Artificial intelligence has already made its way into procurement. It shows up in sourcing tools, analytics dashboards, and supplier platforms, often quietly embedded in day-to-day workflows. And yet, most procurement leaders still hesitate to say they are ready for it. That contradiction sits at the center of ProcureAbility’s 2026 CPO Report, which found that while 100% of surveyed procurement organizations are using AI in some form, only 11% consider themselves “fully ready” to deploy it with confidence and scale.
What surprised ProcureAbility CEO Conrad Snover most was not the hesitation itself, but the speed at which AI has spread despite it. “The rate of adoption continues to surprise,” Snover said. “AI has infiltrated every industry. Everyone has to explain a strategy and something they’re doing.” At the same time, he noted that the adoption curve remains uneven. “It’s slow to pick up, but once it picks up, it’ll move extremely fast.”
That tension between urgency at the executive level and uncertainty inside procurement teams defines the current moment. Snover describes AI as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for procurement to holistically change how the function operates. “This is a chance to leapfrog current processes, accelerate careers, accelerate technology,” he said. “Every executive is asking for a strategy. There’s interest at the top and the bottom, but what’s missing is a clear, scalable approach in the middle.”
The report suggests that hesitation is not rooted in resistance to technology, but in structural and data-related realities that procurement has wrestled with for decades. When asked why so few organizations feel fully ready, Snover pointed first to data readiness. “Data readiness is the biggest constraint,” he said. Nearly two-thirds of respondents cited data privacy and compliance concerns, while more than half pointed to poor data quality and fragmentation across systems.
“It’s the age-old adage: don’t automate what’s broken,” Snover said. “Figure out the process before you implement AI. Otherwise, you’re going to get hallucinations and other problems.” In procurement environments where contract data, supplier records, and financial information live in separate systems, AI has no single source of truth to work from. That fragmentation, Snover said, creates a heavier lift than in other enterprise functions.
“All of us have done a ChatGPT or Gemini search and gotten incorrect or outdated information,” he said. “Now imagine that in an enterprise environment, where you’re pulling from general ledger data, contracts, supplier systems, all at once.” Until data is harmonized and rules are created for how AI systems interact, data integrity will continue to cap adoption.
This reality helps explain why 65% of respondents described themselves as “mostly ready,” relying on pilots and discrete AI applications rather than enterprise-wide deployments. According to Snover, pilots are not a failure of ambition, but a coping mechanism. “Test pilots give you a training-wheels program,” he said. “They let you learn in a safe, contained environment and see what actually works.”
The problem comes after the pilot succeeds. Scaling requires redesigned workflows, new governance models, and clarity around ownership, areas where many organizations are still unprepared. “Most efforts aren’t systemic,” Snover said. “They’re not part of a broader digital program. There’s no clear governance, no operating model. The corporate structure just isn’t set up for this yet.”
That lack of structure often gets mistaken for cultural resistance. While more than half of respondents expressed concern about AI replacing human judgment, Snover believes the fear is frequently overstated. “The resistance to change isn’t as real as people think,” he said. “It’s often about uncertainty, about replacing people, about losing control, because the rules of engagement haven’t been established.”
Ironically, AI may be best suited to solve the very constraints holding procurement back. Long understaffed and under-resourced, procurement teams are routinely asked to do more with less. “AI has a fundamental capability to automate and improve tactical work,” Snover said. “That’s what allows procurement to focus on strategic alignment with the business and finally earn a seat at the table.”
Looking ahead, Snover believes the organizations that move past AI hesitation will treat it as part of the workforce itself. “Leading organizations already have hybrid workforces—full-time employees, contractors, managed service providers,” he said. “AI is going to be one of those tools.” In that model, humans won’t manage teams of people so much as manage AI processes, overseeing workflows, monitoring outcomes, and evolving decision-making over time.
Those that fail to make that shift risk more than inefficiency. “The laggards will continue to struggle to figure out how to do more with less,” Snover said. “And that ultimately shows up as lagging performance at the enterprise level.” In procurement, hesitation may feel safe today, but it is quickly becoming a strategic liability.
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