AI

The measurement challenge also remains significant. Traditional RPA implementations offered clear metrics around tasks automated and time saved, but AI agents operate differently.“ If you ask me two years from now,‘ okay, how much time did we save and how much more compliant are we?’ I don’ t think I would be able to answer that because I don’ t think we would have the metrics for that,” Simen says.“ But at the same time, it utilises things that we would never do because it’ s too cumbersome and too expensive to actually do it.”

AI agents enable entirely new capabilities that were previously impractical or impossible to implement at scale.

From information gatherers to strategic powerhouses AI agents in procurement can address a longstanding challenge in procurement organisations, which has seen talented professionals, the ones being paid to drive value creation, often found overwhelmed by information gathering rather than analysis and strategy development.

“ The category managers will have more time to move it from good to great,” says Simen.“ They would spend less time just collecting information and more time actually pinpointing how this would influence BT, how with our strategy and our forecast, is this applicable to us?

“ They don’ t have time to do more than just collect the information and it gets quite generic, but now the generic part is already done, so they can focus on putting that BT lens on it to make it more applicable for us.”

reduction in procurement costs – Global 2000 companies using AI-driven autonomous sourcing( Globality research)

Rather than replacing that humanled work and the expertise they offer, AI agents augment it by handling the time-consuming work which has long plagued procurement professionals, freeing them to focus on higher-value activities such as supplier relationship management, risk analysis and strategic planning. In McKinsey’ s 2024 report, Making the Leap with Generative AI in Procurement, it found that Gen AI can enhance internal and external enterprise relationships by aiding conversations with talking points that better reflect company priorities. It suggests that, although chatbots are becoming more useful within business operations, CPOs are finding that they cannot replace relationships within procurement. Co-authors of the report and McKinsey partners Aasheesh Mittal and Jennifer Spaulding Schmidt say:“ To a sceptical, untrained eye, Gen AI applications in procurement may appear niche or gimmicky.

188 September 2025