AI Procurement in Germany: A shift to data-driven decisions

German procurement teams are on the cusp of a quiet but meaningful shift. A survey of 100 senior decision-makers in finance or procurement with responsibility over supply chains in Germany, conducted by SAP Taulia in August 2025, reveals that many increasingly see AI as a powerful tool to tackle rising challenges and drive strategic value through predictions and resilience.

At present, procurement professionals see their strongest contributions to business outcomes in supporting corporate sustainability goals (43%) and improving the quality and reliability of products or services delivered (41%). Looking ahead, however, leaders expect their influence to grow most significantly in areas tied to long-term strategy.

By the near future, 44% expect their biggest impact to come from shaping supply-chain strategy, up from 38% today. Additionally, 36% believe their role in enabling smarter, data-driven decision-making will increase, compared to 31% now, which is where AI is likely to become a factor.

Challenges getting complex

The emphasis on strategy comes hand in hand with intensified pressure. Two-thirds (66%) of German procurement professionals report an increase in procurement-related challenges over the past year, with one in five (18%) noting a significant rise.

Principally, challenges centered around supply chains, such as ensuring supply continuity while achieving best value (37%), managing working capital without compromising supply chain performance (36%), and balancing internal priorities with supplier needs (33%).

The findings highlight the challenges of juggling competing priorities while trying to build a more resilient and strategic function. It brings into sharp focus how important German procurement leaders see building relationships with suppliers, to plan intelligently, optimize cash flow, and minimize risks.

Germany’s major priority was not shared by respondents elsewhere, however. From the survey, managing impacts of macroeconomic shifts such as inflation and tariffs was named as the biggest challenge globally,yet only 23% of procurement leaders in Germany highlighted this compared to the UK (37%), Singapore (36%), and the USA (35%).

The opportunities AI can bring

Interestingly, there is widespread belief that a greater use of AI could help resolve many of procurement’s mounting pressures. More than four in five (82%) German procurement leaders believe AI will have a major or moderate impact on solving their challenges, and nearly half (49%) expect that impact to be major.

Yet despite this confidence, senior leadership’s AI investment agenda doesn’t see procurement and supply-chain management as a major priority, ranking at 34% and outside the top three, behind finance (47%) and product innovation (36%). This gap is striking given that 96% of procurement professionals say leadership action is important, and two-thirds (65%) view it as very important.

It comes as adoption of AI tools in Germany is steadily progressing, with 57% currently using procurement-specific AI tools, and 58% using general generative AI (GenAI) tools for procurement tasks.

The figures show that organizations are using GenAI for influencing supply chain strategy, with data-driven decision-making (41%) and risk monitoring and mitigation (31%) all areas where procurement professionals want to maintain a human touch but welcome additional support from AI to enhance their decision-making capabilities.

Conversely, AI-powered procurement tools lead in areas that may require more structure and data processing, such as spend analysis (42%), invoice processing (37%), and contract management (40%).

The benefits for German procurement leaders

The main areas the survey highlighted are operational efficiency, compliance control, and strategic enablement. Rather than focusing on cost savings, the most positive benefits from AI raised are in saving time (33%) and improving productivity (31%). This, in turn, supports better contract analysis and negotiation and increases compliance with procurement policies.

AI also frees up teams for higher-value work, with almost one in three (30%) saying it has enabled more strategic procurement planning, and others highlighting how it has improved cross-department collaboration (24%).

Despite optimism among those surveyed, over four in five (81%) worry about AI’s impact on the function, while some saw hurdles in the speed at which AI can be successfully adopted in the procurement function.

However, the overall sentiment was that AI is helping procurement shift from being proactive to predictive, with advanced analytics improving resilience and strategic decision support.

The road ahead: where AI will create value

For AI to shape procurement successfully in Germany, leaders see its biggest impact to make procurement decision-making smarter and faster, particularly through supplier evaluation (40%), risk monitoring and mitigation (31%), and spend analysis (35%).

Looking five years ahead, leaders expected the biggest shift to be in data-driven strategic decision-making (31%), followed by improved market and category intelligence (30%) and tendering process optimization (27%).

Overall, a vast majority (87%) of German procurement leaders rate their organization’s data quality as good, and are comfortable with AI automation in tasks like reporting and invoice processing (54%). However, human oversight remains crucial in tasks focused on managing supplier relationships, particularly supplier performance monitoring (32%). A balanced approach combining AI automation with human expertise is likely to be essential for future procurement success.