Enterprise procurement teams are discovering that the hard part of AI is not always the technology itself, but the confidence to use it. In a growing number of organisations, the barrier is less about software capability than about trust, skills and the pace at which employees can adapt to new ways of working.
Lance Younger, executive vice president and EMEA general manager at Oro Labs, has described this as an AI paradox: the tools are increasingly ready for enterprise use, but many workforces are not yet prepared to rely on them. That tension is particularly visible in procurement, where AI is being introduced into processes that depend on judgement, compliance and close control over spending and suppliers.
A 2026 study by Oro Labs and The Hackett Group suggests the market is moving quickly despite those concerns. Large-scale deployments of intake and orchestration have increased eightfold over the past two years, with the technology most commonly used in intake management, sourcing, contracting and supplier onboarding. The study says AI is proving especially useful in tackling operational complexity and compliance demands, including helping firms satisfy regulatory obligations at scale.
The numbers point to a sector that is already seeing practical gains. According to the study, 66% of organisations intend to invest in or upgrade orchestration tools within the next three years. Users reported a median 30% improvement in efficiency and automation, while source-to-contract cycle times were 20 days shorter in organisations with formal orchestration. Adopters were also far more positive about the experience, with 93% reporting good user outcomes compared with 49% among non-adopters.
The benefits extend beyond speed. The research found stronger data visibility, greater pricing agility and better supplier collaboration among respondents, alongside a 25% reduction in orchestration-related costs. Oro says this is helping make procurement platforms more accessible to business users through familiar entry points such as Microsoft Copilot and Teams, while still linking into existing enterprise systems.
Yet the same shift is fuelling anxiety about the future of work. Younger said the fear of replacement remains real, particularly where AI is taking over transactional tasks that were previously done by staff. He argues that most organisations are not eliminating human oversight, but are instead using software to augment existing roles and, in some cases, working with business process outsourcing partners to reshape how that work is delivered.
The bigger issue, he says, is that many companies underestimate how much change management is required. Some experiment with AI agents but fail to connect them to the right systems, leaving them without context and increasing the risk of errors or fabricated outputs. Others begin with a vague ambition rather than a clearly defined business problem, or they fail to account for how rapidly the technology itself is evolving.
That caution is echoed in broader industry commentary on AI in procurement, where analysts continue to point to fragmented data, integration challenges, stakeholder resistance and skills gaps as recurring obstacles. The consensus is that procurement leaders cannot treat AI as a simple add-on. Success depends on redesigning workflows, building workforce confidence and deciding where human judgement must remain central.
For now, procurement appears to be one of the clearest examples of AI’s promise inside the enterprise: measurable efficiency gains, lower costs and better compliance. But as Younger’s “AI paradox” suggests, the next phase of adoption will depend as much on people as on platforms.
Source: Noah Wire Services