity challenge
when it comes to procurement at BMW?
-: The good thing is you can start with procurement
because there's a lot of unstructured data: contracts,
tender assist. And the cool thing is you start
and gain trust with unstructured data
and you gain trust in your organization.
You learn to build the blueprint,
and then you transform the next level
to get into structured data and combine the two.
If you just think in one division with GenAI,
I would say you missed the point.
If you think about, if you have a GenAI-driven organization,
that really brings the entire business units
completely in a different alignment.
It's not optimizing just one process;
it's optimizing an entire workflow.
And GenAI is not just the tip of the iceberg at the end,
it's, hey, what of the process can I rethink
and GenAI do for me in a better way,
and I as a human resource can focus on what really matters?
-: You were one of the very first movers in the company.
What is the difference from a concept
to bringing it to scale?
-: Never give up, because you'll face a lot of obstacles
and roadblocks, but for scalability, really,
the only thing that matters is you have to have
the leap of faith that you will be able to tackle it.
Don't give up. It is an iterative process,
like with any other programs,
IT programs or vehicle programs,
and you have to have a little bit of vision
and mindset that all the things they've thrown at you
that does not work, somehow you can get it done.
-: Thinking of the mindset needed to pull off GenAI,
to bring it really to value,
what is the learning of combining the best team,
the dream team, to make this all happen?
-: Tech got everybody excited.
However, I think, to create value, we need a 180.
You have to bring in the product vision.
What does this really mean for my organization,
and how can I make a difference as a USP in a product
like a car or how can I make a difference
with my business partners in a value chain?
-: Thinking of external partners,
how can external partners, like BCG,
what is it that the external world can bring to the table?
-: I think, at the beginning, what we really lacked
was the talent and the gift to execute.
Where we looked for external partners was specifically
in the fields of governance, platform, and execution.
-: We at BCG, BCG X, and Platinion are excited
to work with all the adopters, like the BMW Group,
to unlock the trend of GenAI, not only conceptualizing it,
not only scaling it, but really bringing it to value.
We're excited to see where BMW's heading
and where the trend will bring all of us.
(lively electronic music continues)