Hackett finds workloads up 8%
- The Hackett Group’s 2026 procurement study says teams are heading into 2026 with 8% more work even as headcount and operating budgets shrink. - The squeeze is specific: headcount is projected to fall 0.9%, budgets 0.4%, while technology spending is set to rise 6.1%. - That matters because AI is moving from experiment to operating model — but most teams still have not scaled it.
Procurement teams are getting squeezed from both sides. The work is going up, but the people and budget behind it are not. That is the real story in The Hackett Group’s 2026 procurement study — not just that AI is hot, but that companies are turning to it because the old math has stopped working. In plain English, procurement leaders are being asked to handle more supplier risk, more cost pressure, and more internal demand with slightly fewer resources. (thehackettgroup.com) ### What actually got tighter? Hackett’s numbers are pretty blunt: procurement workload is expected to rise 8% in 2026, while headcount falls 0.9% and operating budgets dip 0.4%. That creates the kind of gap every function hates — expectations rise faster than capacity. And t(thehackettgroup.com) from companies above $5 billion in revenue. (jaggaer.com) ### Why is procurement under pressure now? Because procurement is no longer just the department that negotiates prices. Companies are leaning on it to keep supply flowing, manage risk, and still find savings in a messy economy. In Hackett’s 2026 ranking, ensuring supp(jaggaer.com)he backdrop here is broader than simple purchasing efficiency. (jaggaer.com) ### So why is AI suddenly central? Basically, because adding people is not the plan. Companies do expect to spend more on procurement technology — up 6.1% in 2026 — and AI-enabled technology has moved into the top three procurement priorities for the first time. That (jaggaer.com)as the main lever for closing a productivity gap. (thehackettgroup.com) ### Are companies really using it yet? Yes, but unevenly. Hackett says 43% of organizations are actively pursuing AI deployment, nearly double the prior year’s level. More broadly, 71% report some level of generative AI adoption and 56% report agentic AI adoption, counting pi(thehackettgroup.com). So the headline is not “AI solved procurement.” The headline is “procurement is hurrying into AI because it has to.” (thehackettgroup.com) ### Where is AI showing up first? Mostly in the places where paperwork, comparison, and pattern-finding eat time. Hackett points to contract management, market or solution intelligence, price comparisons, and spend analytics. Those are good early targets because they are repe(thehackettgroup.com)ore like giving overstretched teams a faster research assistant and a better triage system. (thehackettgroup.com) ### Why hasn’t scale happened already? Because turning on an AI feature is easier than redesigning work around it. Hackett’s point here is subtle but important — the winners are not just activating whatever their software vendor bundled in. They are deciding where AI actually changes decisions, workf(thehackettgroup.com)harder than running a pilot, but it is also where the real payoff seems to be. (thehackettgroup.com) ### Are there signs it’s helping? Early ones, yes. Organizations already using AI report gains in cycle time, productivity, and effectiveness. That lines up with the broader procurement push toward speed — less time gathering inputs, less time routing approvals, less time bur(thehackettgroup.com)ere between test drive and partial rollout. (thehackettgroup.com) ### Bottom line? This is really a story about operating leverage. Procurement teams are being asked to absorb more complexity with less slack. AI matters here not because it is fashionable, but because companies are using it to patch a widening capacity gap. The next question is whether they can move fast enough from pilots to real redesign before the workload keeps climbing. (thehackettgroup.com)
