Top Five Stories in Procurement
The LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games has issued its procurement plan to community leaders and business owners. The publicly available plan outlines how the organisation will source the goods and services needed to deliver the Games while prioritising economic opportunity for local and small businesses across the Los Angeles region.
The heart of the plan is a target to ensure 75% of LA28’s addressable procurement spend goes to the Greater Los Angeles region and 25% of addressable procurement spend to small businesses, creating direct pathways for businesses across the region to help plan and deliver the Games and share in the economic benefits.
“Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in Los Angeles and strengthen the businesses that power our region,” says Reynold Hoover, LA28 Chief Executive Officer.
Report: AI In Procurement Defined by Trust, Risk & Early ROI
The transition from theoretical AI potential to practical application has reached a tipping point for mid-market organisations.
According to Procurify’s 2026 AI Readiness in Finance Report, which surveyed 315 US professionals across procurement, AP and IT, the technology is no longer a peripheral consideration.
The data, collected in January 2026, reveals that 78% of respondents are already using AI, with 47% stating the technology is now embedded in their daily workflows.
For the mid-market, defined here as organisations with 200 to 1,000 employees, the focus has moved away from broad digital transformation narratives toward specific, measurable outcomes in spend management and operational efficiency.
This high adoption rate signals a "Mid-Market Leapfrog." While enterprise giants are often hamstrung by legacy architecture and multi-year rollout cycles, mid-market firms are proving to be more agile.
By integrating AI into daily workflows now, these organisations are building a data-driven foundation that allows them to compete with, and often outpace, much larger competitors who are still trapped in the "pilot phase" of digital transformation.
The Procurement Interview: Graham Scott, Jabil
While many see procurement as a back-office function, at a giant like Jabil, Procurement and Supply Chain Services it is central to production. Millions of parts are needed when building products for more than 400 leading brands and companies. In electronic manufacturing services (EMS), the bill of materials often accounts for 80% of the total product cost.
Graham Scott is responsible for more than US$26bn in annual spend and a supplier network of around 38,000 partners as the company’s Chief Procurement Officer. He leads a team of more than a thousand procurement professionals around the world and is accountable for aligning procurement strategy with Jabil’s growth.
“My focus is on re-positioning the function as a growth driver rather than a cost centre,” he explains. “That means combining deep category expertise with strong supplier relationships and advanced technologies to enable faster, more informed decision-making and stronger alignment with both customer and enterprise priorities.”
How Zip is Streamlining Contract Reviews
Leading AI platform Zip has announced a new contract orchestration tool to help procurement reclaim the hours lost to manual reviews.
Zip, the leading AI platform for enterprise procurement, launched AI Contract Orchestration at Zip Forward Europe in London. The solution automates supplier contract review, negotiation and compliance, eliminating the manual back-and-forth that costs companies millions in legal fees and procurement delays every year.
Zip is trusted by hundreds of industry leaders – including Anthropic, AMD, Northwestern Mutual, Dollar Tree and OpenAI – to orchestrate their procurement process. AI Contract Orchestration brings that same intelligence into contracting for the first time, with AI agents that don’t just assist the work, they do it.
How the EU is Supporting Critical Minerals Procurement
The European Commission has launched a platform to aggregate demand for raw materials and boost diversification. It will work as the first port of call for buyers and suppliers under the Raw Materials Mechanism.
Through this platform, buyers of critical raw materials will be able to aggregate demand and connect with suppliers, financial institutions and storage providers.
Company portals
Executives
Graham Scott
Chief Procurement Officer
Reynold Hoover
Chief Executive Officer
