What Zip believes 2025 will have in store for Procurement

As procurement prepares to navigate 2025, the industry is evolving at a remarkable pace. From technological advancements to shifting global priorities, procurement leaders are learning to adapt to market conditions filled with both challenges and opportunities.

Looking to make the path ahead a little clearer, Zip turned to the leading voices across the space which matter most — from top analysts, industry influencers, procurement leaders and practitioners, all of whom are moulding the field's future.

With 'Zip's 2025 Procurement Predictions', it gathered insights from 25 thought leaders across the industry. Their predictions offer a glimpse into the trends, innovations and strategies they believe will define procurement in the year ahead.

From the rise of AI and autonomous sourcing to the growing importance of sustainability and risk management, these insights are certain to inform, inspire and empower.

What leaders believe 2025 has in store

From CPOs to leading analysts, all of whom had a view on what the year has in store.

Here is what some leaders expect 2025 to look like.

Jason Powell, Global Head of Procurement at Figma, says: "In 2025, we'll see more AI tools embedded into the overall procurement process — chatbots, guided purchasing, contract term reviews and other process enhancements. Overall a continued push to automate more steps in the procurement process.

"Additionally, there will be continued emphasis on flexibility in contracting. Lessons from the COVID-19 era, when many contracts were renegotiated due to falling business, I expect to see more changes in pricing models with less committed spend and companies being more cautious in how they commit to vendors.

"This could be in the form of lower financial commitments or shorter contracts allowing for more flexibility in the event that the market changes rapidly."

Nikhil Gaur, Director, Strategic Projects and Research Analyst at Spend Matters, adds: "Procurement's importance — and budget — within large organisations will grow rapidly as global supply chain disruptions and political trends, like US tariffs, bring more awareness to the value of proactive supply chain risk monitoring."

Mathew Schultz, Founder of Matchat, says: "For businesses, 2025 will be another year focused on creating growth with more intentionality, which is a massive opportunity for procurement teams to deliver on strategic value by ensuring company money is spent well."

What Zip expects from 2025

The leading Procurement Orchestration platform also shared what it believes the next year has in store, with Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip.

He believes that 2025 offers incredible transformative potential for procurement, along with the many challenges and opportunities shared among the 25 leading experts consulted.

From their predictions, several key themes stand out:

• Procurement leaders will pilot AI designed to automate stakeholder handholding or manual data entry, freeing teams to focus on more strategic priorities
• Improving relationships with internal customers will drive greater emphasis on user experience and soft skills on leadership agendas
• Geopolitical and regulatory uncertainty will draw procurement into the C-level, with CPOs taking central roles in cross-functional risk mitigation initiatives
• Businesses will hold back on talent and resource investment as they experiment with AI, exacerbating the "do more with less" environment that holds procurement back
• Orchestration will see rapid adoption as leaders address the root cause of these challenges: excessive complexity

Nick adds: "Procurement must also grapple with external threats, including supply shocks from geopolitical conflicts, price shocks from tariffs and counter-tariffs and an unclear regulatory landscape on issues such as carbon, privacy and AI. Aging technology investments and bloated tech stacks add to the pressure, alongside siloed operating models that fail to meet evolving stakeholder needs.

"Procurement's response to these challenges will centre on simplifying everything. Leaders will seize on AI and orchestration to streamline the procurement experience, to refine processes and optimise the technologies we use.

"The antidote to increasing complexity is simplicity. While the world procurement operates in will never be simple, leaders will strive to translate this complexity for their colleagues—helping the business find opportunities to drive strategic advantage amidst the challenges.

"We see 2025 as the year of simplification, or 'The Year of Convergence'—where orchestrated tools simplify and enhance traditional source-to-pay models. This co-existence of suite and best-of-breed solutions within one platform will unify workflows and propel intelligent procurement into the future.

"At Zip, we're building the next generation of procurement transformation, empowering teams to achieve more than ever before."

To read the full report, click here

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