SCC & Conga: Is the Future of Negotiations AI-Augmented?

For procurement teams, a lot of negotiation time isn’t spent in the discussion itself; instead, it is spent finding the right clause, comparing previous agreements, checking fallback positions, reviewing risk and chasing approvals.

Steve Bradburn, Senior Manager, Solution Consulting at Conga, says: “That friction is a real commercial issue. Conga’s Commercial Operations Maturity Report 2026 found that 93% of companies say deals struggle to move smoothly across sales, legal, finance, pricing and IT. That shows how quickly disconnected processes can affect business performance.

“This is where AI can help, by taking the heavy lifting.”

Embedding AI into contract negotiations, procurement functions can automate the process of flagging clause deviations, compare proposed terms against historic contracts, surface compliance risks and suggest approved alternative language. 

This gives teams a clearer view of what is negotiable, what needs escalation and where the business may be exposed.

Hannah Salvage, Head of Portfolio Lifecycle Management Services at SCC is also seeing AI playing an increasingly important role in routine negotiations, particularly where pricing structures are standardised, requirements are well-defined, and there is limited scope for commercial variation.

“We see that AI is particularly effective at accelerating preparation, benchmarking, and contract review, but it inherently needs to operate within well-defined parameters,” she explains.  

When is it time for human intervention?

One thing is clear among these executives, that while AI is certainly capable of enhancing and streamlining the negotiation process, it won’t replace it. 

AI is transforming procurement faster than the profession is ready for. The Skill Dynamics Skills Report 2026 found that 47% of organisations cite AI and automation as their single biggest skills gap, yet 83% believe they’re prepared for it. 

This disconnect matters because an AI-assisted sourcing process is only as effective as the people governing it. The concern isn’t whether the role becomes obsolete, but that organisations automate around it without building the capability to challenge and validate what the technology produces. 

“We don’t want to remove human judgment from negotiations,” says Steve, “the aim is to give teams better context before they enter them, so discussions become faster, more informed and more focused on value rather than paperwork.”

“For low-risk, standardised agreements, I think we will see elements of ‘self-negotiating’ contracts become a reality.” 

AI is already able to analyse contract language, identify deviations from approved terms, assess previous negotiation patterns and recommend changes based on predefined rules or risk thresholds.

“For routine renewals, that could remove a lot of unnecessary manual work,” says Steve. 

However, procurement isn’t just about getting a contract over the line. The moment a negotiation requires judgment, trade-offs or the reshaping of a commercial position, human intervention becomes critical. There are also issues such as market volatility, geopolitical risk, ESG commitments and supplier innovation, which are all difficult to reduce entirely to automated logic.

AI won’t replace negotiation, but it will eliminate the operational effort, allowing procurement professionals to focus on the areas where experience, context and commercial instinct have the greatest impact.

“Human negotiation will always remain essential in areas of subjectivity, such as where requirements are uncertain, or pricing models are open to interpretation or challenge. We still need human involvement when the contract structure, not just the price, is up for negotiation or when the outcome carries long-term risk and strategic implications,” says Hannah.

The future procurement workforce: Fully autonomous or AI-augmented? 

Historically, procurement teams have been disproportionately consumed by low-value, high-volume activity, and while AI takes much of the heavy lifting out of negotiations by cutting time spent on contract redlining and manual administration, will the future be fully autonomous? 

Steve disagrees: “I don’t think the future is fully autonomous procurement. It is AI-augmented procurement. AI will take on the repetitive analysis and administrative work, allowing professionals to focus more on higher-value decision-making.

“The role will shift and arguably become more important, as teams move their focus from process management toward business strategy and strengthening supplier relationships.”

Hannah echoes this, highlighting the strategic value of AI and humans working together, rather than an end to the need for the role: “We are leveraging AI to refocus our procurement teams' time, shifting from the volume of commercial agreements to strategic supplier relationships. This strategic pivot has allowed our teams to spend more time challenging vendor pricing models and underlying assumptions, ultimately improving the value of our agreed contracts.”