Procurement Technology Trends and AI Strategy – ProcureTECH 2026

Every year, PASA’s ProcureTECH programme acts as an unofficial barometer for what the procurement technology market actually cares about. Not what vendors are selling, what practitioners are asking for.

With ProcureTECH 2026 approaching on 26th March in Sydney, we compared this year’s programme against last year’s. The shifts are telling, and they align closely with what we’re seeing in the data.

AI Has Moved From Side Topic to Central Organising Principle

In 2025, AI appeared in several sessions but largely as a feature, a capability being added to existing platforms. The Hackett Group discussed how CPOs intended to plug resource gaps with technology. Gartner focused on analytics maturity. KPMG demonstrated a proprietary AI procurement tool. AI was present, but it was one thread among many.

In 2026, AI is the architecture. Consider the shift in Gartner’s contribution alone: last year Jeremy Suter spoke about demystifying procurement analytics. This year his session is titled “Optimising Procurement Organisational Design for AI”, asking how procurement teams should restructure around human and AI agents working together. That’s not a feature conversation. That’s an operating model conversation.

Across the 2026 programme, AI appears in almost every session:

• Organisational design for AI (Gartner)
• Agentic AI across source-to-pay workflows (GEP, Coupa)
• AI-driven contract analysis (Argon & Co)
• AI-enabled cybercrime in supply chains (Eftsure)
• How to buy and negotiate AI-embedded SaaS (Vertice)
• AI side effects in everyday procurement (SAP)

The shift from “AI as a tool” to “AI as operating infrastructure” is significant. For data teams, it changes the question from “can AI classify our spend?” to “how does AI-driven classification integrate with our sourcing workflows, contract management, and compliance reporting?”

At Purchasing Index, we’ve seen this play out directly.

AI-powered spend classification has moved from experimental to expected.

The organisations getting the most value aren’t just running classification, they’re connecting classified data to dashboards, benchmarks, and savings tracking in ways that drive action. The technology works. The question now is whether the operating model around it keeps pace.

“Orchestration” Has Replaced “Automation” as the Key Word

In 2025, the dominant language was automation, optimisation, and transformation. Coupa demonstrated AI-driven spend management. SAP showcased analytics and sourcing. The framing was: here’s a process, and here’s how technology makes it faster.

In 2026, the word you hear everywhere is orchestration.

Coupa’s showcase is titled “From Org Charts to Orchestration: The AI-First Operating Model.” Zip positions itself explicitly as an “agentic procurement orchestration platform.” GEP describes AI that “plans, decides, and acts” across workflows.

This language shift matters because it reflects a real change in how procurement technology is being positioned, not as a tool that automates a single step, but as a layer that coordinates decisions across functions, routes work intelligently and manages exceptions without manual intervention.

For organisations still struggling with basic spend visibility, this can feel like the market is running ahead. But the underlying principle is relevant at every maturity level: the value isn’t in the data or the automation alone. It’s in connecting them so that insights trigger actions without requiring a human to manually bridge the gap.

Cyber Risk Has Moved Into the Procurement Lane

Both the 2025 and 2026 programmes feature Eftsure’s Jonathon Stead on supply chain cyber security. But the framing has sharpened.

In 2025, the focus was on AI-enabled cybercrime as an emerging threat.

In 2026, it’s positioned alongside practical strategies for fighting back, sector-specific case studies, and a direct question to procurement leaders: “What should you be asking right now?”

This reflects a broader trend we see in the data.

Procurement’s exposure to cyber risk isn’t theoretical, it’s embedded in P2P systems, supplier onboarding, and payment processes.

The organisations with clean, well-classified supplier data are better positioned to spot anomalies. Those with fragmented spend data and duplicate suppliers across business units have a much larger attack surface, often without realising it.

Cyber risk is one more reason why spend visibility isn’t just a procurement efficiency play. It’s a risk management requirement.

The Business Case Problem Hasn’t Gone Away

Here’s the number that should concern every procurement leader evaluating technology: according to Gartner research cited in the ProcureTECH programme, 83% of eProcurement business cases for technology budgets fail.

This stat appeared in the 2025 programme and it’s back in 2026, which tells you the problem hasn’t been solved. Procurement functions are still struggling to articulate technology investments in terms that resonate with executive decision-makers.

The issue, in our experience, is rarely the data itself. Most organisations have enough procurement data to build a compelling case.

The problem is how that data is framed.

Savings percentages and compliance rates speak to procurement. Cash flow impact, risk reduction, and operational efficiency speak to the CFO.

This is where analytics platforms earn their value, not just in generating insight, but in translating it into the language executives use to make investment decisions.

If your spend data can show a board exactly where leakage is occurring, what it costs annually, and what the return on fixing it looks like, you have a business case. If it can only show category breakdowns and supplier counts, you have a report.

What This Means If You’re Attending

ProcureTECH 2026 is structured to help you compare platforms side by side, hear from independent analysts (Gartner, Spend Matters, Deloitte), and have direct conversations with vendors, all in a single day.

If you’re attending, three things are worth prioritising:

1. Go in with your questions defined. The programme covers organisational design, contract management, orchestration, cyber risk, and AI procurement. Decide which of these is your most pressing challenge and use the one-on-one meetings accordingly.
2. Pay attention to the business case session. If you’ve struggled to get technology investment approved, the closing session on why business cases fail is arguably the most commercially valuable 30 minutes on the programme.
3. Use the showcases to compare, not just evaluate. Six vendors demonstrating in the same format, same day, same audience. That’s a rare opportunity to see how different platforms approach the same problems.

When: Thursday 26th March 2026

Where: The Pullman Hotel, Hyde Park, Sydney

Format: Full-day, triple-stream programme + networking drinks

Eligible procurement professionals can attend free through the Hosted Buyer Programme, complete three pre-scheduled vendor meetings and your ticket is covered.

View the full programme →
Register now →

Purchasing Index is the data analytics and benchmarking arm of the Comprara Group. We help procurement teams turn complex spend data into actionable intelligence through AI-powered classification, benchmarking, and savings tracking.
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