Regardless of region or industry, one thing is universally true: unpredictability is the new normal. With inflation, interest rates, tariffs and currencies fluctuating wildly, business planning feels like weather forecasting during an El Niño year. With so many variables in flux, even the best-run organizations are struggling to see clearly, plan confidently, and allocate resources with precision. 

The drive to stay agile and profitable in the face of relentless chaos is one reason more companies are tearing down departmental silos and leaning into cross-departmental planning. A recent report we commissioned with The Hackett Group revealed that chief financial officers want to align more closely with chief procurement officers to gain greater control over key variables such as risk, costs and supplier management.

The report also highlighted how finance workloads are expected to increase substantially in 2025, even as headcounts and budgets trend downward. 

If companies can solve operational challenges during times of chaos, the payoffs can be huge. As any competitive yacht racer will tell you, when strong tailwinds are at your back, it’s very difficult to put distance between yourself and your competition. During a force-10 storm, however, you have a rare chance to profit from your competitors' hesitancy and gain an unassailable advantage.

How, then, can planning teams win that advantage in practice? The Hackett Group report identified AI-enhanced spend management and sourcing as the most immediate and effective way to help organizations shift from reactive firefighting to proactive, strategic growth. With technology investments expected to rise by at least 3.5%, it’s an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation efforts that may have stalled. 

Global 2000 companies are already seeing meaningful gains from AI-powered tools, according to the report. It found that companies with “Digital World Class” spend visibility achieve 2.1 times greater purchased cost savings, and 2.6 times higher procurement return on investment, when compared to those with limited visibility. These early outcomes may explain why 64% of CPOs interviewed for Hackett’s 2025 CPO Survey said digital procurement, automation and artificial intelligence are their top priorities through 2030. 

Let’s look at some real-world examples.

HP reported significant benefits from AI-driven sourcing — improving efficiency, reducing costs and gaining control over previously unmanageable tail spend. In a recent webinar, Steve Dyson, vice president and global head of indirect procurement, commented: "The ability to use AI to really streamline price and service comparisons takes a couple of week’s work and moves it into a couple of hours." He added, "We can average 10% to 15% off for competitive buys, generating money off tail spend that really hasn’t been generated before."

T. Rowe Price, a global investment management firm highlighted in the report, which oversees around $1 billion in indirect spend annually, faced a number of procurement inefficiencies, including long cycle times, limited process visibility and scalability challenges. To address these, it implemented autonomous sourcing powered by agentic AI. Initially deployed within procurement, with plans to expand further, the tool cut sourcing cycles from months to weeks or days, driving a 90% improvement in sourcing efficiency.

The report further states that U.K. retailer Tesco, in its 2024 annual report, credited its “Save to Invest” program, with AI-driven sourcing at its heart, with delivering £1.2 billion in savings and efficiencies. The reclaimed capital has helped the company absorb inflationary shocks and redirect resources into strategic growth initiatives.

The Hackett Group’s findings highlight that CFOs’ top focus for 2025 is cash flow optimization, while CPOs are prioritizing supplier spend reduction. Fortunately, these goals are highly complementary. But success requires a shared commitment to value creation over simple cost-cutting. 

This is where alignment becomes crucial. In a climate where agility, speed, risk mitigation and resilience are non-negotiable, procurement leaders must engage deeply with their finance counterparts to make the business case for investing in the AI-driven spend management and sourcing tools that will enable collaboration and data-driven decision making.

As planning teams navigate through these turbulent times, it’s not just about spending less, but spending smarter. AI-driven autonomous sourcing is proving its ability to help do just that by not only controlling costs, but also building more agile, insight-led procurement processes that can fuel growth in any economic weather.

Keith Hausmann formerly led global procurement at Accenture and is now chief customer officer for Globality, Inc.