The path that built every procurement professional is changing. The people on it should compare notes.
Since 2010, EBG has asked good people in procurement one question: if you could sit down with others who share your challenges, what would you want to discuss? In 2026 that question also goes to the next generation. A very limited number of seats at CPO Outlook 2026 are reserved for early-career practitioners from across the Nordics. This is what the seats are for, who they are for, and how they are allocated.
Where the next generation procurement question starts
Two kinds of work, one shift
Operational and analytical work have long been the two entry points into procurement. Running the process, cleaning the data, preparing the analysis: that is how judgement got built, one category and one supplier at a time. In EBG’s reading of its 2026 data, those two kinds of work are also the first that AI absorbs.
The training has not moved with it. In EBG’s Xperience 2026 post-survey, 62% of respondents still describe operational and analytical work as core to how the next generation learns the craft. Only 5% say they are actively building a new development path. The question of what replaces the old path is open.
Source: EBG | Xperience 2026 Post-Survey Report. Percentages refer to respondents in that survey.
The job ads point the same way. During the summer of 2026, EBG read more than 60 live Nordic procurement job ads to see what companies write that they hire for. Some describe explicit AI capability. Several name a specific procurement platform in roles that are not specialist digital roles. Different framings appear across the ads, sometimes inside the same organisation. For someone entering the function now, the distance between what the ads ask for and what their training covered is not abstract. It is the next application.
None of this means procurement has been remade. It has not. The shift is only beginning, and most functions are still running on the model they know. But the generation entering now carries the freshest training and meets that shift earliest. They notice what the function has not caught up to before anyone else does.
Why a room, and why this one
Not a youth panel, not a place to vent
There is no forum in the Nordics where early-career procurement practitioners compare notes across companies, categories and borders. Each of them sees the shift from inside one organisation, and reads it against one set of colleagues. That is a narrow sample for a question this large.
CPO Outlook is where Nordic procurement leaders meet each October. Putting the next generation in the same room is deliberate. The procurement leaders in the room, CPOs and the people who run the function with them, are working on what it becomes: operating models, the hire for 2027, what to build in the teams they already have. The people who will inherit those decisions should be present when they are discussed, and should have a table of their own where they set the agenda.
That table is Lab 9. It is group led rather than moderated, because the point is to hear from the next generation, not about them. Below is the lab as it appears in the programme.
Building the next procurement professional
A table for the next generation — when the entry-level path changes
Operational and analytical work have always been the two entry points that build a procurement professional from the ground up. They’re also the first work AI absorbs — and in EBG’s 2026 survey, 61% still develop their people the old way while only 5% have started building something new. Procurement hasn’t been remade yet; the shift is only beginning. But the generation entering now carries the freshest training and feels that shift earliest — and there is no room in the Nordics where they compare notes across companies and categories. This is that room: not a youth panel, not a place to vent, but a constructive read on what actually builds a procurement professional now, from the people the change lands on first. Since 2010 EBG has asked good people what matters most to them right now — in 2026 that question goes to procurement’s next generation.
Discuss with peers
- What did your training prepare you for that the function hasn’t caught up to yet — and what would you bring in first?
- Is this shift real where you work yet, or still only talked about — what has actually changed, and what hasn’t?
- What will procurement expect of you in five years that no one is preparing you for — and what should build real judgment now the old ground-up path is changing?
What a seat gives you
The lab is the anchor. The two days are the point.
Participants in the next generation seats take part in both days of CPO Outlook 2026, not only the lab. Day 1 means the opening keynotes on where Nordic companies are sourcing and investing, on supply chain disruption and on technology as a growth catalyst. It means the sponsor-hosted Theme Discussions, where practitioners and expert organisations work a question together. And it means the lab, in two rounds with the same group: the first to compare notes, the second to decide what the group takes into Day 2.
Day 1 closes with the inaugural Nordic CPO of the Year Award, presented live. Seeing what the profession chooses to recognise, and on what criteria, is part of the picture. Day 2 is where the function’s direction is worked in the open: keynotes on the operating model, and a working session on AI and the capability of the teams procurement already has. The next generation sits in that room too. Nobody is asked to present or prepare anything. What participants bring is their own read on the shift, and the willingness to say it plainly.
Full programme details: cpooutlook.com/programme-2026. General registration for CPO Outlook 2026: cpooutlook.com/registration.
Who the seats are for
A filter, stated plainly
The next generation seats are for people who are:
- Early in their procurement career, and already in the function, not aspiring to join it.
- In-house, at a company that buys things. Consultants and vendors have their own place in the room; this table is not it.
- Based in, or working for a company based in, the Nordics.
- Willing to speak from their own experience about what has changed, what has not, and what they would build.
A small number of seats are held for students in procurement or supply chain programmes, by invitation. Beyond that, the table is for people already doing the work.
How the seats are allocated
Allocated, not sold
The number of seats is very limited, and EBG allocates them rather than opening them for general registration. That is what keeps the table what it is meant to be: a cross-Nordic group of early-career in-house practitioners, not a mixed audience with a next generation label.
The fee is there to signal commitment, not to be a barrier. Where travel from another Nordic country makes it one, say so. EBG would rather have the right people at the table.
If the seats are for someone in your team rather than for you, point them here or send their name. CPOs and procurement leaders who know the person the change is landing on are the best route to this table.
Full programme details: cpooutlook.com/programme-2026 · Registration: cpooutlook.com/registration
Sources
- EBG | Xperience 2026 Post-Survey Report — figures on how the next generation learns the craft (62%), organisations building a new development path (5%), and hours saved from AI today (~29%) and expected within two years (~67%).
- EBG’s reading of more than 60 live Nordic procurement job ads, summer 2026 — published as “Hiring for procurement in 2026 — what 60+ Nordic job ads describe” [LINK].
- CPO Outlook 2026 programme — Peer Lab 9 text, reproduced verbatim.