A Context of High Requirements: Quality, Safety, and EN9100 Compliance

In the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry, quality and safety are non-negotiable. A single aircraft can contain up to 3 million parts: the slightest supplier failure can ground an aircraft, costing up to $20,000 per hour of downtime (AOG).

The EN9100 / AS9100 standards mandate continuous supplier monitoring and total traceability of contractual commitments. Yet, in reality, most contracts remain unstructured (PDF) and difficult to leverage. Procurement teams lose valuable time manually verifying them, to the detriment of their strategic mission: securing supplies and preventing risks.

The Challenge for Procurement Directors: Moving from Manual Control to Predictive Mastery

A&D Procurement Departments face three major challenges:

• Heterogeneous data: contractual obligations on one side (unstructured), supplier performance data on the other (ERP, SCM).
• An administrative burden: hours lost comparing documents instead of analyzing performance.
• A high cost of risk: every non-compliance can have a critical financial and operational impact.

The result: supplier risk management remains reactive rather than preventive. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes a strategic transformation lever.

AI at the Core of Contract Management: From Text to Usable Data

Artificial Intelligence, and more specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), now allow for the automatic extraction of critical clauses from contracts—such as deadlines, penalties, SLAs, or quality criteria—to transform them into structured performance indicators.

By integrating this data into enterprise systems (Enterprise Resource Planning, Contract Lifecycle Management), the Procurement Department gains enhanced visibility into the execution of contractual commitments.

Specifically, AI/LLM technology plays a key role in extracting and structuring contractual obligations, enabling the creation of consistent and auditable contractual KPIs. Simultaneously, integration between the CLM and the ERP makes it possible to compare real-time commitments versus their actual execution, while ensuring the automatic detection of non-compliance risks.

Thus, the company strengthens its contractual control, improves the quality of its supplier relationships, and secures its operational performance.

Use Case: Anticipation Instead of Reaction

Major A&D players (Airbus, Safran, Dassault Aviation) are investing heavily in AI to strengthen their contractual resilience:

• Safran acquired the AI specialist Preligens to internalize the predictive analysis of critical data.
• Dassault Aviation avoided major losses thanks to the proactive monitoring of its contractual commitments, following a dispute valued at $280 million.
• Airbus, facing supply chain instability, shows that mere financial verification is no longer enough: only continuous operational monitoring of suppliers guarantees stability.

Concrete Benefits for the Procurement Department

AI transforms the Procurement function into a strategic player in overall performance.

The observed gains are manifold:

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By automating contract analysis and execution verification, Procurement Directors regain control over supplier performance and gain decisional agility.

Summary: AI, a Strategic Lever for Supply Chain Resilience

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Aerospace and Defense is no longer just a technological project: it is now a strategic investment in governance and resilience. By integrating AI at the core of the Procurement function, companies strengthen their ability to ensure compliance with EN9100 requirements, thanks to continuous and documented supplier monitoring. This proactive approach also allows for the anticipation of contractual and logistical risks before they affect production, while freeing up Procurement teams from administrative tasks to refocus their efforts on negotiation and strategy. Finally, AI promotes seamless digital continuity between internal and external partners, ensuring better data consistency and faster, more informed decision-making.

In summary

AI transforms the contract into a performance sensor.

It enables Procurement Directors to shift from a control posture to a predictive management posture, strengthening the security, compliance, and competitiveness of the entire supply chain.