Procurement professionals betting on AI to improve supply chain sentiment
Sentiments around supply chain issues are stabilising, after a two-year period of steady decline. According to a new report from H&Z, businesses believe that AI investment will help them boost their procurement function in the year ahead.
Global supply chains are being tested like never before – from the continued threat of trade tariffs, to regulatory shifts and the growing impacts of climate change and extreme weather. Resilience is now the top priority for businesses looking to thrive in 2026 and beyond.
Experts in the procurement space have long warned that rethinking global supply chains will require careful consideration of a number of major trade-offs. Choices include nearshoring or offshoring, and whether localised production can offer greater resilience; the impact of geopolitical risks such as trade conflicts and shifting regulations; and the growing physical challenges facing global networks, from pandemic aftershocks to ongoing transportation bottlenecks.
With these choices hanging over them, H&Z Management Consulting research shows that sentiment among procurement professionals has become increasingly gloomy in recent years. Speaking to more than 80 participants from the procurement and supply chain environment – around half of whom were managers, C-level executives and managing directors – the researchers have charted a steady downturn in supply chain sentiment since the final quarter of 2023.
Boost in sentiment
Two years on, however, with sentiment at neutral levels, the trend seems to have stabilised. Could this be because the professionals have finally made peace with the tricky decisions before them, and charted a clear path forward to meet the global challenges facing their operations? Not necessarily.
“This report reflects on the challenges facing procurement and supply chain managers, and highlighting best practices,” the researchers explained. “Based on our pulse check survey of more than 80 respondents, this report provides a snapshot of the current role of AI for procurement and direct and motivate improvement activities.”
To that end, it seems that he procurement professionals may have become the latest in a long line of business segments to throw their weight behind the concept of AI as a panacea. A 67% portion of respondents said they had at least one AI tool in use across their functions, while 17% planned to introduce tools in the near future. As is still almost inevitably the case with such tools, however, the majority are still in a testing phase – with 44% saying initial pilots are under way – and 20% admitting tools are only “partially integrated” into processes.
At this stage – the Schrödinger’s AI phase where nobody can conclusively say whether the tool is a remarkable advance, or a colossal waste of time money – professionals are erring on the side of optimism, which may have slowed the decline in their supply chain sentiment for now. When asked about the impact of AI in purchasing they expected to see in the coming three years, 39% said they thought there would be “very positive results” in operative activities (while 25% expected negative results), and 57% said there would be “positive” or “very positive” outcomes in forecasting.
Judging by the responses for what the prerequisites are for the successful implementation of AI tools, it shouldn’t take long to find out how accurate this will be. A 70% majority said that time for implementation was not a factor. Instead, data quality (78% identified this as some level of priority) and value proposition (75%) were found to be the most important factors for AI tool introductions. Should those factors not prove to be enough – and as fewer than 10% of firms actually realise value from AI investments – then there may soon be a further dip in sentiment around the procurement function.
