PASA’s 2026 theme of adaptability follows 2024’s focus on responsible procurement and last year’s focus on efficiency, collaboration and transparency.
In 2026, the procurement profession is often being asked to do three things at once: protect supply, reduce cost and deliver stronger ESG outcomes, while technology and risk levels change faster than some traditional operating models can respond.
Adaptability is not just about speed. It is classically defined as the ability to adjust one’s behaviour, thinking and emotions to fit new, changing or uncertain situations. In a procurement context, it could perhaps be defined as:
The capability to make commercial decisions quickly, with minimal friction, while maintaining probity, compliance and stakeholder trust.
The core challenge is that rapid decision-making and low-friction processes are not always associated with high process integrity or outcomes that stakeholders value. They are often associated with more risk and lower governance standards.
Yet, crucially, whilst we all recognise that we now live in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world, on the supply-side we now need to move beyond ‘admiring the problem’ and proactively re-engineer our procurement approach:
In practical terms, procurement teams that are adaptable in 2026 will:
- Sense change early (risk, demand, market movement) and act before disruption becomes a crisis
- Move work through simpler pathways using pre-approved governance and reusable templates
- Use contracts that flex (price, volume, scope) without constant renegotiation
- Build supplier relationships that support joint risk management, innovation and improvement
- Use technology and data to close the productivity gap without losing control of risk
The key question for 2026
How can procurement teams adapt in 2026 and beyond to continue delivering value?
McKinsey has previously suggested that we must build our adaptability quotient (AQ). Applied to procurement, this means you can re-price, re-source or re-contract quickly based on leading indicators (risk data, supply signals, demand shifts), while keeping governance intact (probity, compliance, stakeholder confidence).
Added to IQ (procurement’s greatest strength is process) and EQ (procurement has invested heavily in emotional intelligence recently), this triumvirate can perhaps lay the foundation for a new level of procurement capability.
The role of technology
Two widely cited signals point to the same conclusion for procurement leaders in 2026:
- Demand is compounding fast: procurement workload is rising by around 10 percent per annum, while resourcing grows by less than three percent (Source: The Hackett Group 2023-25). The latest research indicates procurement resources and headcount will decline in 2026, consistent with the refrain that procurement delivers “more for less” over time. Many now see technology (including AI) as bridging this productivity gap
- Yet, half of eProcurement business cases fail, a further 37 percent are cut back and only 13 percent succeed as presented (Source: Gartner 2023)
What these two findings mean when you put them together is simply that procurement is being asked to deliver more value, faster and across a wider mandate (risk, ESG, supplier resilience, cost pressure), with the same resources and without the capacity to just “work harder” as the main solution.
At the same time, the obvious lever (technology) has a high failure rate when treated as a single big project rather than a capability change.
The productivity gap forces simplification and automation, but Gartner’s findings warn that success depends more on your operating model, adoption culture, strong governance and data quality than the platform itself.
AI is not a panacea. In the context of user-friendly interfaces, intake design, compliance tools and orchestration of legacy systems, AI can help significantly.
How PASA’s 2026 theme helps
Throughout 2026, PASA will focus on how to build procurement adaptability and the practical question:
How do we make commercial decisions quickly, with minimal friction, while maintaining probity, compliance and stakeholder trust?
Perhaps partly through commercial flexibility, adaptive governance and tech that fits.
Join PASA throughout 2026 for a wide range of events to learn how to adapt your procurement approaches more effectively and faster.
