After fifteen years on stage, one thing remains constant: procurement leaders’ willingness to share what is real. Behind every new technology lies an ongoing question. Every shift in expectation prompts how to focus, connect, and act when everything seems important at once.
At CPO Outlook 2025, that honesty took center stage again. The conversations and data throughout Day 1 told a clear story. Procurement is transforming under pressure yet doing so with intent, courage, and care. As one delegate shared, “It’s rare to be in a room where people admit what isn’t working — and then stay to figure out how to fix it together.” That openness is what sets an EBG summit apart.
The Facts We Shared
In the surveys EBG gathered — both the EBG | Xperience survey earlier this spring and the Pre-CPO Outlook survey leading up to the summit — most described their organizations as developing rather than advanced in digital maturity. Budgets and headcount remain tight. Meanwhile, expectations continue to grow. The pressure to automate and reduce cost dominates boardroom discussions. Additionally, the ambition to strengthen partnerships, drive sustainability, and manage risk is higher than ever.
Procurement leaders spoke with striking clarity about their bottlenecks. They face too many tasks, too little time for strategy, inconsistent data, fragmented systems, and scattered ownership.
AI appeared frequently in the responses. It is seen not as the solution, but as a signal of curiosity and readiness. Almost half of respondents said they were experimenting beyond built-in features in existing systems. They are testing where AI can genuinely reduce administrative noise. Moreover, it helps to connect information that today sits apart. As several discussions during the day confirmed, the breakthrough may come less from the technology itself. It may emerge more from how we organize and interpret around it.
As one participant reflected, “We know technology will change how we work, but only if we’re ready to work differently.” That sentence seemed to capture the mood of the day — pragmatic, forward-looking, and grounded in reality.
Making Sense of the Day
Throughout Day 1, every keynote, roundtable, and dialogue reflected that duality. The tension between ambition and capacity was evident. Creativity is born from it.
Yannick Thiry from Bain & Company set the tone. He urged leaders to rethink procurement’s operating model. His perspective resonated with the survey’s most common response. The workload is expanding faster than resources. Instead of just coping, he asked what could happen if we redefined what procurement is meant to deliver. It reminds us that true transformation starts not in tools but in purpose and design. “Diagnose where impact is limited, design for what moves the needle, and build momentum through visible wins,” he noted. This is a call to act with focus, not fatigue.
That theme continued when Lisa Lidén from SSAB, together with Henrik Nyberg from Ivalua, shared how one integrated buyer view turned compliance into clarity. Their example of merging risk, sustainability, and audit data into a single source of truth addressed one of the survey’s strongest signals. System fragmentation and data overload were key issues. As Lisa said, “I don’t need to go into five different systems anymore; I can see everything in one place.” When the buyer’s experience improves, so does adoption — technology becomes an enabler, not a barrier.
From there, Gunnar Büchter from Yanfeng illustrated what it means to make sustainability measurable. His story addressed another question from the survey. How to turn policy into practice. He connected procurement, engineering, and operations around a shared baseline of carbon data. “Progress comes from connection,” he said. This is a simple yet powerful reminder that collaboration, not compliance, drives change.
Michael Hansén from SEB showed that trust and structure make change sustainable. His reflections on governance and consistency echoed another common theme. There is a need for clarity. “Transformation lasts when people trust the process,” he said. For him, systems and governance are not constraints but enablers. They form the framework that lets teams focus on growth, innovation, and value creation.
Across every session, what began as data points found their human counterpart. The numbers showed the constraints; the discussions revealed the capabilities taking shape within them.
Reflection
When looking out across the room, the message felt clear. Procurement is not defined by its challenges but by how it responds to them. It is defined by the creativity, collaboration, and pragmatism of those who lead it.
Networking with EBG
The conversations continue.
Join us for CPO Outlook 2026 in Stockholm on October 14–15. Also, participate in the EBG | Xperience 2026 workshop series. These are smaller, hands-on sessions where shared insights become concrete actions.