Executive summary

Procurement is undergoing a profound transformation. Faced with economic headwinds, geopolitical shocks, technological disruption and rising sustainability expectations, the function is being called to deliver far more than cost savings. The path forward demands strategic clarity, operational agility and new capabilities.

Economist Enterprise’s The Procurement Imperative, now in its fourth year, surveyed 2026 C-suite executives on the key challenges, priorities and expectations for the function. Combined with expert interviews, the research points to positive trends, including ever-closer ties with and collaboration across the business and with external stakeholders, and stronger confidence in the function’s ability to manage risk and master technology. It also points to recurring challenges, including readiness for technology, managing geopolitical risk and building a future-proof workforce.

Key findings:

• Risk is on the rise, but the procurement function is more confident in its abilities to navigate uncertainty. Risk exposure, particularly from geopolitical events such as supply chain reconfigurations and conflict, has increased significantly, a development highlighted by the 64% of respondents rating such exposure as the top focus for organisational risk in the next 12 to 18 months, up substantially from 34% last year. Positively, 78% of respondents said they are confident in their ability to manage global external risks, up appreciably from 41% last year.

• Cost savings and optimisation remain, by far, the primary value that procurement delivers to the organisation, as indicated by 43% of respondents. At a time of stubborn inflation, rising taxes and escalating tariffs, cost management continues to be a leading talent priority, with the commercial expectations of the procurement function, especially for smaller companies, focused strongly on cost control. A majority (75%) claim AI is improving cost optimisation. But C-suite leaders are also concerned about resilience, indicating some tradeoffs.

• Internal and external collaboration is strengthening cost control and sustainability performance. Internal collaboration has improved markedly, with 90% of respondents saying procurement collaborates effectively with the rest of the organisation and supports them in meeting the company’s vision, up from last year’s figure of 75%. Cost savings are quoted as the leading benefit followed by improved digital adoption. Externally, over 90% of executives report benefits from increased supplier partnerships, notably in sustainability and supplier innovation.

• The procurement function is embracing AI. The AI revolution offers broad benefits for procurement teams, including early detection of demand signals, risk mitigation, scenario planning and document automation. On the talent and skills front, our survey found AI proficiency and ethics, which covers areas like predictive analytics, demand forecasting, natural language processing, and managing risks such as bias and data privacy, is the top skill (68%) organisations will prioritise over the next 12 to 18 months.