From hype to reality: How procurement can PUT AI TO WORK

HFS Research partnered with DPW to identify how procurement leaders and teams can most effectively ‘Put AI to Work.’

Our research shows that legacy procurement technology no longer meets enterprise demands. Teams urgently need faster, better decisions. With the influx of AI-powered tools entering the market, most procurement teams are stuck in pilot purgatory—running tests without scaling results. The real barriers aren’t technology or budget, but trust, talent, and dirty data.

We identified five pragmatic ways to break free:

- Appoint a single AI owner
  Time-box pilots, scale what works, and cut what doesn’t.
- Fix the data
  Build a clean, connected, reusable data backbone.
- Win operationally
  Focus on high-volume, high-friction processes such as intake, onboarding, and invoicing.
- Deploy explainable co-pilots
  Use AI as a drafting partner while keeping humans in control.
- Invest in people
  Upskill, define new roles, and align incentives for adoption.

Procurement doesn’t need AI for AI’s sake. It needs real workflows, measurable outcomes, and faster decisions. The leaders we spoke to are achieving this by grounding AI in practical operational wins, not abstract innovation goals.

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Authors

Tony Filippone Chief Research Officer

Hridika Biswas Associate Practice Leader

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