How Procurement Navigates Enterprises Through Uncertainty

Given the volatility of the market today, procurement teams are the ones helping their companies through the uncertainty.

The Hackett Group, a leading Gen AI consultancy and executive advisory firm, in its 2025 Digital World Class Procurement research, has shone a light on how those procurement organisations leading the way are those which are navigating volatility and redefining their role in the enterprise.

With the uncertainty expected to stick around into the second half of the year, most companies have paused their spending operations to help keep cash and protect margins. But, despite these difficult conditions, a select group of procurement teams are showing just how to do it, by delivering top quartile or digital world class, performance.

Elite teams deliver superior returns despite resource constraints

What sets these teams apart is a 2.6 times greater return on investment over their peers, whilst also operating with 31% fewer full time employees and at 19% lower cost as a percentage of spend.

Through the use of intelligence-driven operating models and embracing technologies like Gen AI to accelerate execution, procurement can capitalise on opportunities more quickly and drive greater strategic impact.

"Leading procurement organisations are showing what's possible when digital capabilities and human expertise come together to drive value," says Chris Sawchuk, principal and Global Procurement Executive Advisory practice leader at The Hackett Group.

"These teams aren't just navigating volatility – they're using it as a catalyst to transform procurement into a faster, more agile and insight-led business partner."

Four Pillars Define Digital World Class Procurement Excellence

Based on comprehensive global benchmark studies spanning hundreds of organisations, The Hackett Group has identified four fundamental characteristics that set elite procurement teams apart from their peers.

Strategic focus by design

Leading procurement organisations fundamentally restructure their workforce allocation to prioritise strategic initiatives. These Digital World Class teams dedicate significantly more resources to high-value activities including spend optimisation, stakeholder relationship management and supplier partnership development, all whilst enhancing overall functional efficiency.

Their emphasis on operational speed creates substantial competitive advantages, demonstrated through requisition-to-purchase order cycles that are 58% faster and sourcing processes that complete 24% quicker than industry standards.

Superior value creation and preservation

Elite procurement teams achieve cost savings at 2.03 times the rate of their peers relative to total spend, accomplishing this through proactive opportunity identification and maintaining flexibility to renegotiate supplier agreements.

Their refined processes and enhanced stakeholder relationships enable them to minimise maverick purchasing and contract non-compliance, ultimately preserving 60% more of their generated savings compared to typical organisations.

Continuous talent development

Digital World Class procurement teams invest twice as many annual training hours per employee, demonstrating their commitment to workforce development.

They strategically address critical competency gaps across digital literacy, artificial intelligence proficiency, business understanding and interpersonal skills, whilst implementing comprehensive retention strategies that significantly outperform industry benchmarks.

This investment yields substantially reduced turnover rates and management tenure that averages 25% longer, fostering deeper institutional knowledge and enhanced organisational continuity.

Advanced digital infrastructure and analytics

Top-tier organisations allocate 1.8 times more resources to procurement technology investments, creating sophisticated digital ecosystems that enable analysts to dedicate 26% more time to strategic data analysis rather than routine data gathering.

Their comprehensive information architectures deliver intelligent dashboard capabilities for reporting, analytics and scenario planning across diverse areas including cost modelling, supply chain risk assessment and sustainability metrics. These teams are progressing beyond artificial intelligence and generative AI pilot programmes toward full-scale solution implementation in 2025, further enhancing their operational resilience and analytical capabilities.

Building tomorrow's procurement function today

As there is no sign that the uncertainty which dominates today's landscape is going away, procurement teams which make a difference are those defined by their agility, intelligence and strategic integration as true differentiators.

Those taking advantage of Gen AI and reimagining how to operate are now best positioned to lead in the coming years.

These findings demonstrate how procurement teams can reshape their operating model to effectively compete in a future, one which demands greater speed and agility.

Key recommendations include:

• Redesigning service delivery models to emphasise speed, stakeholder experience and risk-adjusted execution.
• Adopting Gen AI and agentic AI technologies to automate complex tasks and generate insight at scale.
• Exploring technologies with AI tools that support autonomous sourcing and negotiations, tail spend management, orchestration, contract management and stakeholder support.
• Investing in human capital development, with a focus on business acumen, AI fluency and agile ways of working.
• Strengthening information architecture and analytics to power better decisions.
• Treating external service providers as strategic innovation partners.
• Evolving governance and organisational design to support agile, insight-led operations.