Ardent Partners 2025 Insights on AI in Procurement

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The procurement function, traditionally perceived as an operational necessity, is rapidly evolving into a strategic powerhouse. In 2025, driven by accelerating economic uncertainty and digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a future ambition—it is a procurement reality. Ardent Partners 2025 Insights on AI in Procurement reveal that nearly 50% of procurement teams are already leveraging AI, and that number is expected to soar to 80% within a year.

This monumental shift reflects not only a transformation in technology usage but a redefinition of procurement’s strategic value. AI is being integrated across the Source-to-Pay (S2P) lifecycle, enabling agility, compliance, and cost-efficiency amid rising supply chain volatility. In this article, we explore the key trends, tools, and expectations shaping AI’s growing role in procurement—while referencing industry benchmarks and Zycus’ AI-powered platforms.

1. AI’s Strategic Role in Procurement

At the heart of the AI revolution is a compelling value proposition: automating routine tasks while augmenting strategic decision-making. Ardent Partners reports that 80% of CPOs expect AI to boost productivity, followed by 49% who look to it for smarter decision support and 40% for improved operational efficiency.

Zycus has taken a leadership role in fulfilling these expectations through its Merlin Agentic AI Platform. The Merlin Autonomous Negotiation Agent automates tail-spend negotiations, while the Merlin AP Smart Desk automates accounts payable for efficiency and accuracy. This aligns perfectly with the Ardent data showing that contract compliance stands at just 62.2% in 2025, with much room for improvement.

2. Trends Driving AI Adoption

Several trends are converging to accelerate AI adoption in procurement:

a. Rising Economic and Geopolitical Uncertainty

In 2025, 90% of CPOs believe the year will be more challenging than 2024, largely due to economic volatility, shifting tariffs, inflation, and supply chain disruptions. These conditions demand a more agile procurement function—precisely what AI enables through real-time risk assessment and intelligent sourcing.

b. Spend Under Management is Increasing

Procurement teams now manage 71% of enterprise spend—up from 66% last year—the highest in Ardent’s 20-year history. AI-driven spend analytics and classification tools, like those in Zycus’ Spend Analysis Software, help procurement leaders visualize unmanaged spend and unlock new value from contracts and suppliers.

c. Demand for Supplier Enablement

Digital collaboration is rising, with 52.3% of suppliers now electronically enabled. Yet, Best-in-Class organizations—those with 91.7% spend under management—boast supplier enablement rates as high as 61.7%. AI solutions like Zycus Supplier Management improve onboarding and engagement through intuitive interfaces and automated performance tracking.

3. Tools of Transformation: What AI Delivers Today

AI in procurement isn’t about theoretical gains—it’s about tangible impact, and the tools are already here:

1. Chatbots and Natural Language Interfaces

AI chatbots are streamlining procurement requests and support queries. According to Ardent Partners, 40% of CPOs rate chatbot adoption as “good or better”. Zycus’ Merlin Intake Management allows employees to raise procurement needs with consumer-like simplicity, driving adoption and reducing rogue spend.

2. Spend and Contract Intelligence

AI is empowering faster contract analysis and smarter spend categorization. Zycus’ Contract Lifecycle Management software, supported by AI, extracts clauses, flags risks, and ensures ongoing compliance—essential when non-compliant spend can cost 12–18% more.

3. Autonomous Negotiation

Tail spend typically consumes disproportionate time and yields lower savings. AI-led tools like the Merlin Autonomous Negotiation Agent handle these transactions with pre-set thresholds and scenario logic, improving savings and cycle times.

4. Expectations vs. Execution: CPOs Weigh In

High expectations come with real obstacles. CPOs are optimistic but pragmatic. While 73% expect AI to have a “transformational” or “significant” impact, many cite budget constraints (53%), poor data quality (47%), and lack of internal expertise (36%) as barriers.

That’s where platform partners like Zycus stand out. With integrated solutions across procurement, finance, and legal, Zycus offers:

A single, AI-native platform with modular apps
Pre-built models for spend classification, invoice processing, and supplier scoring
Built-in compliance tracking and anomaly detection

These capabilities directly address the challenges outlined by Ardent, especially in harmonizing systems and improving AI fluency.

5. Benchmarks: Best-in-Class Procurement Powered by AI

Ardent’s research segments top-performing procurement functions—“Best-in-Class”—and identifies clear performance advantages tied to technology:

Metric	Best-in-Class	All Others
Spend Under Management	91.7%	61.1%
Savings Rate	8.0%	6.4%
Contract Compliance	79.5%	56.2%
Supplier Enablement	61.7%	44.2%

These leaders are not only embracing AI—they’re integrating it across every touchpoint. They leverage platforms like Zycus’ Merlin AI to streamline sourcing, drive real-time insights, and expand influence across the enterprise.

6. Future Outlook: What’s Next for AI in Procurement?

As AI becomes more embedded in ProcureTech, the line between human strategy and machine execution will blur. Ardent notes that CPOs are now focusing less on theoretical innovation and more on execution: building data foundations, training staff, and streamlining legacy systems.

Zycus’ vision aligns with this path forward. With continuous investment in self-learning agents and seamless integrations, Zycus is pioneering the transition from reactive procurement to predictive, autonomous operations.

The shift is not just technological—it’s cultural. Procurement teams will need to redefine skills, rebuild trust in automation, and measure outcomes beyond savings: agility, resilience, and stakeholder value.

Conclusion: From Process to Performance

AI is no longer optional in procurement—it’s essential. As the 2025 Ardent Partners report makes clear, the firms leading the charge are those that act today, not tomorrow. From autonomous negotiations to AI-assisted supplier risk assessments, procurement has moved from back-office to boardroom, becoming a vital contributor to enterprise performance.

With Zycus’ suite of intelligent, AI-powered tools, organizations can operationalize this transformation—replacing silos with synergy, and reactive firefighting with proactive strategy.

Final Thought

The rise of AI in procurement is not a trend—it’s a trajectory. For CPOs looking to maximize impact, the time to act is now. With insights from Ardent and innovation from Zycus, procurement teams can not only meet expectations—they can exceed them.

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Amit Shah

Amit is a seasoned business leader who brings to Zycus about 18 years of experience in strategic marketing and communications, business management, and strategy. As CMO and Head Global BD, he is responsible for all aspects of global marketing and demand generation. He also leads other strategic functions like sales ops, bid desk and sales enablement. Before joining Zycus, Amit was based in London and served as Managing Director at OakNorth, a B2B SAAS unicorn and supported large enterprise engagements across the US, Europe, and Australasia. Amit holds an MBA from IIM Mumbai and B.E from REC Surathkal (NIT Karnataka). He has also completed an executive program in strategic marketing from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was recognized as 40under40 by Reputation Today in 2017, has been a Power Profile on LinkedIn in 2018 & 2016, and has served on the advisory board of S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research and Fintech committee of FICCI.