Procurement teams are drowning in data but struggling to turn insights into action—Agentic AI is here to change that. Unlike traditional AI, which focuses on pre-trained formulas, Agentic AI autonomously offers recommendations and improves through interactions. In this blog, we'll explore how Agentic AI is bridging the data-to-action gap and offering powerful decision orchestration for Procurement.
Updated: May 19, 2025
By Varvara Kharitonova and Marius Ciobanu. Special thanks to Heta Pirttijärvi.
Agentic AI is making headlines, and for good reason. It's being heralded as the next big leap in the evolution of AI tools. We think the conversation around Agentic AI is particularly relevant to procurement teams. In this article, we’ll show you why.
In our experience, the average procurement team spends the majority of its time gathering and cleansing data, leaving very little time for true strategic analysis and decision-making. This leads to delayed responses due to the time needed to gather and analyze data, which can result in missed opportunities and compliance risks.
Procurement professionals often find themselves buried under mountains of data scattered across their organizations. This fragmentation makes it difficult to see the big picture and make informed decisions.
Even when data is consolidated, there remains a pressing need for robust analytics to guide strategic focus. The key to effective procurement lies in having constant access to the most up-to-date data, ensuring decisions are timely and relevant.
While traditional AI and automation tools can accelerate transactional tasks, they often struggle to deliver nuanced insights that drive transformative procurement strategies.
Agentic AI is a more autonomous form of artificial intelligence designed to analyze data proactively, offer proactive recommendations, and even automate decision-making when appropriate.
In this blog, we'll cover everything about Agentic AI and convince you why you shouldn't ignore it. With special attention to its potential impact and future, differences from traditional AI, and how to implement it, this guide will offer you a starting point for launching your Agentic AI journey.
Watch Webinar: How Agentic AI is Changing Procurement
Agentic AI is poised to redefine procurement. It eliminates reliance on manual dashboards, integrates risk management more effectively, and allows procurement teams to harness advanced analytics without requiring specialized AI or data science backgrounds.
By proactively interpreting data and driving actions, it shifts procurement away from purely reactive tasks toward a more strategic, future-facing function.
As AI agents become more adept at autonomous execution, procurement professionals will see their roles evolve toward strategic orchestration and stakeholder management. This shift demands new skill sets encompassing data analytics, advanced negotiation, and cross-functional leadership.
Procurement teams equipped with these capabilities can use AI to explore untapped cost efficiencies, champion sustainability initiatives, and elevate the overall performance of the supply base.
Market conditions can change faster than ever in our interconnected world. The need to stay on top of this volatility has led many market leaders to look to tools such as Agentic AI.
As a technology, Agentic AI’s key business case is to help manage and orchestrate actions within the supply chain at scale while at the same time having high transparency. In turn, this can drive proactive and intelligent supply chain risk management.
The ROI of such an investment can be substantial. The capability to stay ahead during supply chain disruptions represents a significant gain in efficiency while saving vast amounts of time spent in analysis.
Beyond time savings, the financial impact is equally compelling. By adopting Agentic AI in procurement, you can expect to impact savings levers more proactively:
These efficiency gains translate directly to bottom-line impact, providing a clear ROI that justifies the investment in Agentic AI technology.
Agentic AI represents a paradigm shift in procurement intelligence—moving from passive reporting to proactive guidance and autonomous action. Unlike conventional AI systems that simply process and present data, Agentic AI can…
Agentic AI delivers continuous learning and adaptation to procurement needs but also provides concrete benefits that create immediate value:
Procurement leaders recognize the strategic importance of data but frequently encounter stumbling blocks in transforming raw information into meaningful action. Traditional tools for procurement analytics generally provide rearward-facing reports.
They may track historical spend and categorize suppliers, but they struggle to integrate real-time data streams or predict future disruptions. These tools predominantly automate mechanical tasks rather than thinking strategically about supplier performance, risk, or contract nuances.
As a result, the potential to drive efficiency and savings stalls short of transformational change. This fragmentation complicates the linking of procurement decisions to corporate objectives, such as sustainability initiatives or risk mitigation strategies.
Agentic AI stands out by proactively taking actions based on its recommendations and insights. Agentic AI aims to predict, interpret, and adapt to changing procurement needs. This capability frees procurement professionals to focus on higher-value activities such as relationship-building, innovation, and long-term planning.
By analyzing market conditions, historical spend, and supplier performance simultaneously, it can initiate negotiations, preempt supply interruptions and risks, or generate fresh ideas for cost savings. This capability addresses a significant gap in proactive decision-making.
Capability |
Traditional AI |
Agentic AI |
Data Analysis |
Processes structured data in predefined ways. |
Holistically integrates diverse data sources and produces dynamic suggestions. |
User Experience |
Requires users to navigate dashboards and extract and interpret insights. |
Delivers contextual guidance and recommendations in natural language, with an emphasis on helping orchestrate multiple decisions proactively. |
Decision Support |
Provides historical reports and basic forecasts. |
Offers strategic options with projected outcomes and implementation paths. |
Autonomy |
Executes specific programmed tasks. |
Initiates actions based on organizational goals and constraints. |
Learning |
Improves through manual retraining with limited adaptability. |
Continuously learns from data, interactions, and changing conditions and improves over time. |
Implementing Agentic AI doesn't have to be overwhelming. Here's a practical roadmap:
Remember, successful Agentic AI implementation is as much about people and processes as it is about technology. Organizations that recognize this tend to achieve significantly better results.
Read our AI in Procurement Guide for a full overview of AI use cases in Procurement
While the benefits are compelling, organizations must navigate several challenges when implementing Agentic AI:
Data Quality and Governance: Establishing clear data standards for data collection and classification is a non-negotiable step in responsible AI adoption.
Ethical Considerations: Organizations need clear policies on when AI can make autonomous decisions versus and when human intervention is required.
Security and Privacy: Organizations must ensure compliance with relevant data protection regulations.
Skill Gaps: In addition to the challenges associated with data and security, there should also be a concerted effort to train users in how AI and agents can be integrated into their workflows.
At Sievo, we're integrating AI capabilities across our procurement analytics platform to help our customers achieve better outcomes. Our approach focuses on practical applications that deliver immediate value while building toward the more autonomous future that Agentic AI promises.
Sievo IQ is our AI assistant that helps procurement teams get more value from their data. It allows users to ask questions in natural language and receive insights in seconds, eliminating the need for complex data queries or extensive training.
Beyond Sievo IQ, we've incorporated AI throughout our platform:
We've also developed strategic partnerships with specialized AI providers, such as our integration with Pactum for autonomous supplier negotiations, demonstrating our commitment to bringing the best AI capabilities to procurement.
Sievo is committed to helping procurement teams bridge the data-to-action gap through innovative technology and proven methodologies. Schedule a demo with our experts to discuss your specific procurement challenges and how Agentic AI can address them.
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