To understand what strategic procurement really is and why it matters, we can examine leaders who already utilize it. Cyril Pourrat, founder of BT Sourced and CPO of BT Group, is one of them. He was among the first to bring AI into procurement back in 2019, long before it became mainstream.
When we spoke with Cyril, his approach showed not only the quick wins of strategic procurement but also its long-term power. Other procurement professionals can now learn from this.
What is strategic procurement?
Strategic procurement is the elevation of procurement from a transactional cost-saving function to a strategic business partner that actively shapes organizational strategy through supplier relationships, market intelligence, and proactive value creation.
Strategic procurement isn't about job titles or where the team sits in the org chart. Strategic procurement is about visibility. It's when executives won't make key business decisions without procurement's voice.
Many leaders believe strategic procurement means having the latest tools or joining executive meetings.
But Cyril shared a thought that changes this view:
"If they're speaking about procurement, it means procurement is RELEVANT. Your procurement team is RELEVANT."
This simple point reshapes our understanding of procurement's role.
In practice, strategic procurement means:
- Procurement helps shape strategy, not just execute it.
- Procurement and stakeholders co-create a strategy using supplier insights and market knowledge.
- Procurement performance gets reviewed by top executives, showing the team's importance.
But relevance also brings pressure. When procurement has influence, its choices face more scrutiny.
The best leaders don't fear this; they welcome it as proof of procurement's value.
How to evolve procurement from a cost center to a strategic business partner
Moving procurement from a cost-focused to a strategic partner requires more than minor tweaks. It demands a complete shift in mindset and operations.
Most procurement teams spend the majority of their time on admin work:
- Collecting and cleaning data
- Building reports and charts
- Preparing basic supplier updates
- Fixing spreadsheets
This approach leaves little time for strategic planning.
As Cyril explains:
"Many procurement people want to be more strategic, but they're stuck doing admin tasks."
The problem isn't the people. It's the systems holding them back.
The transformation to strategic procurement won't happen until procurement focuses only on managing suppliers or categories.
The transformation happens when procurement:
- Can actively shape business strategy, not just execute it.
- Co-defines strategy with stakeholders across supplier portfolios.
- Becomes relevant enough that its performance gets discussed at the highest levels.
When executives can't imagine making major business decisions without procurement's input, you've successfully earned that seat at the strategic table.
What strategic procurement leaders should embrace in 2025
Procurement is evolving fast. Leaders like Cyril show what's needed:
AI as a strategic differentiator.
Cyril explains:
"Thanks to technology, we're now doing things that we didn't know we could do. At BT Sourced, AI reduced a supplier briefing from 2–3 days to just 9 minutes. Instead of chasing data, the team spent time preparing insights for leadership. The chairman left impressed.”
Procurement platform consolidation
BT Group also made a bold move: consolidating its tech stack.
Cyril shared:
"The big bet for 2026 is Suplari AI in procurement. We're making Suplari the central hub."
They moved away from a patchwork of tools and brought everything into three core platforms with AI at the center. Across the industry, this shift from fragmented solutions to unified AI-driven platforms is becoming the norm.
How to build the procurement team's skills and make it strategically relevant
Building a strategic team doesn't happen by accident. Cyril's approach at BT shows what works:
- Structured innovation exposure: Annual "Digital Week" and "AI Week" expose teams to new tools and startups.
- Hiring for mindset: Curiosity, tech-awareness, and focus on business outcomes matter more than years of traditional experience.
- Incremental growth: Continuous learning opportunities help existing teams adopt strategic skills.
When teams see what's possible, they make better choices about using technology.
The focus should be on:
- Mindset: Curiosity, comfort with change, focus on outcomes.
- Skills: Strategic thinking, data literacy, supplier management, and change leadership.
Red flags: Resistance to tech, process obsession, lack of business context, or preference for solo work.
What's the role of AI in making procurement more strategic?
Procurement won't become a key business partner until executives can't imagine making major business decisions without procurement's input. And AI can help in making major business decisions.
AI isn't replacing procurement teams: it's transforming their work. Here are a few examples of how AI is making procurement more strategic:
- AI eliminates admin work: It aggregates data, spots errors, and gathers intelligence in minutes.
- AI enables new capabilities: Real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and tailored insights help teams act smarter and faster.
- Getting started with AI: Document wins, start where data is strongest, and grow step by step.
As Cyril admits, while talking about the Suplari use case in BT Sourced: "We don't fully understand the size of AI's impact yet, but we know it's big."
What are the core functions of strategic procurement?
To transform procurement, you need to know what makes it strategic. These core functions set it apart from basic, tactical work:
- Strategic sourcing and category management: More than negotiating costs, it means reading market trends, forming supplier partnerships that bring innovation, and using sourcing as a competitive edge.
