Webinar: 2026 Procurement Agenda and Key Priorities 

Procurement leaders are heading into 2026 facing rising workload, tighter budgets, persistent supply risk, and accelerating AI expectations – all at the same time. Many teams are aware of the challenges, but struggle with where to focus and how to execute with confidence.  

Beroe invited Chris Sawchuk, Principal & Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader, The Hackett Group, to join our CMO Ruth Crawford, to help cut through the noise with data-backed insights from The Hackett Group’s 2026 Procurement Agenda & Key Issues Study – research conducted for nearly 20 years and refreshed annually to reflect evolving priorities. 

Read on to get the key highlights from our latest webinar. 

A global pulse on procurement priorities 

The Hackett Group’s study captures inputs from hundreds of organizations globally, with strong representation across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. 

For the first time, the firm also conducted a mid-year “pulse check” due to tariff-driven volatility – confirming that trade disruptions and economic uncertainty materially shifted procurement sentiment and priorities. 

The message: 2026 planning is happening in a far more volatile and AI-accelerated environment than even 12 months ago. 

Enterprise context: Customer-first, cost recalibrated 

Before examining procurement specifically, Chris highlighted some broader enterprise shifts: 

• Organizations are thinking externally – about growth, competitiveness, and differentiation – not just internal efficiency 

• Post-pandemic cost control has been slightly deprioritized relative to innovation, product development, and market expansion 

For procurement, this means alignment is critical. Supporting growth and innovation is just as important as managing cost. 

Top enterprise risks: Cyber, trade wars, and AI 

From a risk perspective, three issues dominate: 

1. Cybersecurity – consistently elevated for years (50% of respondents flagged this as a major concern) 

2. Trade wars and tariff volatility (42%) 

3. AI-enabled technology – interestingly, not just as an opportunity, but as a risk (38%) 

AI’s presence as a “risk” reflects two concerns: 

• Security and misuse 

• Competitive leapfrogging – organizations fear peers accelerating faster and widening performance gaps 

As Chris noted, AI creates the opportunity to reimagine performance, not just incrementally improve it. That potential makes it both transformative and disruptive. 

Procurement workload is rising, but staffing isn’t 

One of the most striking findings: 

• Procurement workload is expected to increase by 8% in 2026 

• Staffing levels are projected to remain flat or decline slightly 

• Technology investment is increasing by over 6% year-over-year 

This signals what Chris described as a “labor-for-technology swap”. Organizations are solving for complexity and workload growth through automation and AI, not headcount expansion. 

However, this development creates an opportunity for procurement’s people to improve productivity and recapture time. Chris pointed out that many organizations are time constrained, with workload and competing priorities making it difficult to ideate, innovate, and transform. A successful deployment of AI could give procurement teams the “mind space to reimagine” – creating a more valuable role for procurement within the wider organization.  

What are the top 2026 procurement priorities identified by the study? 

From over 20 potential priorities, procurement leaders identified their leading themes: 

1. Supply continuity: elevated since COVID and reinforced by geopolitical disruptions and tariffs 

2. Cost reduction: re-emerging amid competitive pressure 

3. Deployment of AI technology: rising sharply in priority 

4. Operating model transformation: rethinking structure, tech, data, and governance 

5. Becoming a strategic advisor to the business: by freeing up team through AI, organizations can focus more on relationships with internal stakeholders to become a trusted business advisor 

Further important themes included digital transformation, third party risk management, procurement agility, and improving analytics and insight capabilities. Notably, sustainability fell out of the top 10 globally (though it remains stronger in Europe). 

The underlying message: Procurement is balancing resilience, cost, and transformation simultaneously. 

2026 procurement initiatives – development areas: AI is critical, but maturity lags

When plotting importance vs. maturity, AI-enabled technology stands out as an area of extremely high importance, with low perceived maturity.  

As The Hackett Group’s study shows, 80% of respondents see AI as a critical transformation engine – yet many admit they are underprepared. 

Supplier performance management and supplier relationship management were identified as leading capability development opportunities. Respondents reported higher maturity for other important activities, like strategic sourcing or TPRM.  

Where is AI being deployed? 

AI adoption is strongest today in: 

• Contract management (16% of respondents had implemented AI in this area, 33% were in pilot stages) 

• Spend analytics (16% implemented, 18% in pilot stages) 

• Market intelligence (11% implemented, 24% in pilot stages) 

Many organizations are actively investigating AI use in category strategy development, an area with major potential for agent-driven support.  

“Value realization so far centers on speed (cycle time reduction) and productivity gains. We believe over time, the value organizations see from AI will switch to more traditional areas we’ve been focusing on, like spend and cost savings.” Chris Sawchuk 

2026 outlook: Volatility + AI acceleration 

Chris framed 2026 around two defining forces: 

• Ongoing volatility (economic uncertainty, tariffs, geopolitical disruption) 

• Rapid acceleration of AI adoption 

Procurement leaders should address critical questions, including: 

• Is your organization equipped to support broader enterprise goals? 

• How will you do more with less? 

• Are you building the intelligence and AI capabilities required to evolve beyond execution into strategic impact? 

As Chris emphasized in the Q&A, procurement’s opportunity is to move from being an “executioner of process” to becoming a “purveyor of intelligence”. 

In the AI era, intelligence – and the ability to act on it with confidence and speed – is what will differentiate leading procurement organizations in 2026 and beyond. 

For even more insights, watch the webinar recording.