From Disruption to Agility: The State of Procurement in the Age of AI
Webinar title slide
The global business environment is undergoing multi-dimensional disruption—from geopolitical instability to accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence. These forces are reshaping supply chains, contracting models, and procurement functions at a pace never seen before.
Recently, a webinar hosted by Eric Naiburg from Scrum.org and the Lean-Agile Procurement Alliance brought together leaders including Mirko Kleiner (President, LAP Alliance) and Simon Reindl (Professional Scrum Trainer, LAP Alliance Board Member). Their message was clear: if procurement continues to operate with traditional, bureaucratic processes, organizations risk falling behind. The future belongs to those who make procurement a driver of agility, resilience, and innovation.
Why Procurement Matters Now More Than Ever
Procurement is no longer just a service function. In an Agile Product Operating Model, it becomes a critical capability that connects organizations with their partners, enabling faster delivery and greater adaptability. Just as quality assurance evolved from a policing role to an integrated capability, procurement must now shift from gatekeeper to value enabler.
With up to 80% of private sector revenues tied to commercial functions, procurement and supply management hold the key to unlocking competitive advantage. The pencil analogy—thousands of global participants needed to produce even a simple product—reminds us that supply chains are already complex ecosystems. Success depends on collaboration, not control.
Watch this YouTube video to learn more about the pencil analogy by Milton Friedman
The Agile Contract Challenge
Despite progress in agile adoption, only 8% of organizations include external partners in their transformations. This creates a fundamental misalignment: internal teams may work iteratively, but their suppliers and contractors are still bound by rigid, adversarial contracts.
Traditional contracts assume all knowledge is known upfront, emphasize penalties, and foster distrust. Agile contracts flip this assumption—acknowledging uncertainty, focusing on outcomes, and enabling adaptive relationships. As the BioNTech-Pfizer-Fosun partnership during COVID-19 showed, trust-based collaboration supported by lightweight governance can achieve results that bureaucracy never could.
AI, Adaptability, and the Next Generation Supply Chain
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming the fastest-adopted technology in history. Yet, according to the LAP Alliance’s global study, while 90% of organizations see agility as strategically important, very few know how to adapt their structures and contracts to truly leverage AI.
The opportunity is enormous: AI can enhance supplier collaboration, improve demand forecasting, and automate compliance. But without an agile foundation, organizations risk reinforcing rigid processes with faster tools—accelerating inefficiency rather than transformation.
What Leaders Should Do Next
Rethink procurement as a strategic capability – move beyond cost reduction to enable innovation and resilience.
Engage partners early and continuously – real agility is cross-company, not confined within organizational boundaries.
Adopt adaptive contracts – design agreements that support change, trust, and shared value, not fear and penalties.
Invest in people and culture – legal, compliance, and procurement teams need the same agile training and mindset shifts that developers embraced two decades ago.
Leverage AI wisely – treat it as an enabler within an agile ecosystem, not a silver bullet.
The LAP Alliance’s mission is to take agility beyond teams and functions—to the ecosystem level where true resilience and adaptability live. Procurement and contracting may once have been bottlenecks, but in the age of AI and global disruption, they can become the very foundation of sustainable competitive advantage.
“The question is no longer whether your organization needs Lean Agile Procurement, but how quickly you can make it a reality.”
If you want to learn how LAP can help your organization move from slow, transactional procurement to fast, collaborative partnerships that deliver measurable value—connect with us at LAP-Alliance.org.
If you would like a deeper dive, the LAP courses are shared here.
