The Hackett Group, Inc., a leading generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) consultancy and executive advisory firm, released its 2025 Digital World Class® Procurement research, highlighting how leading procurement organizations are navigating volatility and redefining their role in the enterprise.
As trade uncertainty persists into the second half of 2025, many companies have paused spending to preserve cash and protect margins. Yet, amid this disruption, a select group of procurement teams has shown they can deliver top quartile, or Digital World Class®, performance.
These top performers deliver 2.6X greater return on investment (ROI) than peers, while operating with 31% fewer full-time employees and at 19% lower cost as a percentage of spend. They’re adopting intelligence-driven operating models and embracing technologies like Gen AI to accelerate execution, capitalize on opportunities more quickly, and drive greater strategic impact.
“Leading procurement organizations are showing what’s possible when digital capabilities and human expertise come together to drive value,” said Chris Sawchuk, principal and Global Procurement Executive Advisory practice leader at The Hackett Group®. “These teams aren’t just navigating volatility – they’re using it as a catalyst to transform procurement into a faster, more agile and insight-led business partner.”
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What sets Digital World Class® procurement organizations apart
The Hackett Group’s research, which draws from global benchmark studies across hundreds of companies, identifies key characteristics that distinguish top-performing procurement teams:
1. They are strategic by design.
Digital World Class® teams have a significantly greater share of staff focused on strategic work – such as spend management, stakeholder engagement and supplier management – while simultaneously increasing functional productivity. They use speed to create a competitive advantage, executing 58% shorter requisition-to-purchase order cycle times and 24% shorter sourcing cycles.
2. They deliver and sustain greater value.
Top-performing procurement organizations generate 2.03X greater cost savings as a percentage of spend by anticipating opportunities and maintaining the ability to renegotiate supply agreements. Superior processes and stakeholder perceptions have enabled Digital World Class® procurement teams to reduce maverick buying and contract noncompliance – resulting in 60% less savings lost.
3. They continuously invest in talent.
Digital World Class® procurement teams provide 2X the annual training hours per employee. They place greater emphasis on closing critical skills gaps – including digital and AI proficiency, business acumen, and soft skills – and far outpace peers in implementing formal retention plans. As a result, they experience markedly lower turnover and 25% longer average manager tenure, contributing to deeper institutional knowledge and greater organizational stability.
4. They have advanced digital and intelligence capabilities.
Top-performing organizations spend 1.8X more on procurement technology, and their advanced digital environments enable analysts to spend 26% more time on data analysis rather than manual data collection. Their superior information architectures provide access to intelligent dashboards for reporting, analytics, and scenario modeling across areas like cost models, supply risk, sustainability, and more. These teams are also moving beyond AI and Gen AI pilots to broader solution deployment in 2025 – innovations that will strengthen their resilience and intelligence capabilities even further.
Closing the performance gap: A blueprint for transformation
Disruption will remain a constant, but Digital World Class® procurement teams are proving that agility, intelligence and strategic integration are true differentiators. Those who embrace Gen AI and reimagine their operating models now will be positioned to lead in the years ahead.
The research offers a clear road map for reshaping the procurement operating model to effectively compete in a future that will demand even greater speed and agility. Key recommendations include:
- Redesigning service delivery models to emphasize speed, stakeholder experience and risk-adjusted execution.
- Adopting Gen AI and agentic AI technologies to automate complex tasks and generate insight at scale.
- Exploring technologies with AI tools that support autonomous sourcing and negotiations, tail spend management, orchestration, contract management, and stakeholder support.
- Investing in human capital development, with a focus on business acumen, AI fluency and agile ways of working.
- Strengthening information architecture and analytics to power better decisions.
- Treating external service providers as strategic innovation partners.
- Evolving governance and organizational design to support agile, insight-led operations.
A public version of the research paper, “Transform Procurement Performance with Intelligence and Gen AI,” is available for free with registration.
Source: BusinessWire
