purchasing agent
- noun
- /ˈpɜrʧəsɪŋ ˈeɪdʒənt/
- Specialized
:
agente de compras
- Startups use a purchasing agent that negotiates supplier discounts and schedules deliveries without human oversight.
Examples
-
The company deployed a purchasing agent to automatically reorder printer cartridges when stocks ran low.
-
After integrating the new purchasing agent, their procurement team focused on strategy rather than placing orders.
-
The new purchasing agent saved us a lot of money.
-
Our purchasing agents negotiate better prices with suppliers.
-
The company deployed a purchasing agent to automatically reorder printer cartridges when stocks ran low.
-
Startups use a purchasing agent that negotiates supplier discounts and schedules deliveries without human oversight.
-
After integrating the new purchasing agent, their procurement team focused on strategy rather than placing orders.
Synonyms
14
6.6
A computer program that works on its own to do tasks for a user or system
How Automated
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
38
3.5
- US
20
2.7
28
2.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun compound is fully compositional: 'purchasing' (the process of acquiring) + 'agent' (a representative who acts for others) yields an agent whose role is to purchase on behalf of someone. While the definition's note about automation/AI is a pragmatic extension, the core meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and follows common cross-linguistic modifier+head patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand it.
Etymology
Purchasing agent The term purchasing agent is also used for software that works by itself to buy items, where purchasing means 'buying' and agent means 'a helper acting for someone'. Think of a small program that watches supplies and orders what is needed, so it means 'an automatic system that buys on behalf of a person or company'.