Businesses are spending more than $1.5 million a year on manual procurement work that could be automated by AI, according to a new report from Ivalua.
Procurement teams spend almost one-fifth (18%) of their time on manual tasks, yet those organizations that have automated this work with AI are already achieving measurable returns.
While 86% of organizations are deploying, piloting or considering AI in procurement, just 34% have put it into production.
“The cost of waiting is becoming harder to ignore,” says Paul Zammit, AI GTM lead at Ivalua. “Organizations that have taken AI into production are already seeing returns, while those stuck in pilot mode are paying twice: millions spent on manual work, and strategic ground conceded to faster-moving competitors."
Key takeaways:
· More than two-thirds (69%) of adopters have already realized ROI, and 72% say AI has increased the time teams spend on strategy and supplier relationship-building, turning hours once lost to manual work into commercial advantage.
· For the rest, the biggest barrier to putting AI into production is no longer cost but data.
· Nearly half (45%) of organizations hold procurement data across four or more separate systems, and half (50%) admit their data is not yet reliable enough to support meaningful AI-driven insights.
· 51% of procurement leaders say they now lag other business functions on AI.
