Trinidad and Tobago’s telecommunications sector took a structured step toward Procurement and Supply digital transformation today, as 25 procurement personnel from TSTT and Amplia Communications Limited joined a strategic AI Readiness workshop at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Led by Savita Mace FCIPS, former Chief Procurement Officer and General Manager of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Caribbean Region, the session centred on Three Foundations of AI Adoption: Data, Process, and People. Participants examined whether their spend, supplier and contract data could be trusted and unified; whether their procurement processes run reliably enough for AI to act on; and whether their teams are equipped and led to adopt new tools with confidence.
The workshop paired this framework with practical application, as participants mapped strategic pathways to integrate AI-driven negotiation tools and predictive spending analytics, while safeguarding strict vendor data privacy standards.
As Ms Mace told participants, almost none of it was really about AI. It was about data leaders can trust, processes that run without firefighting, and people who have been brought along the journey. AI, she noted, is a multiplier of whatever an organisation already has — gaps included.
The session closed with participants identifying one foundation data, process, or people they would fix first before introducing AI and one personal pledge for personal accountability.
Nysa Aubin of Amplia reflected that what stood out most was how collaboratively TSTT and Amplia baselined their current state of digitisation together. Kirn Ellis of TSTT added that the clearest takeaway was that people matter just as much as technology and process in a digitisation journey, and that investment should be proportional across all three.
The workshop forms part of CIPS Caribbean’s continued partnership with the region’s telecommunications sector to build procurement capability that is both digitally ready and ethically grounded.
