Awards Shortlist, Prolo & AI: Top 5 Procurement Stories

REVEALED: The Global Procurement Awards 2026 Shortlist​​​​​​​

Procurement Magazine is excited to reveal the official shortlist for the Global Procurement Awards 2026.

The judges have examined a range of fantastic entries, looking at both individual heroes and organisations which are transforming the industry. Now, the shortlist has been revealed and we are one step closer to announcing the winner on the 8th September 2026.

The awards celebrate those individuals and teams which are implementing innovative solutions throughout their strategy. By integrating sustainability and resilience throughout their operations, these leaders are driving change.

The shortlisted finalists are driving operational excellence, efficiency and long-term value creation, whether through their use of AI or their individual leaders who are champions of the organisation.

Congratulations to those shortlisted – your work demonstrates how meaningful impact can take place across global operations. 

The Global Procurement Awards will take place at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, co-located with The Global Supply Chain Awards and The Global Sustainability Awards. The event will be held on the 8th September 2026, with an exclusive black-tie gala dinner. 

How Prolo Uses AI to Modernise Construction Purchasing

James Morris-Manuel, CEO & Founder at Prolo, knows the construction industry's pain points from both sides of the site fence.

Growing up in a family of developers, he spent his childhood watching building projects grow up around him – and grew all too familiar with the delays, cashflow crunches and inefficiencies that come with them.

His career took him first into commercial real estate at Cushman & Wakefield, before he founded Virtual Walkthrough in 2009, a digital walkthrough platform likened to "Google Street View for inside buildings". The business was acquired by Matterport in 2016.

That experience, combined with a lifelong front-row seat to the construction industry's challenges, led him to found Prolo – a platform built around what he calls "procurement as a service". By handling sourcing, pricing, logistics and even credit for materials, Prolo aims to tackle three of construction's biggest headaches at once: cashflow constraints, time, and the cost of getting a project over the line.

Following news that the company has raised £4.2m (US$5.6m) in seed funding, James spoke to Procurement Magazine about Prolo's mission, how it is using its latest funding round and the role AI plays in making construction procurement faster and fairer for everyone involved.

Zip: How AI 'Builders' are Powering ROI

Zip's latest State of Spend Report argues that procurement is uniquely positioned to close the gap between AI spend and AI proof, provided it moves quickly.

Zip has published its latest State of AI in Spend report, which has revealed that companies deploying AI deeply are seeing six times the ROI of those still stuck in pilots, but only 17% of organisations have unlocked that level of return so far.

The State of AI in Spend 2026 is Zip's annual research report on how organisations are adopting AI across procurement, finance and business spend. The report is based on a global survey of 1,050 procurement, finance, IT and operations leaders who manage spend at primarily large enterprises with over 1,000 employees.

The report reveals that there is a real split in the market, with two starkly different cohorts: 'Builders', who are deploying AI deeply and seeing real measurable returns, and 'Bystanders', who have invested little into pilots or are seeing nothing for it.

"The Builders are showing everyone else the way," says Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip.

"Their edge isn't bigger budgets, it's treating AI as a team-wide transformation instead of another tool. That's worth 6x the ROI and closing that gap is within reach for other companies willing to go deeper."

How Amazon Business AI Tools Have Powered US$60bn in Sales

Amazon Business has helped to power US$60bn in annualised gross sales in Q2 of 2026, as it has helped more than 11 million organisations across the globe to simplify their business buying.

Regardless of size, organisations from hospitals and schools to factories and hotels have harnessed Amazon Business to buy what they need to run. Since its launch in the US back in 2015, Amazon Business now serves organisations across 11 countries, including hundreds of thousands of small business customers and 97 of the Fortune 100 companies.

More than 1.8 million new organisations joined the platform in the first half of this year alone, further accelerating that momentum. Major names including Citi, United Service Organizations (USO), Marriott International and Carnival Corporation have relied on Amazon Business to support their evolving needs, underscoring the value customers are seeing day to day.

Scott Thompson, Vice President, Logistics, North America at Carnival Corporation, says: “Amazon Business has made it easier for our teams to get what they need, when they need it."

Ivalua and Unite Partner to Simplify Procurement

Enterprise AI procurement platform Ivalua is working alongside Unite, a European procurement platform connecting buyers and suppliers for fair and sustainable business.

This partnership will allow Ivalua customers to have more control over their tail and non-contracted spend by accessing Unite's network of over 2,000 vetted European suppliers directly within Ivalua, enabling more efficient, transparent and sustainable procurement operations.

This will see an integration between Ivalua's enterprise AI platform and Unite's compliant, catalogue-based marketplace infrastructure, empowering organisations to streamline supplier management, consolidate long-tail purchasing and increase spend visibility.