# Procurement Teams Face AI Skills Gap

A Procurious report highlighted a readiness gap in procurement teams: 82% of leaders expect AI and digital fluency to be the most-needed skill by 2030, but only 28% consider their teams ready. Limited training budgets and staff time are barriers, with potential consequences for savings, productivity, compliance, supply-chain resilience, and supplier innovation. Government procurement leaders and industry stakeholders can use these findings to assess workforce capability needs and prioritize practical, ongoing development.

- Procurement organizations can define AI and digital capability frameworks to identify skill gaps and focus training investments.
- Because staff time and training budgets are constraints, development plans should account for how teams can build practical skills while continuing procurement operations.
- Stronger workforce readiness may help teams use AI and digital tools in ways that support productivity, compliance, resilience, and supplier innovation.

**Jurisdictions:** international
**Industries:** Information Technology
**Topics:** Artificial Intelligence
**Published:** November 11, 2026

### Key Quotes
> Procurement is a profession built on relationships, judgement, and influence. People develop those by pulling in outside expertise, working through real problems and comparing notes with peers who are facing the same ones. And it has to be constant, because the job keeps changing while teams wait for next year’s training program.
> — Jade Cusworth, Global L&D Director at Procurious+

### Sources
- [Less Than a Third of Procurement Teams Are Ready for the Future of AI - HRO Today](https://www.hrotoday.com/news/ticker/less-than-a-third-of-procurement-teams-are-ready-for-the-future-of-ai) - HRO Today