Why Leaders are Skeptical of AI Bolted on to Legacy Systems
Procurement leaders are right to question the AI that vendors bolt onto legacy systems. Artificial intelligence delivers value only when the underlying platform provides the structure needed to support automation. McKinsey’s State of AI 2025 report shows that although 88% of organizations report regular AI use in at least one business function, only about 39% see measurable bottom-line impact across the enterprise. This gap illustrates a clear challenge. Many organizations are adopting AI, but their existing legacy workflows prevent meaningful results.
Procurement feels this challenge more than most. Intake, sourcing, contracting, supplier management, and budget approvals often operate in siloed systems. Teams rely heavily on spreadsheets, emails, attachments, and manual reviews. AI that sits on top of this environment cannot access the full data, cannot interpret context reliably, and cannot scale with demand. Leaders are justified in their skepticism. The solution requires AI that was built inside the procurement platform itself from the beginning.