The AI imperative
If resilience is today’ s necessity, artificial intelligence is tomorrow’ s inevitability. For both Stefan and Nina, AI represents the most transformational force shaping procurement in 2026.
Stefan is emphatic:“ AI is not something that’ s on the horizon – it’ s here now and ready to be taken advantage of.” From autonomous negotiations and contract intelligence to predictive analytics and supplier discovery, AI is rewriting how procurement creates value.
He insists that procurement teams must develop AI fluency immediately.“ We have to be on the pitch, learning and doing, rather than watching from the stands,” he says.“ Suppliers will be using AI to differentiate and innovate, and we need to be able to capitalise on that.”
Nina echoes this sense of urgency but puts a powerful operational lens on it. For her, AI is the key to achieving more with the team you have today.
“ We never have enough people to do everything the business needs,” she says.“ But AI gives teams capacity and capability. With a few simple use cases, you can have better reporting, faster search and richer insights to power better negotiation outcomes.”
She highlights that for years, organisations collected mountains of data without being able to act on it.“ Now, we have the means to slice, dice and model scenarios. AI allows us to operate at a completely different level.”
Beyond productivity, Nina sees AI as a route to eliminating friction across procurement processes and transforming how internal stakeholders experience the function.
“ Procurement still carries a reputation as a blocker. Stakeholders often feel they’ re navigating a maze,” she explains.“ Now, we can design seamless processes that make buying almost invisible.”
She describes how AI-driven guided buying can change this perception:“ Someone asks,‘ What are you buying?’ The system replies,‘ Here’ s how to do it – it’ s done.’ That’ s the difference AI can make.”
Her point is simple but powerful: automation isn’ t just about efficiency – it’ s about experience. When AI removes friction, procurement becomes a strategic enabler rather than a compliance checkpoint.“ If AI can save everyone just ten minutes a day,” she says,“ they’ ll be forever grateful.”
Nina also links this to employer branding and talent attraction. As procurement modernises through intelligent systems and agentic automation, it becomes more appealing to next-generation professionals.“ Nobody starts a career in procurement dreaming of reviewing T & Cs line by line,” she jokes.“ With AI, we can hand mundane work to our agent workforce and make procurement a career of choice.”
94 March 2026