How to Stay Ahead as AI Widens Procurement's Skill Gap

As AI continues to grow in its capabilities and promises to transform how Procurement is done at a transactional level, the profession's competitive edge is shifting towards the things only humans can do well: judgement, relationships, curiosity and critical thinking. Thriving Procurement leadership goes beyond the leader. It involves building these skills in others, guiding their teams through that shift rather than leaving people to work out on their own where they still add value in this age of AI.

It's telling that three of the top five skills employers say they value most in Procurement professionals, according to the CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2026, are critical thinking/curiosity, communication and supplier relationship management skills, rather than the usual negotiation or technical knowledge. Coaching is how you build all three deliberately and lead others through these transformative changes within the profession.

1. Learning to coach changes how you lead your team

Coaching is a different operating model, rather than a soft and fluffy approach to leadership. Instead of solving problems for your team, you help them solve problems themselves. Instead of directing, you ask better questions. It's key for moving from operational to strategic leadership.

This matters more than ever, and the CPOs in Proxima's 2026 CPO Report keep pointing to the very skills that learning to coach helps you develop. Mitzi Campbell at International Paper talks about her team having "real momentum" once they were given "the structure and empowerment" to work more strategically. Rory Lamont at Siemens Mobility puts it plainly: value engineering is "fundamentally a people challenge, not a process one," requiring his team to build relationships and "set a very clear commercial vision that spans multiple players."

You won't get either of those by managing harder. You get them by coaching the capability into your team, rather than carrying it for them.

2. It ripples out into your stakeholder base

Coaching goes way beyond a 1:1 relationship and your team leadership. The way you listen, question and hold space for someone to think is the same muscle you use with a stakeholder who's sceptical of Procurement, or a supplier relationship that's gone stale.

The same Proxima report captures this from the stakeholder side too. Maureen Brunst at Arval BNP Paribas Group frames earning a seat at the table as something you have to continuously re-earn, through curiosity, and "investing in partnering with stakeholders to constructively challenge from a position of trust."

This is coaching capability.

Brad Keighley at Instacart goes further, warning that as Procurement automates more of the transactional process, "the difference between the P2P process and strategic influence in the boardroom is less a gap than a chasm." The bridge across that chasm is built through relationship and dialogue, not process.

Coach well internally, and you'll find yourself doing it instinctively in a wider context too, with stakeholders, with suppliers, and in the room with your own leadership.

3. It helps you handle the dynamics AI can't touch

In the CIPS report "AI: removing jobs or enabling change?" there is widespread agreement: AI can't replicate the human dynamics of Procurement. Ram Trivedi (CIPS India) is direct about it: AI "will not replace human judgement, relationships, or trust-building core elements of Procurement that require cultural, political, and contextual understanding." Sarah Simpson at Bega Group describes a factory outage resolved in under fifteen minutes purely because of the strength of a supplier relationship, adding, "that's not something a machine can do." And Oliver Norman of Nomia is clear about where this leaves Procurement leaders: the future "is not about fewer people. It's about better-enabled people, operating at a higher level of impact."

Coaching is how you build that capability, in yourself and in your team. It's true enablement: it sharpens your ability to read a room, hold difficult conversations, and navigate the politics that no dashboard will ever show you.

Looking at this from a commercial perspective

This isn't just a leadership-development nicety. I've seen it play out directly in the numbers. One client of mine was responsible for a seven-figure category that had been effectively ungoverned for years, largely because the relationship with the key business stakeholder had broken down. Every previous attempt to intervene had been read as Procurement overreach, and the stakeholder simply routed around the function.

Coaching didn't change the commercial facts of the category. But it did change how my client showed up: asking better questions instead of pushing solutions, understanding what the stakeholder actually needed to feel secure, and rebuilding enough trust to get back in the room. Within a matter of months, that spend was under proper governance again, with the stakeholder as an ally rather than an obstacle.

That's the commercial case for coaching in one sentence: it's rarely the category strategy that's missing. It's the relationship capability to make that strategy land.

The gap AI won't close

Two things keep coming up in every Procurement industry report I've read this year. AI is proving genuinely good at speed and pattern-recognition. And it still can't read a stakeholder's hesitation, hold a difficult conversation with a supplier, or coach a junior buyer through their first tough negotiation.

This is where Procurement's value is heading, rather than a temporary challenge. And coaching is a discipline that can specifically help to develop that value.

What now?

Join us in September to build these very skills.

As AI promises to absorb more of Procurement's transactional load, the profession's real differentiator is becoming distinctly human: leadership, influence, and the ability to build trust across a stakeholder base under pressure. Coaching is the most comprehensive way I know to develop all three, in yourself and in the people you lead.

If you're a Procurement leader wondering where to invest your development budget this year, this might be it.

That's exactly why I've built an ILM-accredited coaching qualification specifically for Procurement leaders, starting 24th September. You'll learn to coach on a 1:1 basis and to apply those skills in a stakeholder context, alongside a cohort of like-minded peers who understand the pressures of the stakeholder table in a Procurement setting. You'll then go on to complete a globally recognised ILM coaching qualification, helping you to stand out in a competitive talent market. 

As AI takes on more of the transactional work, this is the skill set that sets you apart. 

You'll find all the details here: 

https://www.coachingforprocurement.co.uk/training