Is There a Lack of Collaboration Between Procurement & IT?
ProcureAbility, a Jabil company, has released its 2026 edition of the CPO-CIO report, created in partnership with ProcureCon. The report examines how procurement and technology leaders are working together to navigate AI governance and digital scale to drive value for the enterprise.
The survey was compiled through the responses of selected senior procurement professionals from a range of sectors.
Procurement is required to collaborate across the business, and this survey specifically looked at how the function is working with IT. It is clear that this work is being done, as 96% of procurement and IT teams are working together in some way, but only just over half (54%) are collaborating on AI governance.
Successful AI adoption hinges on IT-managed infrastructure and security; therefore, procurement and IT must execute a unified governance model to mitigate risk and drive value.
The governance barrier to AI scaling
Satyen Pathak, Managing Director-India at ProcureAbility, says: “AI is a powerful catalyst for transformation, but without the right guardrails, it creates as much risk as opportunity. Governance may feel like friction, yet it is precisely what empowers organisations to scale faster and act with confidence."
When it comes to obstacles, the report found that insufficient data governance policies or standards were the biggest barriers to AI adoption in procurement, with 36% of respondents citing this issue. Furthermore, 26% stated that limited internal skills to manage and analyse procurement data were holding them back.
Cultivating internal AI fluency
However, many organisations are working to develop internal AI capabilities:
- 63% are encouraging self-directed learning through online courses or certifications.
- 60% are embedding IT or data specialists within the procurement team.
- 54% are partnering with technology vendors for hands-on enablement.
While most organisations favour self-directed learning for its scalability and cost-efficiency, this approach often falls short of the deep immersion required to bridge complex AI knowledge gaps. Satyen adds: "Gaining AI fluency is akin to learning a new language. While self-study can build a foundation, immersion and structured instruction significantly accelerate mastery."
Signalling a shift towards deep cross-functional integration, 60% of organisations are now embedding AI specialists directly within procurement. This structural change closes the skills gap in real-time, bypassing the friction of traditional departmental silos and service requests.
A new era of equal partnership
Respondents were surveyed about overall collaboration between the IT and procurement departments. Of the 96% of teams that collaborate, 51% do so regularly and 45% occasionally.
When IT and procurement departments do collaborate, the majority (54%) rate their partnership as effectively or perfectly coordinated.
Significantly, 53% of respondents report that their CPO and CIO are now equal partners in technology procurement. This rise to a 53% equal partnership marks a pivotal shift in leadership dynamics.
It follows a steady upward trajectory from 45% in 2025, effectively overturning the 2024 landscape, in which a 55% majority of CIOs led tech decisions while CPOs remained in supporting roles.
"For too long, procurement has operated downstream of technology decisions, tasked with execution, not influence," says Darshan Deshmukh, President of ProcureAbility.
"Today's leaders are redefining that paradigm, elevating CPOs to the center of strategic decision-making and enterprise value creation. As the procurement groups are transitioning to AI-ready organizations, it's critical that Procurement and IT are collaborating effectively to drive implementation and adoption."
