How AI and Orchestration Bridge Procurement–Supply Chain Divide

Executives increasingly talk about resilience, quality compliance and sustainability as the new standards for success.

Procurement chiefs and supply chain leaders are, for once, pursuing the same targets. Yet, the daily work of meeting those goals tells a different story.

A new study from North Carolina State University (NCSU) and GEP, based on insights from 250 senior leaders across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, reveals a troubling pattern: Shared strategy often collapses when it comes to execution.

Where Misalignment Hurts

On paper, the functions converge. In practice, their workflows often pull apart. Contracting lags, suppliers pass along costs that aren’t always justified, and risk assessments arrive late in the cycle. Leaders in the study called out workflow inefficiency as the clearest red flag; 67.8% of respondents flagged it as a top concern.

Each delay slows the business down, adding costs and undermining resilience at the moment organizations say it matters most.

This isn’t only about wasted time. Misalignment creates vulnerabilities that ripple across the enterprise.

Procurement negotiates in one lane while supply chain adjusts inventory in another, with neither working from the same set of numbers. The result is inconsistent decisions, fractured risk responses, and weakened supplier relationships.

What Orchestration Delivers

Orchestration addresses this problem at the root. Orchestration addresses this problem at the root by unifying planning and execution.

When procurement and supply chain are orchestrated, sourcing decisions, supplier actions, logistics flows, and risk signals all feed into one operating model.

Leaders who have begun adopting orchestration report benefits in three areas: faster workflows, stronger resilience, and measurable cost control.

Consider how this looks in practice. Supplier contracts close faster when both functions share the same data. Risk alerts travel further, reaching procurement and supply chain teams simultaneously. Inventory decisions are made with a full view of financial impact.

Each link strengthens the next, reducing waste and reinforcing resilience across the value chain.

Why AI Is Critical

The study highlights how executives increasingly see AI as the top enabler for integration between procurement and supply chain. It can sift through vast data sets, spot patterns, and surface risks long before they escalate. It also models scenarios and suggests responses in real time, keeping teams coordinated even as conditions change.

Adoption is advancing fastest in areas where complexity overwhelms traditional processes: supplier management, risk forecasting, and demand planning.

Here, AI cuts through noise and gives leaders a shared, fact-based view . That common view is what enables orchestration to shift from coordination to integration.

Data Spotlight

Survey findings show where CPOs and CSCOs align most strongly:

• Customer order fulfillment:
• 66.0%Carrying safety stock: 65.6%
• New supplier collaboration: 63.8%
• Local sourcing: 63.7%
• Inventory reduction: 62.5%
• Reducing overseas reliance: 61.4%
• Lowest-cost sourcing: 59.9%
• AI integration into processes: 58.8%

These numbers reveal a clear shift. Traditional cost-first thinking is giving way to priorities that emphasize resilience, quality, and continuity.

A Practical Roadmap

The NCSU–GEP study offers three steps that organizations can use to close these divides and scale orchestration:

1. Joint decision architecture. Map out where decisions overlap, define which ones AI supports, and set escalation rules so automation builds trust rather than friction.
2.  Shared data and KPI layer. Establish a unified data dictionary and a KPI stack that combines cost, risk and delivery measures. When both functions act from the same truth, decisions stick.
3. Governance and incentives. Create cross-functional oversight to guide AI pilots and align incentives so managers are rewarded for enterprise outcomes, not siloed performance.

Taken together, these steps can embed orchestration into daily operations, replacing fragmented efforts with coordinated execution and making resilience measurable.

Download the white paper for survey findings and the complete roadmap.

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