The benchmark ProcureAbility 2026 CPO Benchmark Study: Five Priorities for a Future-Ready Procurement Function report from ProcureAbility reveals a growing execution gap inside procurement organizations.
While leadership expectations continue to rise, procurement teams face significant internal constraints related to talent, data quality, and technology readiness, compounded by persistent supply chain volatility.
"Procurement organizations have access to more data than ever, yet many still struggle to turn it into reliable insights for decision-making," says Darshan Deshmukh, president of ProcureAbility. "The answer starts with strong master data governance, including clear ownership, consistent standards, and accountability for data quality across the enterprise. With that foundation in place, procurement leaders can trust their data and use it to make faster, more informed decisions."
Key takeaways:
· 61% of respondents reporting increased savings expectations in 2026 compared with 2025. Yet 43% identified late procurement engagement as the biggest barrier to achieving that value, suggesting teams are often brought in after critical cost, supplier, and specification decisions have already been made.
· Geopolitical disruption (62%) and logistics disruption (55%) are the primary risks procurement teams are managing. The survey data demonstrates a shift in procurement's risk focus from supplier health to supply continuity. However, only 6% have predictive or real-time monitoring tools and 62% still rely on manual or periodic tools.
· 71% of respondents describe their team capacity as moderately or highly constrained. More than four in 10 respondents (42%) report experiencing both increased expectations and constrained team capacity simultaneously.
· Only 19% are bringing on additional team members. The data instead shows a preference for developing skills in existing teams; 46% are investing in upskilling current talent.
· 31% of teams are turning to automation to reduce the workload, but many are running into challenges scaling AI, rooted in poor data quality. While investment in AI continues to grow, only 11% of respondents report scaling AI across multiple procurement processes.
· Poor data quality is a top issue in key areas for procurement teams. 50% named it as the leading barrier to scaling AI; 51% named it as the top gap in analytics; and 44% reported it as the top challenge in supplier management.
