New Research by Ardent Partners and Ivalua Reveals Gap between AI Ambition and Execution in Procurement

• 87% of procurement teams remain bogged down by tactical workloads, and while 90% of them have high AI ambitions, 67% are not ready to scale it
• 59% of organizations identify poor data quality, structure, and availability as the main hurdles keeping them stuck in the experimentation phase
• A forward-thinking 23% are succeeding in scaling AI reliably across procurement operations

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest research by Ardent Partners and Ivalua, "The Path to AI-First Procurement: Closing the Gap between AI Ambition and Execution", indicates that while procurement leaders have ambitious AI goals, most of their current systems are not ready. The differences between those successfully scaling AI usage and the majority struggling to do so provide clear lessons for business leaders.

The report highlights a critical market tension: procurement professionals understand the benefits of AI, as 61% of them see AI as a productivity and scale enabler, but few know how to deploy it consistently and effectively. Whilst 90% of organizations are actively exploring or piloting AI, a staggering 67% are in the 'overreaching' quadrant of the report, with high AI ambitions facing underdeveloped governance and fragmented data foundations.

Despite the challenges, a meaningful minority of 23% has successfully established 'AI-First' procurement thanks to solid data foundations, embedded governance, and integrated workflows - critical aspects to scale AI reliably*.

Crucially, procurement professionals are not asking AI to take over their work but rather to give them back the most impactful and strategic part of their jobs. Nearly half (47%) identify cognitive augmentation as their primary goal for a human-agent operating model, followed by a focus on relationships (36%).

"Those making tangible progress with AI in procurement are not necessarily moving faster but are rather doing so with strategic intent," commented Andrew Bartolini, Founder & CRO at Ardent Partners. "They are learning where intelligent systems create the greatest operational leverage, where governance matters most, and how AI can augment execution without creating new operational risks."

Top hurdles limiting AI adoption

Data remains the most prominent obstacle, whether it's quality, availability, or structure, cited by 59% of respondents. This is followed by 51% who mention integration with existing systems as the main challenge. Only 11% of organizations report operating a unified procurement data model across their Source-to-Pay process. Notably, 41% describe their data as integrated, yet dependent on manual reconciliations across systems, 40% continue to operate with fragmented data and no single source of truth, and 8% have dark data trapped in unstructured formats.

Risk and Concerns

More than one in three organizations (34%) have no formal AI governance in place, with 96% of respondents viewing black box AI risk as high or moderate. Over half (51%) indicate data hallucinations as their greatest concern, followed by proprietary data being used to train public Large Language Models (20%). While governance frameworks remain scattered, 63% of respondents agree 'human-in-the-loop' (or mandating manual approval for critical decisions) is a non-negotiable governance requirement for procurement AI.

Closing the Gap between Ambition and Execution

Current AI use cases are concentrated in procurement domains where data is easily accessible and productivity gains are measurable, such as spend analytics (22%), supplier discovery and onboarding, and accounts payable automation (both at 20%). Planned deployment in the next twelve months significantly exceeds current usage, with contract lifecycle management showing the biggest gap (56% planned vs 14% in use today).

More than 80% of organizations plan to deploy agentic AI capabilities in the next three years, but the majority of them display high ambition against low readiness as they look to deploy AI on fragmented data and underdeveloped governance. Closing this gap requires a deliberate focus on building a resilient foundation: securing connected data, establishing embedded workflows, and instating trusted governance frameworks.

"The organizations that are already scaling AI reliably are unlocking massive strategic capacity, giving them a significant competitive advantage. There is immense organizational pressure to move fast with AI in procurement, but procurement leaders must take a strategic approach, collaborating closely with IT," said Alex Saric, CMO at Ivalua. "Chasing AI-wins on infrastructure that cannot support it delays business impact and limits scale. The playbook for success requires choosing the right unified architecture, instating human-in-the-loop controls, and only then accelerating broad deployment to make sure that AI in procurement can add real value to everyday operations."

About Ivalua 

Ivalua is the only truly unified, enterprise AI platform for managing spend and suppliers. We seamlessly connect people, AI, workflows and data, making businesses more profitable, resilient, and sustainable. We are trusted by over 500 of the world's most admired brands and consistently recognized as a leader by Gartner and other analysts. Learn more at www.ivalua.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Ivalua