Sourcing Industry Landscape · 2026-07-30 · 12 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
45 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Kevin Surace, a Silicon Valley inventor and futurist with 94 patents and founder of Perfect Commerce, introduces his forthcoming book 'The Joy Success Cycle' and explains how the framework applies to procurement and sourcing professionals navigating AI adoption. Rather than fearing automation, Surace positions AI as a tool to eliminate joyless work - like formatting presentations or manipulating fonts - while preserving and amplifying the joyful, high-value tasks that require human judgment and experience. He emphasizes practical tactics including identifying and removing 'joy killers' (people or tasks that drain energy), implementing a one-complaint-per-day rule, and gamifying work through scoring and bonuses. The methodology reframes AI not as a job-killer but as a capability multiplier: as companies automate routine tasks, they'll expand and need more strategic talent. Sourcing professionals specifically stand to benefit from this mindset shift, as AI will handle transactional work (like multivariate reverse auctions he pioneered at Perfect Commerce) while creating demand for more experienced negotiators and strategic sourcing leaders. The framework applies across work and personal life, with early readers reporting transformative outcomes.
The Joy Success Cycle is a methodology that starts with joy as a force that creates success, rather than waiting for success to bring joy. It involves identifying and finding joy in every task, removing joy killers from your life, using rules like one-complaint-per-day, and gamifying work through scoring and bonuses to systematically improve both performance and fulfillment.
Surace uses AI (specifically Claude Design) five times per hour to eliminate joyless tasks like presentation formatting and font manipulation. He provides keynote presentations entirely designed by AI based on his outlined content, reducing what previously took five days to about one hour, freeing him for higher-value work.
No - Surace argues AI will automate routine sourcing tasks (like multivariate reverse auctions) but will create more strategic sourcing roles. As companies become more efficient through automation, they expand and need more people doing complex negotiation and strategic procurement work that requires human experience and judgment.
Joy killers are people, vendors, tasks, or interactions that consistently drain your energy and prevent you from finding joy in your work. Surace recommends identifying them and removing them from your life and team, as they prevent peak performance and success.
Sourcing professionals can use AI to automate transactional work and joyless tasks while focusing on strategic negotiation and vendor relationships where they add real value. This shift allows them to work with more joy while delivering better outcomes for their companies.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode contains some actionable ideas (the one-complaint-per-day rule, distinguishing joy in outcomes vs. processes, delegating joyless tasks to AI) but is heavily padded with biographical introduction, book promotion, and repetitive restatement of the core 'joy success cycle' concept. Kevin restates the same thesis multiple times without developing it further or providing concrete sourcing examples that would be novel to a B2B operator.
joy is not the reward for success. It's one of the forces that creates success
you have joy in thinking about what it is you want to say, how you want to say it
The 'find joy in everything' and 'delegate drudgework to AI' framing are well-worn self-help premises. The execution lacks contrarian depth - Surace simply asserts that joy creates success without first-principles reasoning or evidence, and the AI-will-free-you-for-higher-value-work narrative is now mainstream. No fresh frameworks or counterintuitive sourcing-specific insights emerge.
joy is not the reward for success. It's one of the forces that creates success
AI will bring you more joy, freeing you up to do the tasks that you really love
Surace is a credible operator with real sourcing domain experience (co-founder of Perfect Commerce, multivariate reverse auction inventor, SIG member) and broad tech/innovation credentials (94 patents, various recognitions). However, he is primarily positioned as a lifestyle/mindset guru and book author here rather than a practicing sourcing leader, which limits his caliber for a sourcing-focused audience.
