Monthly Top 5 - June 2025

No. 1 - Leaders Dedicate Higher % Budget to ProcureTech Than Followers

No. 2 - Population Growth Will Have Very Little Impact on Climate

No. 3 - 101 AI Use Cases for Procurement

No. 4 - Is “Bottom-Up” ProcureTech Adoption Possible?

No. 5 - 9 Steps For a Modern Procurement Strategy

The Bottom Line: However, to become a “digital master”, investing in technology is not enough. You also need to invest in your team’s digital literacy (Where have I heard that before?! 😅). This chart from the report is my favorite illustration of this conclusion at work:

Action Item: Evaluate your team’s AI Digital Literacy. Here’s a quick quiz to inspire you. Work on improving this skillset alongside your technology.

The Bottom Line: This isn't just an academic debate… It's directly relevant to procurement's sustainability strategies. The companies investing in supply chain decarbonization, renewable energy sourcing, and circular procurement are addressing the real levers of climate impact. Population is a red herring that distracts from the consumption patterns that actually matter.

Action Item: Audit your sustainability initiatives. If you're focusing on efficiency gains from "doing less" rather than "doing differently," you might be missing the bigger opportunities. Decarbonization is happening faster than we imagine. Reviewing supplier approaches regularly and adjusting purchasing strategies consequently is how you contribute as a procurement professional.

The Bottom Line: The only useful AI trend info is about the problems AI can solve TODAY. The rest is just hope and hope is not a strategy. Start with rules-based automation, evolve to predictive analytics, then scale to autonomous agents that plan and act independently. The playbook exists.

Action Item: Pick 3 use cases from different maturity levels that match your current pain points (basic automation, predictive analytics, agentic AI). Calculate the time your team spends on these tasks weekly. 75% of that is your ROI baseline for AI investment (add the value of what the team could be doing instead on top).

The Bottom Line: Technology adoption fails because we treat it like a change management problem instead of a problem-solving opportunity. When practitioners identify the pain and choose the solution, resistance drops dramatically. But this only works with smaller, nimble tools that can be implemented quickly and cheaply.

Action Item: Try Cyril's sticky note exercise. Map your S2P process visually and let your team identify the biggest friction points. Other stakeholders are involved? Put the process map in the cafeteria and hand folks post-its when they come in for lunch. 😅 The patterns will tell you where to focus your technology investments.

The Bottom Line: Procurement strategies need to be built for 2025's realities: platform-enabled capabilities, real-time data visibility, and the ability to adapt quickly when things go sideways. This framework bridges the gap between strategy and execution by embedding automation, compliance, and stakeholder alignment into every step.

Action Item: Use their 9-step checklist to audit your current procurement strategy. Focus particularly on steps 3 (mapping current processes) and 9 (pressure-testing with risk scenarios). If you can't clearly articulate how your strategy handles supplier failure or inflation pressure, you have work to do.