Resilience: The Procurement Blueprint for Modern Enterprises - 2026 Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Executive Insights

Resilience:Procurement’s Blueprint2026 CPO Executive Insights Chief Procurement Officersare being stretched like They are often asked to deliver more with lesswhile managing unprecedented challenges,including trade policies, supply chain AlixPartners polled around 120 CPOs andprocurement leaders in mid-2025 to assessthe industry’s response. The CPO ExecutiveInsights Report, created in collaboration withArt of Procurement and Lean Six Search, The analysis identified a clear distinction between the top 30th percentileof respondents, based on the financial performance of their companies,which we term procurement leaders. They are distinguished by their Key findings Cost reduction is the dominant priority for procurement professionals. Over 70% of CPOs are working towards some reshoring, with half expecting to transfer over 30% oftheir currently offshored volumes. Talent shortages are acute, as companies compete for digital-savvy professionals able to manageevolving roles and technologies. Only 5% of organizations have fully deployed AI across procurement processes, and most are stillpiloting or planning deployments. Collaborate for success Strategic objectives must be aligned with the broader business mission, clearlyarticulated, and internalized by every member of the procurement team. CPOs can’t drive meaningful impact alone. The procurement team must, for example, partner with IT to enable digitaltransformation, and with HR to support talent development.An alliance with the legal team is required to streamline contract processing, andwith the finance team for results tracking and forward-looking budget Driving business alignment requires more than just delivering and trackingsavings. Broader performance measures are often poorly defined or tracked, Alignment requires a more balanced scorecard that considers supplier performance,ROI per FTE, and procure-to-pay lead times, as well as the percentage of touchlessorders. Broader metrics will help CPOs understand how well the function is Effective supplier performance management is a crucial means to demonstratealignment with overall business interests. This goes beyond one-dimensional cost Survey respondents identified increasing supplier cost pressures as the largestbarrier to achieving savings goals, exacerbated by poor forecasting tools. Procurement executives said they prioritized traditional or technical costreduction measures alongside the transformation tools and talent required to The survey findings highlight the need to address the operating model to tacklecost challenges. Enhancing the capabilities of people, process, and tools, properly The survey revealed a correlation between AIimplementation maturity and anticipated cost savingsas captured by EBITDA. Organizations with advanced AIimplementation were able to deliver a P&L impact of4.7% on average compared with 3.6% in less matureorganizations. Whilst the maturity of AI deployment in Leading procurement teamsoutperform outperform their peersand industry averages in terms ofCOGS as a percentage of revenue,SG&A as a percentage of revenue, The skills gap A business is more likely to recognize procurement’s impact and importance when CPOs focus ontraditional or technical cost reduction and the required talent and skills. Some teams have already made The top priority is cost takeout, using traditional cost reduction levers such as RFPs and negotiation andtechnical measures that include cost modeling, specification rationalization, and value engineering. Talent Procurement’s ability to bring spend under management could be considered evidence of strongperformance and help build a case for further investment. Some 70% of surveyed CPOs manage more than The gap between leaders and followers is stark, with 70% of the former managing more than 80% ofspend. Only around 15% of followers can make the same claim. With reduced spending, the opportunity to Talent strategy and operating model design were the areas least aligned with overall businessstrategy yet arguably have the biggest impact on overall outcomes. The procurement function requires active investment in broad-based leadership programs, suchas internships, graduate study programs, job rotation, and fast-track management development. Skills, including project management and strategic prioritization, enable the procurementfunction to increase ROI per FTE; however, there is more room than ever for specialization. Finding category managers that can ‘do it all’ is likehunting for unicorns. Not all category managers need tobe great negotiators. For example, you really only need a DIRECTOR, SOURCING & PROCUREMENT TRANSFORMATION PRACTICE The AI evolution Procurement executives are overwhelmingly optimistic about the transformativeimpact of technology, especially AI tools, automation, and digitization. The most Spend analytics is currently the principal digital toolused across all procurement teams. leadersemphasized eSourcing a