I was a member of sig
I was in the sourcing world for many years with a company called Perfect Commerce that I founded, co founded
The episode lacks concrete data, named examples from sourcing operations, metrics, or timelines to support claims. Surace mentions his own use of Claude for presentations and vague references to past SIG events, but provides no specific sourcing case studies, supplier negotiation outcomes, cost savings, or measurable results from applying the joy cycle methodology. The evidence is almost entirely anecdotal assertion.
my presentations are now fully done by AI
It takes five days of effort and, and takes it down to about an hour
The host (Dawn Tura) asks soft, invitational questions and does not push back on claims or probe deeper into how the methodology actually works in practice. Follow-ups are minimal and largely promotional (book mentions, event promotion). There is no genuine interrogation of the joy success cycle's mechanics, no challenge on whether removing people from teams based on 'joy-killing' is operationally sound, and no skeptical testing of the core thesis.
So can you tell me a little bit about that?
So if people are going to walk away with one thing from the session, is it the fact that they need to bring more joy to the table or look for the joy in the task or
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
AI is reshaping the workplace - and for most people, that shift brings equal parts excitement and fear. Kevin Surace, a Silicon Valley inventor with 94 worldwide patents and named CNBC's Top Innovator of the Decade, argues the two don't have to be at odds. Join Kevin at the SIG Global Executive Summit, taking place October 25 - 28 at Navy Pier in Chicago, as he introduces the Joy Success Cycle - a methodology built on the idea that joy isn't the reward for success, it's one of the forces that creates it. Kevin 's keynote presentation will unpack how offloading joyless tasks to AI can free people up for the strategic, high-value work they actually love , and share practical tools for identifying "joy killers" and building more joy into everyday work. Attendees will leave with a new lens on AI: not as a threat to navigate, but as a force multiplier for the work - and the joy - that matters most.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Welcome to the Sourcing Industry Landscape podcast, powered by Sig. Org and hosted by Dawn Tura. Well, folks, welcome back to the podcast series. What I am going to do today is introduce you. As if he needs any introduction, but to Kevin Surees. Now, Kevin, internationally recognized futurist, visionary, inventor on disruptive innovation and generative AI. I mean, you truly are an expert in all these areas. So welcome to the podcast.
Speaker B: I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker A: Well, I'm excited because he is our opening. Kevin is our opening keynote. And the title of his session is how the Joy Success Cycle Improves the Workplace in the Midst of an AI Revolution. And let me tell you, Kevin is one of the most engaging speakers. Not only is he brilliant, he knows so much. He is a Silicon Valley inventor, He's a serial entrepreneur. He is a CEO and a futurist. He was in incs magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year, a CNBC top Innovator of the Decade and World Economic Foreign Forum Tech Pioneer Chair of Silicon Valley Forum, Planet Forward Innovator of the Year nominee, featured for five years on tech TV, Silicon Silicon Spin, and inducted into the RIT's Innovation hall of Fame. Kevin also has 94 worldwide patents. And it's interesting when you get to know them. They go everything from the first human like AI virtual assistant to soundproof drywall, to high R value windows to AI driven building management. And it goes on and on and on, including the window and energy retrofits of the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange. Wow. So Kevin, when you are doing all of that, you are going to be talking about something called the Joy Success Cycle. So can you tell me a little bit about that?
Speaker B: I am. Well, the first thing is that in your intro you forgot the most important part is that I was a member of sig.
Speaker A: Yes, you were.
