Artificial intelligence is widely considered to be the most significant technological innovation since the Internet. Its influence has infiltrated professional fields and industries of all kinds, certainly including those under the financial umbrella. When it comes to purchasing and procurement, the acceleration of AI across various functions has begun to transform how people think about procurement and purchasing.
As we described in an article from 2023 when AI was really beginning to take a serious foothold, we said it had the potential to have serious impact in the following areas:
- Policy compliance. This is perhaps the most intuitive area where AI can be used as a tool. It can identify anomalies in spend behavior and flag them for review.
- Predictive modeling. AI creates models that predict future spending behavior to detect risks. This may be especially relevant when organizations aim to integrate procurement into other supply chain processes, such as inventory management.
- General clerical use. This includes scanning and organizing purchase orders, insurance management processes, travel booking, and similar uses.
We find that these predictions have largely come to fruition, especially when we think of the landscape of AI from 2023-2026. In each of these examples, AI is handling tasks on the operations side. In October 2025, Deloitte published an article on finance trends heading into 2026. We can gather some insights from some of the responses received from finance leaders mentioned in the article.
Agentic AI on the rise?
The results of Deloitte’s survey come with several key takeaways. We recommend perusing the article yourself. For the purposes of this article, we will hone in on the data surrounding surrounding ‘agentic AI’.
Agentic AI is defined as an AI system that can act autonomously and perform menial or repetitive tasks. This is what is meant by “general clerical use”, and when you read about AI agents, this is the type of use that is being referred to. We can see that 14% of financial leaders are currently using agentic AI in their processes. That leaves a lot of room for growth. Interestingly, 63% of survey respondents reported fully deploying and actively using AI solutions more generally.
AI can’t replicate ‘soft skills’
Even as agentic AI becomes more capable, we don’t see procurement and sourcing seeing their jobs “replaced” by AI. Though the concern is natural, considering the discussion around AI and how it impacts society, we actually see organizations using AI agents as a way to elevate procurement teams by removing menial, time-consuming tasks and allow them to focus on higher-value work, such as supplier relationship management.
Agentic AI can automate workflows, identify anomalies, and find insights within data. It does not have the capability to act on those insights, read context, and build trust with suppliers over time. AI doesn’t comprehend meaning the way that a person does.
It’s best to think of AI, including agentic AI, as a tool rather than a threat. In the end, it’s not that AI doesn’t need to replace humans in procurement… it’s that it can’t.
Consider thinking outside the box when incorporating AI
If you are looking for innovative ways to incorporate AI into your procurement processes, consider the menial work your team covers on a daily basis that if freed up, could make you more productive. For example, Card Integrity recently launched Minerva, an AI procurement policy assistant. Minerva was designed around the idea that procurement policies can often be cumbersome, both for cardholders/employees trying to get an answer to something, and for procurement professionals attempting to field their questions in a timely manner. Minerva is a bit of an out-of-the-box agentic AI in this way: it performs menial tasks, although it is not making changes to any data itself.
If you’re interested in learning more about Minerva, learn more by clicking below!
