How AI Enables a More Proactive Procurement Strategy

Your rolling contracts are the worst offender. Widely accepted as the status quo. Rarely tested against expectations.

With AI significantly reducing the effort and cost of tendering, organizations can no longer justify defaulting to long-term contracts simply to avoid market testing. Prenegotiation processes (requirements gathering, market engagement, evaluation and selection), which for many organizations historically took over 12 months, can now be completed in 20 weeks and will continue to improve. That is not a sourcing problem. That is an inertia problem AI now removes. Gartner® research maps exactly how procurement leaders can shift from reactive to proactive — continuously testing the market, validating supplier performance, and capturing value before contracts lock it in.

Our key takeaways from the report

• Why rolling contracts are the biggest barrier to procurement value and how to challenge them
• How AI reduces the full pre-negotiation cycle from 12 months to 20 weeks
• A category segmentation framework – where long-term partnerships deliver value and where competition does
• The shift from fixed to conditional contracting – relationships reinforced where suppliers deliver, replaced where they don’t
• A three-stage action plan: what to do today, in six months, and a year from now

According to Gartner

• Market monitoring is often ad hoc and, even where required, competitive engagement is frequently bypassed, with46% of organizations waive competitive bidding when the supplier is already on contract
• 63% of CPOs report cumbersome workflows and processes hinder execution, reinforcing how operational friction has constrained market engagement
• 57% face increasing pressure to identify new sources of savings
• By 2028, organizations that rebalance strategic sourcing toward shorter contract cycles will outperform peers by institutionalizing proactive, AI-enabled market testing.

Download to see where your sourcing strategy is leaving value on the table and what to do about it.

Gartner, How AI Enables a More Proactive Procurement Strategy, Ryan McKinney, 28 May 2026.

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