Speaker B: Which is how I was in the Sourcing source. That's, that's how we got to know each other. And I was in the sourcing world for many years with a company called Perfect Commerce that I founded, co founded. And uh, one of those inventions was the multivariate reverse auction, which today we take granted. But it wasn't for granted then. And so, uh, for me, always talking to people in the procurement space and the sourcing space is a little bit like old home week and I really enjoy it. And I do get to apply everything else I've worked on over the years back to that space, having known that space. So thank you for introducing my new book which is the Joy Success cycle. Comes out September 1st but you can order it wherever books are sold already today. What is the Joy Success cycle? Well, if you haven't figured out already in the first minute of me talking, I'm pretty joyful, and I'm joyful all the time. And people started asking me, why is that the case? Like, why do you bring so much joy? And I had to sit down and start writing about it. Like, you know, you don't know, right? You don't know how to answer it. And so I started writing it down and writing down a methodology. And then I realized with all my AI work, and everybody is so worried, uh, uh, about AI. They're scared of AI they're excited by AI. It's all of this emotion, right? That in fact, the Joy Success cycle is incredibly important in this era of AI where certain tasks are absolutely going to go away, let's not kid ourselves. But, uh, we're going to create more jobs because of it. And I know people look at me and think that isn't true. I guarantee it's been true for the last three years. It's going to continue to be true. It's an amazing time. And yes, we're going to automate a lot of the things we've been doing in sourcing, and that will create more efficiencies, which will make the company even bigger, which will mean you'll need more people doing more strategic things with taste and experience. Um, so, um, look, joy is not the reward for success. It's one of the forces that creates success. And that's really a fascinating thing. So the joy success cycle starts with joy, not success. And the more joy you bring to every single task you do during the day. And some of the people listening to this are going, are you crazy? All I'm doing is arguing with my suppliers or whatever. No, there is joy in every task. You're going to find the joy in every task. And when you do that, you're going to be more successful in every negotiation, in every result for your company, in everything you do with your family and friends. It's a life changer. And, um, the people who've read the early versions of this book, that it changed their life. So that's the quick opener.
Speaker A: Well, I think Joy and AI, it's interesting that you're putting those two together because it is fearful for most people, exciting, but fearful, because they're not sure where it's going to go and it's changing the pace of the workday and expectations out of people. So you think that is possible to combine the joy with the constant change of AI.
Speaker B: Absolutely. I have more joy today leveraging AI. Now, Don will remember what did I say? I said, AI five times an hour. And people looked at me in your last audience at five times an hour. I use it five times a month. I go, no, no, five times an hour is your goal and it will bring you more joy. Because what we're doing is we're going to take the joyless work, the joyless tasks and give them to AI. Now, you will say, some, some people may say, well, what do you mean by that? Well, let me take a simple one. Everyone watching this podcast right now or listening creates presentations, every single person. And some of you are going to say, oh, I. There's. I have joy in creating the presentation. No, you don't. You have joy in thinking about what it is you want to say, how you want to say it, how you opine on the topic, right? Because you have your opinion. You have joy in getting that opinion out there. You have joy in completing the presentation so that you can deliver it to executives or, uh, vendors or whatever it is, right? Or partners. There was no joy in manipulating fonts and moving text around so that it aligns nicely on every slide. There was never any joy in that. You. You mistook that for, this is what I do. That task was not joyful. The end result brought you joy. And so what, what we want to do now, all of my as. As I think Don already knows because I said it, uh, a couple of months ago at, at your event is, uh, my presentations are now fully done by AI. My keynote presentations. Even though I lay out what it is, I'm going to say, I never touched a single piece of text on a page. It moves it all for me. It lays it out for me. I say, I don't like this. It moves it around for me. And in the end, I may take it and drop it into keynote or PowerPoint just to play it. But I don't touch any of the traditional UI in PowerPoint anymore because I happen to use Claude design right now, which is the best designer for presentation we're right now. But that has brought me great joy because it took five days of effort and, and takes it down to about an hour. It's brilliant. AI will bring you more joy, freeing you up to do the tasks that you really love and the tasks that you add real value to.
Speaker A: So if people are going to walk away with one thing from the session, is it the fact that they need to bring more joy to the table or look for the joy in the task or.
Speaker B: Great question. So look, uh, the book itself. Is everyone getting a book at the conference? I don't know if they are.
Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker B: Oh, I don't know. One of your people may know. We'll find out. They are available, so we'll figure that out. But here's the thing. The joy success cycle is a methodology. And there's many, many things you have to do to bring joy to every task, right? So for example, one of the chapters talks about the joy killers. And we all know there's joy killers and joy, uh, killers might be someone at work, it might be a vendor, it might be whatever. And at some point, if you can't find joy in that interaction, you have to bless it out of your life. It can't stay. And some people are going to say, yeah, but it's my mother in law. Okay, I get it. But some things have to go, um, you do have to get the joy killers out of your life. And those may be even tasks. It might be people you interface, might be someone on your team that you go, every time I interface with this person, it's terrible. I hate. Okay, they should no longer be on your team one way or the other. Like you, you, you're not going to be the most successful now that I say that and you go, well, of course I'm not going to be the most successful if this person drains me every day. Exactly that. You got to get that out of your life. So there's things you have to get out of your life. Another one is the human, uh, uh, motive to complain about everything. Right? And I, and I have a rule and it is the one complaint a day rule. You only get one complaint, internal or external a day one. And I know that you're going to use that up the moment you get out of bed and you go, oh, my knees hurt today, or whatever it is. And you've used up all the complaints for the day. And so this is a way of gamifying complaints out of your life. So there are, you know, 50 different tricks like this and making lists and putting joy, um, bonuses next to everything and keeping score. And when you do all of those things, they're really easy. We kind of gamify all of changes your work life, it changes the way you look at work, it changes your life at home. You will get some things out of your life, you will bring some things into your life. You will look at AI as a godsend, as this amazing thing that dropped in your lap as if one day an iPhone fell into your lap and it's 1980 and all you were doing was paper and PE. And then there's this miracle device, right? A miracle device. AI is like a miracle device. It's this miracle thing. It's this PhD sitting next to you with 28 PhDs that can help you do anything you want. If you know how to ask, if you know how to spar with it, and if you're accepting of it, poking holes in the work you've done, you're going to have better outcomes, better output, and more joy because of it.
Speaker A: I love this. So, folks, Kevin is our opening keynote at our fall summit. And the fall summit takes place. It's going to be at Chicago, in Chicago, at the Navy Pier, October 25th, 28th. Now, the opening keynote is October 27th at 8:30am I m want you in that room. You want to be in the room listening to Kevin. He is. He will keep you enraptured, uh, excited. Uh, you're not going to want him to end. In fact, an hour is not enough to listen to him. And so get it. If you get a chance. Get the book. Read the book before you come. Ask Kevin all of your hard questions. Hopefully he'll hang around a little bit after he speaks.
Speaker B: Of course.
Speaker A: And we're so excited to have you back at sig. So, folks, Kevin Sarras. And he is going to be talking about how the joy success cycle improves the workplace in the midst of an AI revolution. And he is the expert. So, Kevin, thank you for your time today.
Speaker B: Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you for listening. Subscribe to the Sourcing Industry Landscape podcast through itunes or your favorite podcast app. Want to nominate yourself or someone else for an interview? Email us@podcastig.org.
Other episodes covering the same guests and topics, from across The B2B Podcast Index.
Hiring top-tier talent, the importance of adopting an evolutionary mindset, and taking critical feedback to solve technical problems w/ Sergiy Nesterenko @ QuilterEngineering Founders · on generative AI88 / 100
What Marketers Can Control When AI Changes Everything with Nick Wedewer, VP of Growth Marketing at Hims & HersThe Partnership Economy · on generative AI87 / 100
Hiring top-tier talent, leveraging open source models, and staying competitive in the age of AI w/ Benny Chen #267The Engineering Leadership Podcast · on generative AI86 / 100
Inside Target’s approach to enterprise AI deployment with Sowmya PodilaThe Ecommerce Toolbox: AI in Retail · on generative AI79 / 100
Navigating AI Risks with Trevor Horwitz from TrustNetB2B Automation Spotlight · on generative AI79 / 100
Scott Conti, CEO of BB Merchant Services, on Smarter Payment Procurement47 / 100SIG Summit Workshop: Candiss Kumar on AI Change Management for LeadershipSIG Summit Spotlight: Christine Kurtz, Sarah Lee Frozen Bakery, on Small Dollar Disputes and Supplier RelationshipsHow True ValueHub is Revolutionizing Supply Chain Management with Gautam PasariFrom Aerospace to Financial Services: The Career Journey of Adrian Dragomir