Marketing procurement’s early AI steps

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AI is making waves across marketing and our industry, from creative to media and beyond. It’s also beginning to affect marketing’s specialist procurement teams – a topic that may have received far less attention.

The role of marketing procurement has evolved significantly in recent years, alongside its fair share of critics. Today, the most mature teams act as true investment partners, offering expertise to colleagues across a wide range of areas and that includes assessing the potential of AI tools.

So in the spirit of “Physician heal thyself”, WFA’s Global Sourcing Forum asked them: how do they see this technology changing how they work?

Responses from marketing procurement leaders at 54 of the world’s largest companies from across the WFA network, collectively spending $97b on marketing, revealed that AI was starting to change their day jobs.

A key finding was that it’s early days for many with 81% describing themselves as tactical or beginners in this space and 16% self-marking as intermediate operators. Just 4% described themselves as advanced.

As with many areas of marketing, the main goals of using AI/GenAI tools for marketing procurement purposes were to automate or eliminate low-value tasks, support procurement operations through faster analysis and augment capabilities.

What’s noticeable is that the strong optimism around GenAI’s impact on marketing procurement just six months ago is potentially waning. This may be because, in practice, successful AI implementation is hard work.

The proportion of respondents who are ‘very positive’ about GenAI’s impact on their role has declined from 31% in December 2024 to 23% in August 2025, according to our latest survey. Mastering the tools is one challenge – but integrating them end-to-end to deliver results is an entirely different and more demanding task.

Another possible explanation is that many are realising that just as GenAI is changing roles in many other areas of marketing and the wider economy, the same could happen with marketing procurement.

The percentage who agree that AI could replace their role has risen from 13% to 32%. However, no one surveyed said AI/GenAI had as yet led to a reduction in the size of the procurement team.

Thirteen percent said it had empowered teams to deliver more services and 50% said it had enabled teams to refocus on added-value activities, enabling the function to be an even better partner to marketing colleagues.

Right now, what we are seeing is that marketing procurement teams are reviewing all aspects of their operations and have yet to identify the best places to start.

Respondents cited a wide range of GenAI applications, including in RFPs, negotiations, and external market assessment; compliance and risk mitigation; operational excellence, such as automating certain procurement processes and improving workflows; as well as category learning and capability development through for instance the generation of targeted insights.

AI’s impact on commercial models

A key part of the marketing procurement role is bridging internal marketing teams and external resources, which includes overseeing the effectiveness of external partners. Our survey found that many procurement teams are now seeing efficiencies being passed to their organisation from agencies using AI/GenAI on their brands’ behalf.

Twenty-two percent say these benefits have been clear for ‘some time,’ while 32% report they are only just beginning to experience them – whether through faster processes, testing or actual content delivery. What this means for commercial relationships and or remuneration models is as yet unclear, however.

While 20% have started to evolve some of their remuneration models, and a further 61% plan to do so, it remains unclear how the overall approach will change.

The traditional commercial model – built on timesheets, retainers, and FTEs – is increasingly at odds with the way marketing works today. A shift towards outcome- or output-based remuneration, moving away from FTE/hours or mixed models that emphasise the latter could be one result. However, the data shows that no clear trend has yet emerged, and change brings its own complexities. AI could compel practitioners to rethink how they define and price agency performance and creative value.

It’s still early days for GenAI across marketing – and particularly in marketing procurement. While significant changes in the way work is done are likely, as you would expect from a sourcing function historically known for mitigating risks and supporting long-lasting investments, the benefits are being methodically tested first before being applied more fully.

The next few months, if not years, will reveal where these tools can make the biggest impact, and we’ll keep asking our members how and where they are finding benefits. It’s definitely a case of ‘watch this space’.

WFA members can download the research here.