How RPA is Enabling Procurement to Add Strategic Value

Procurement leaders are increasingly seeking ways to free up their staff to focus on the strategic aspect of their operation.

One way in which teams are achieving this is through robotic process automation (RPA).

RPA is taking practitioners away from the repetitive, manual tasks which have long taken up valuable resources. This move is not just there to obtain efficiency gains – it represents an evolution, allowing procurement professionals to pursue new avenues that contribute to business success.

"RPA is driving all KPIs, not just efficiency," explains Krish Vengat N., Vice President Consulting at GEP.

"Our clients are automating transactional procurement tasks like invoice processing, PO creation and vendor onboarding using RPA – and seeing strong returns in speed, accuracy and cost savings."

The next generation of procurement automation

While RPA has traditionally focused on improving the efficiency of existing workflows, the technology is now being reimagined and integrated with more sophisticated AI capabilities.

Chris Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group, says: "RPA wasn't necessarily designed to redefine workflows, but more to improve the efficiency of current activities and workflows. Today, RPA is being reimagined, augmented and integrated with generative AI while morphing into agentic AI."

Now, RPA is being used to help create new possibilities for procurement teams. Rather than simply speeding up manual processes, organisations are discovering that the combination of RPA with advanced AI delivers transformational results.

As Krish explains: "The real leap forward is happening when they combine RPA with agentic AI. These aren't competing technologies. RPA handles structured, rules-based work. Agentic AI steps in to analyse bids, flag contract risks and guide supplier choices."

This evolution can be seen with how NTT DATA is using agentic AI to create a new ecosystem of enterprise-grade AI agents with solutions tailored for industry to transform businesses – along with a patented plug-in solution which will turn legacy bots into autonomous intelligent agents and an expanded key alliance network for providing best-fit solutions.

Millions of RPA bots have been deployed by businesses worldwide for rules-based automation. Similar to a plug-in module that turns a basic television into a smart TV, NTT DATA's new solution can transform bots into intelligent agents that operate autonomously while complying with governance and policies for security and privacy.

NTT has been able to benefit from the agents existing in a range of different industries and sectors, such as supply chain and logistics, where they are helping clients select and securely do business with AI startup partners, while also building AI agent prototypes to help businesses deploy and integrate pilots with purchasing workflows and processes and monitoring adoption, performance and return on investment.

Targeting the right tasks

The most successful RPA implementations focus on specific types of procurement activities. Chris provides an insight into what he is seeing: that repetitive, high-volume, consistent and highly prescriptive tasks with clearly defined rules-based activities are the ones which are being automated with RPA using automation scripts, with the tasks including invoice processing, purchase order creation, vendor master data management and compliance checking.

The strategic value comes from when organisations move beyond task-level automation to sub-process automation.

"The RPA-based automations are further stitched, integrated and augmented by Gen AI-based probabilistic decision engines to further automate at a sub-process level rather than just at a task level," Chris says.

The measurable benefits are substantial. Krish reports that clients are achieving 40% gains in operational efficiency when combining RPA with AI technologies, while simultaneously enabling faster and more informed decision-making.

The rise of the 'automation orchestrator'

From these conversations, it would appear that the most significant impact of RPA adoption is how it is reshaping procurement roles and required competencies.

"As automation takes over the repetitive work, procurement roles are being redefined," Krish adds. "Our clients are shifting from transactional processing to designing, supervising and optimising digital workflows."

This transformation is creating a new category of procurement professional – what Krish terms "automation orchestrators”.

These individuals combine traditional procurement knowledge with digital fluency and commercial acumen, managing bots, interpreting AI insights and applying human judgement to optimise automated outcomes.

The change represents both an opportunity and a challenge for procurement teams. While some fear job displacement, Chris suggests viewing the transformation more optimistically

He says: "Those individuals that have the capability and ambition to do more, then a huge opportunity exists. It truly is a glass half full versus half empty situation."

Navigating the roadblocks: RPA implementation

Despite the benefits, organisations face significant hurdles when implementing RPA in procurement environments. Data quality and system integration represent the most common obstacles.

"One of the biggest barriers our clients face in adopting RPA and AI is fragmented systems and inconsistent data," Krish explains. Rather than attempting comprehensive system overhauls, GEP advocates a more focused approach: "Instead of trying to fix everything at once, we focus on the data that matters for the objectives that we plan to achieve."

This pragmatic strategy involves building fit-for-purpose models, automating in stages and demonstrating value early in the process. Such an outcome-first approach helps overcome organisational resistance while reducing complexity and accelerating return on investment.

From millions lost to millions recovered: RPA's value in action

The strategic value of RPA becomes evident in complex procurement scenarios. Krish highlights how a global pharmaceutical leader was struggling with contract compliance.

Using agentic AI, GEP helped to review thousands of contracts against real-time invoice and performance data. "The system flagged missed rebates, under-delivered services and pricing errors, helping the client recover millions in lost value."

It is a real-world example of how RPA and AI work in tandem – RPA ensures consistent data capture while AI provides the contextual analysis needed for action. The result transforms what was previously a reactive compliance process into a proactive strategic advantage.

The geopolitical dimension adds another layer of strategic importance. Chris emphasises that "being able to mine all suppliers' contracts at speed is indispensable to managing through today's on- and off-again tariffs and geopolitical trade deals. Without it, procurement leaders can't function in the executive suite".

The strategic imperative: Why procurement cannot afford to wait

In today's volatile business environment, the ability to provide rapid, data-driven insights has become essential for procurement leadership.

"During this time of incredible uncertainty, procurement must be able to accurately and quickly provide data-driven recommendations that are the difference between hitting or missing margin goals and shareholder expectations," Chris emphasises.

This transformation represents more than technological advancement – it signifies procurement's evolution from a support function to a strategic business enabler.

The combination of RPA and AI is not merely changing how procurement operates – it is fundamentally redefining what procurement can achieve for the organisation.