- Supplier relationship management: The focus is on partnerships. Contracts are not just managed. They're used to create value, resilience, and joint innovation.
- Risk management and compliance: Teams track supplier performance, market shifts, and geopolitical risks to avoid problems before they happen.
- Spend analysis and insights: Data becomes intelligence. Teams spot patterns, find savings, and guide business decisions.
- Cross-functional collaboration: Procurement collaborates with finance, operations, and business leaders to align its goals with the company's strategy.
- Technology and innovation enablement: AI, automation, and digital platforms transform the way procurement works, making decision-making faster and more accurate.
Together, these functions turn procurement into a driver of business value, not just a cost-control unit.
What are the benefits of strategic procurement?
When procurement becomes strategic, the impact goes far beyond savings. Benefits include:
- Executive credibility and influence: Procurement gains a proper seat at the board table, advising on growth, innovation, and transformation.
- Faster response to change: AI-powered teams react in hours, creating agility that drives competitive advantage.
- Higher team satisfaction: Teams enjoy meaningful work rather than administrative tasks. As Cyril noted: "The more we use AI, the more ideas we get."
- Measurable business impact: Strategic procurement drives revenue, reduces risk, and increases speed. These results get recognized by leadership.
How Suplari's AI procurement agent enables strategic procurement transformation
Autonomous procurement agents will transform procurement forever: Imagine a teammate who never sleeps, never forgets, and always knows the next step.
That is the power of the Suplari AI agent built for procurement. Here are some of the key things that Suplari's AI agent is capable of:
- Monitors every contract and spend in real time
- Spots missed savings and hidden risks.
- Guides you to act before you even know there is a problem
With Suplari's AI procurement agent, you will shift from passive insights to autonomous execution. Unlike older AI tools that only analyze and suggest, Suplari Agent both decides and acts, always within the guardrails set by your team.
At BT Group, the results were precise when using Suplari.
Cyril's team consolidated 11 separate systems into Suplari's unified platform. What once took hours of manual work now happens in just two clicks.
Three ways Suplari Agent enables strategic procurement:
Cash flow optimization through intelligent payment analysis
A Global Education Company learned this lesson firsthand when its procurement director asked Suplari's AI Agent a simple question: "Analyze my suppliers with immediate payment terms and recommend changes."
In just two minutes, the agent flagged suppliers who didn't need immediate payment. Finance reviewed the contract details, and the result was $ 147,000 in improved cash flow by moving those suppliers to Net 60 terms.
The old way would have required the entire procurement team to spend days running the same analysis. Suplari delivered the answers in real time, ready for action.
Actionable guidance instead of passive dashboards
Traditional analytics might say: "Supplier costs increased 12% this quarter." However, it then leaves you to figure out what to do next.
Suplari's AI Agent goes further. It provides clear execution plans: "Switch 60% of Category A spend from Supplier A by Q4 to save $240K annually. Here's your implementation timeline."
The platform doesn't just highlight problems—it shows solutions and guides teams through execution. This eliminates the double work of interpreting charts and then building action plans separately.
Continuous contract and spend monitoring that prevents issues
Suplari AI Agent constantly tracks every contract and ties it to real-time spend data. If your organization is not getting the full value you negotiated, the Suplari AI agent identifies it; it flags when you pay suppliers too early or too late, and spots missed opportunities before they become costly mistakes.
This always-on guidance delivers the benefit of years of procurement expertise—available every single day.
As Cyril explained about this continuous improvement: "The more we use AI, the more we want to do and the further we go. Every day we've got new ideas popping up."
The most substantial proof is BT Group's choice to make Suplari its central procurement platform. As Cyril put it: "The big bet for 2026 for us is Suplari AI in procurement. We're making the Suplari platform the central hub that connects everything else."
When procurement teams can access insights instantly, act on opportunities autonomously, and continuously improve decision-making, they naturally evolve from cost centers to strategic business partners.
The administrative burden that prevented strategic work disappears, and procurement gains the velocity and credibility to shape business strategy rather than execute it.
To conclude: How to make the transformation happen, and what's the future of strategic procurement?
The path forward of strategic procurement has three phases:
- Establish strategic relevance. Use AI for quick wins and shift the conversation from cost to value.
- Build strategic capabilities. Invest in tech, develop skills, and hire for future needs.
- Scale impact. Consolidate tools, expand involvement, and measure value beyond savings.
Strategic procurement is not a finish line—it's a journey. At BT Group and beyond, the story shows:
- It starts with relevance at the executive table.
- It grows in tandem with the adoption of technology, especially AI.
- It scales with capability building and innovation.
As Cyril puts it:
"Thanks to technology, we're now doing things that we did not know we were able to do."
