AI Use Cases in Procurement: Takeaways from Industry Events

AI use cases in procurement are giving leaders concrete examples of how intelligent tools can reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and elevate procurement’s role in the business. Across the McKinsey Procurement Executive Forum, the CIPS Download webinar with Zendesk, and SIG One-Day Toronto with GATX, procurement leaders focused on practical examples of how AI improves intake, sourcing, workflows, and contract productivity. These conversations showed that AI is moving procurement forward with clarity, speed, and stronger business alignment.

The McKinsey Procurement Executive Forum, held under the theme Procurement in Motion, explored how procurement is adapting to new expectations for speed and accuracy. While specific discussions remained private, the overall direction reinforced a shift that many organizations are experiencing. Teams want systems that reduce manual routing, provide clearer visibility, and support faster decisions. These foundational capabilities are among the most common AI use cases in procurement today, and they often create the conditions for broader transformation across the intake-to-contract lifecycle.

During the CIPS Download webinar, Zendesk’s Vice President of Procurement, Tim Major, explained how the procurement organization has transformed its operating model and expanded its influence. AI now supports that shift.

What AI use cases in procurement did Zendesk highlight?

1. AI-powered intake
   Zendesk replaced long forms, email threads, and manual triage with a conversational, AI-driven entry point. Tim shared that the new intake experience “seamlessly gets the request on the right path into the right team’s hands the first time.”
2. Automated workflow routing
   AI prompts and logic determine which teams need to participate. This creates more accurate routing and faster progress. Tim noted that this produced “about 15 to 20 minutes reduction in workflow channeling with one click.”
3. Contract intelligence
   AI-generated summaries help leaders understand contract status instantly. Tim described the impact clearly: “I no longer have to go tap a team member on the shoulder and say, Hey, what is the update there?”

What outcomes has this created for Zendesk?

• Millions in annualized savings supported by better visibility and stronger spend control
• Improved compliance and fewer missed requirements
• Greater stakeholder engagement due to faster turnaround and clearer process guidance

These results show how AI use cases in procurement can modernize intake, strengthen decision-making, and free the team to focus on more strategic work.

At SIG One-Day Toronto, Bob Campbell, Director of Sourcing and Procurement at GATX, demonstrated how a lean procurement team can expand its impact using targeted AI use cases in procurement. GATX has focused on sourcing efficiency, contract analysis, and executive visibility.

How is GATX using AI to accelerate sourcing?

• Faster RFP creation through AI-generated scopes, questions, and templates
• Increased sourcing capacity without having to add headcount
• Expansion into new categories supported by reusable RFP structures and higher-quality documentation

These improvements allow GATX to launch events more quickly, serve more internal partners, and standardize the quality of sourcing activities.

How is AI helping GATX identify savings?

Contract intelligence is a significant part of the company’s results. GATX used AI to analyze its contract portfolio and surface opportunities for consolidation and negotiation that produced $3.5 million in identified savings. This is a great AI use case in procurement because it provides insight across contracts that manual review would rarely uncover in the same timeframe.

How is mobile access improving collaboration?

• Executives can access contract summaries from their phones.
• Approvals move forward even when leaders are traveling.
• Bottlenecks are reduced, which keeps sourcing events on track.
• Shared AI summaries improve alignment across procurement, legal, finance, and business teams.

These capabilities illustrate how AI visibility can strengthen cross-functional collaboration and help procurement maintain momentum, even with a small team.

Across McKinsey, CIPS with Zendesk, and SIG Toronto with GATX, the pattern is consistent. AI use cases in procurement are improving speed, accuracy, stakeholder engagement, and financial outcomes. Whether organizations focus on intake, sourcing, workflows, or contracts, AI is supporting the most time-consuming areas of procurement and helping teams make stronger, more strategic contributions to the business.

Levelpath continues to support this shift with an AI-native intake-to-procure platform designed to reduce cycle times, strengthen compliance, and help procurement teams deliver measurable results.

To explore more AI use cases in procurement and how they can help your organization build the right path, request a personalized demo or join one of our upcoming AI Masterclass webinars.

–Rose