Procurement faces a defining moment. Cost control again sets the bar, yet teams are also expected to manage risk, diversify supply chains, build resilience and adopt AI. This report draws on a global survey of 2,648 C-suite executives to show how the function is balancing tighter cost demands with broader duties, even as executive confidence in its influence wanes.
Executive summary
In its fifth year, our survey of global executives reveals that procurement continues to be a central source of intelligence within organisations, most often reporting to the chief operating officer (COO). Yet the past year also marks a shift. Business leaders report weaker alignment between procurement and wider corporate strategy and declining confidence in procurement teams’ effectiveness across several measures.
54% of executives identify cost savings as the primary value of procurement
Key findings:
Cost has returned to the top of the agenda and may be there to stay. After the pandemic elevated the importance of risk management and resilience in the procurement function, cost control is now firmly back in the driving seat. A majority of executives (54%, rising to 58% for chief procurement officers and 59% for chief supply chain officers) say that it is the function’s primary contribution to their organisation, more than ten percentage points higher than in 2025. The inflationary impact of higher energy prices resulting from the Iran war will only add to these pressures in 2026.
Executives also expect the procurement function to take a systematic approach to risk management. Category management is set to receive the second-highest level of digital investment of any procurement discipline. Procurement leaders must show their value to the organisation by doing more than saving money.
AI dominates the short-term procurement agenda but confidence in delivery is uneven. Digital transformation is the most urgent strategic priority for the function, cited by six in ten executives, with agentic AI the most sought-after technology in procurement. Yet AI adoption has so far yielded mixed results and faces huge technical obstacles. Confidence in the technology’s potential to improve productivity remains uneven, even as executive scrutiny on AI’s returns on investment in procurement grows.
The human-AI balance will remain in favour of humans for now. Fewer than one in ten executives (9%) say that they want AI to lead most procurement decisions within the next three years. Five times as many (46%) anticipate a more limited sphere of activity for AI, with the technology supporting tactical and discrete activities like invoice automation while humans retain strategic control.
“Creating a competitive tender process that reduces costs is not the only way for a procurement function to create value. There are a lot of levers you can pull.”
Chris Sawchuk, principal and global procurement advisory practice leader, The Hackett Group
After trending upwards since 2023, procurement’s centrality to corporate strategy has declined markedly over the past 12 months. Although three in four executives (74%) are confident in procurement’s ability to collaborate effectively with the rest of the business, that is far fewer than last year (90%). Executive confidence in procurement’s influence over digital transformation has also declined (68%, down from 91%), as has confidence in the function’s effectiveness in risk management.
Procurement operating models are in transition, but are set to become more centralised over the longer term. In the short term, firms are most likely to adopt shared services and decentralised models to allow localised AI decision-making, as selected by 35% and 24% respectively as their response to digital and AI-driven transformation in the next 12 to 18 months. But over three to five years the centre-of-excellence and centre-led models are expected to dominate, selected by 36% and 32% respectively, as companies seek to centralise AI-enabled decision-making around unified data.
Dive deeper into the findings
To read on, download the full report.
Explore tailored insights from The Procurement Imperative by region, country, job role or industry:
Regional CPO editions
By industry
2026 Infographic
The Procurement Imperative
A view from the C-suite in 2026
In 2026 procurement remains central to business decision-making, but the function is at a crossroads. Procurement teams are being asked to do more: cut costs, manage disruption and drive digital change. But confidence in their ability to deliver on that broader mandate, and in its alignment with wider corporate strategy, is slipping.