For most procurement teams, AI is no longer a future technology discussion. It is becoming a spend category in its own right.
Across Financial Services, organisations are investing in AI-enabled software, specialist data providers, implementation partners, model development services and increasingly, AI-powered agents embedded across business processes. The challenge is that AI does not fit neatly into traditional procurement categories. It is part technology, part data, part service and part operational capability.
As a result, procuring AI requires procurement leaders to ask different questions than they would for a conventional category purchase.
The AI Procurement Challenge
Historically, procurement has focused on securing the best commercial outcome from a supplier. With AI, that remains important, but commercial value is only one part of the equation.
The bigger questions often sit elsewhere:
- What data is being used to train or operate the model?
- How transparent and explainable are the outputs?
- Who is accountable if something goes wrong?
- Can we demonstrate appropriate governance and oversight?
For Financial Services firms, these questions are particularly important. Responsibility for AI cannot simply be outsourced to a vendor. Procurement, Risk, Compliance, Technology and Legal teams all have a role to play in ensuring AI solutions are adopted safely and effectively.
Procurement Must Lead Beyond the Commercials
Many organisations still approach AI sourcing as a technology purchase. In reality, successful AI procurement is a cross-functional exercise that balances commercial, risk and business considerations.
There are three areas procurement leaders should focus on:
Commercial Viability:
AI pricing models can be complex. Suppliers may charge per user, transaction, API call or model usage, making comparisons difficult. Procurement teams need to look beyond headline costs and understand how expenditure will scale as adoption increases. A solution that looks attractive in a pilot may become significantly more expensive when deployed across the enterprise.
Risk and Governance:
Traditional supplier assessments remain important, but AI introduces new considerations around data usage, model governance, resilience, transparency and supplier dependency. The question is no longer simply whether a supplier is viable, but whether the organisation can maintain appropriate control and oversight of AI-enabled decisions.
Value Realisation:
Perhaps the greatest risk is not choosing the wrong supplier but failing to realise the expected benefits. While many organisations have launched AI pilots and proofs of concept, far fewer have embedded AI at scale. The challenge is rarely the technology itself. More often, it is adoption, data quality and operating model change. Procurement therefore has a critical role in ensuring AI investments are tied to measurable business outcomes, not technology for technology’s sake.
From Buying Technology to Buying Capability
The most mature organisations are beginning to treat AI differently.
Rather than asking, “Which AI tool should we buy?”, they are asking, “What business outcome are we trying to achieve?”
This shifts the conversation from technology selection to capability creation. It changes how suppliers are evaluated, how contracts are structured and ultimately how success is measured.
The Opportunity Ahead
AI is rapidly becoming one of procurement’s most strategically important categories. The organisations that create the most value will not necessarily be those buying the newest technology. They will be those that combine strong commercial thinking, effective governance and a relentless focus on tangible business outcomes.
For procurement leaders, AI is more than another sourcing exercise. It is an opportunity to shape how organisations adopt, govern and realise value from one of the most transformative technologies of our generation.
The question is not whether your organisation will procure AI. The question is whether Procurement will lead the conversation.
Talk to us today: Andy Hemsley, Rohit Namdeo, Agnieszka Abbott.
