Procurement teams seek to streamline sourcing and broader procurement to boost efficiency and value capture in the face of the various challenges such as macroeconomic uncertainties, supply chain volatilities, and geopolitical shocks that enterprises face today. Agentic AI, a configurable layer of autonomous agents, now makes it possible to generate content, derive insights, collaborate with humans-in-the-loop, invoke tools and APIs, and execute decisions end-to-end. Applied across S2P, agentic AI can triage intake, identify and qualify suppliers, assemble events and documentation, administer and monitor events, analyze proposals, support negotiation and awards, resolve PO/invoice exceptions with autonomous three-way match and fraud checks, enable guided tail-spend buying, and continuously sense third-party, ESG, and compliance risks. In this report, we examine agentic AI applications built for procurement and present detailed provider profiles, analyzing capabilities across procurement activities. The report is designed for procurement teams seeking to optimize sourcing and procurement through agentic AI by clarifying where to start and which solutions best fit their operating context.

Enterprises are striving to streamline their sourcing processes to enhance efficiencies and optimize value, and integrating AI-driven automation can significantly aid these efforts. Autonomous gen AI-powered sourcing tools have made it possible to improve sourcing activities through their capabilities to create content, generate insights, and enhance stakeholder relationships. Enterprises are increasingly interested in fully automating sourcing processes using these tools, which can automate supplier identification and qualification, sourcing event preparation, event administration, supplier evaluation, negotiation, and selection. The market offers many solutions, including best-of-breed tools and comprehensive source-to-pay and source-to-contract suite providers. These solutions offer varying levels of customizability and configurability and, thus, capabilities and functionality. However, enterprises often face challenges in navigating this vast landscape to select, implement, and optimize these solutions effectively. In this report, we examine autonomous sourcing technology solutions and share detailed provider profiles, analyzing their capabilities and solutions across sourcing activities. The report is vital for stakeholders seeking to optimize their sourcing activities through AI and gen AI, including new buyers / parent organizations exploring sourcing activities’ digitalization, autonomous sourcing technology providers, service providers, and industry influencers, such as investors and industry bodies. Scope All industries and geographies This research leverages our interactions with 12 leading autonomous sourcing technology providers worldwide Contents In this report, we examine: Adoption drivers for AI-driven sourcing tools Autonomous and AI-driven sourcing overview and technology provider landscape, as well as provider profiles Best-in-class capabilities across sourcing activities Membership(s) Procurement and Supply Chain Sourcing and Vendor Management

This ready-to-use category strategy template offers editable frameworks for internal assessment and detailed industry and market category overviews to assist category managers, procurement professionals, and CPOs in creating an informed category strategy for procurement services. Procurement is a back-office function focused on coordinating with suppliers and cost effectively securing materials/services for the business. It encompasses the entire Source-to-Pay (S2P) value chain, which can be further split into two process groups – Source-to-Contract (S2C) and Procure-to-Pay (P2P). Category managers can customize this template with internal category information, such as spend, suppliers, and subcategory overview. They can also use the industry and market insights provided in this template to build a strong supply base understanding. A category strategy’s goal is to create an action plan for effective category management, and this template provides the requisite tools, frameworks, and information to create a robust strategy. Best-in-class procurement organizations effectively leverage such tools and techniques to drive continuous improvements in their categories. Scope All industries and geographies Category in focus: procurement Contents In this category strategy report, we offer comprehensive templates based on a four-step process to create a category strategy: Define internal needs: define category maturity and objectives, create a buyer profile to gauge the current supply base state and predict future demand, and conduct total cost modeling Understand the market: build industry and supply base understanding by evaluating aspects such as market trends, key suppliers, major delivery locations, pricing trends, performance benchmarks, and category risks Determine the sourcing strategy: decide between an in-house versus outsourced model for the category and identify best practices and value levers to drive category efficiency Create an action plan: identify and prioritize projects and drive them toward execution

Risk management is a vital component of supplier management and is in the spotlight today amid the evident failure of certain large corporations to build adequate resilience in their operating models. Organizations realize that they can no longer rely on an established operating model and have started looking at risk management strategically to gain a competitive edge and stay relevant in a fast-evolving landscape. Third-party Risk Management (TPRM) is the procurement function’s responsibility in most organizations. While this function is part of a wider risk strategy under a risk-focused group, procurement typically manages the TPRM program, including outsourcing-related risks. Deriving strategic value from risk management requires buyers to adopt a risk-conscious approach to manage their outsourcing portfolios. As buyers chart their approaches to achieve the target risk management maturity, they need to factor in multiple considerations to decide the best-fit risk management program for managing outsourcing-related risks, including treating risk management as a strategic differentiator, shifting the ownership to strategy leaders, increasing technology leverage, and focusing on risk management transformation. In this viewpoint, we study the outsourced risk management landscape, with a focus on supply 
base / location risks and service provider risks. We outline the factors necessary to build a best-in-class risk management organization by outlining the key challenges with current risk management practices and ways to develop comprehensive risk management capabilities. Scope Risk management processes across supply base / location risks and supplier risks All geographies and industries Contents In this viewpoint, we study the following topics: Current risk management practices Key challenges with current risk management practices Emerging best practices in the risk management domain Membership(s) Procurement and Supply Chain Sourcing and Vendor Management