Alex Saric is the chief marketing officer at Ivalua.
As we move further into 2025, businesses are bracing for a global economic landscape defined by change. Geopolitical tensions are reshaping international trade as President Trump proposes fresh tariffs on several countries and an uptick in U.S. inflation rates causes financial uncertainty to persist.
These pressures are set to impact global supply chains. Only with careful management and forward planning can businesses mitigate risks, control costs and strengthen supplier networks.
Navigating these challenges requires a delicate balancing act. In 2025, procurement teams will face mounting pressure to cut costs while leveraging cutting-edge technology in supply chains to make them more flexible and resilient. Here are four supply chain trends businesses must prepare for:
1. Artificial intelligence agents will begin to transform procurement.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a minor impact on procurement at most organizations to date. However, rapidly improving large language models and agent-powered orchestration will drive a much more significant impact on procurement in 2025. AI agents are set to transform the purchasing function from purely transactional to data-driven, with the ability to automate much more complex processes and act autonomously in many cases.
AI agents will allow procurement teams to benefit from increased efficiency, more informed decisions and a reduction in manual processes. However, AI is only as effective as the data it uses. To gain a lasting competitive advantage, organizations should not only adopt it early but also ensure AI agents are driven by high-quality, accurate and accessible data.
2. Procurement will take the reins on cost control.
In 2025, companies will be intensifying their efforts to reduce costs and bring expenses under control. Persistent inflation coupled with increasing consumer pushback against rising prices will create pressure to find ways to lower costs. This is especially true for areas of spend that are not traditionally part of procurement’s remit. For example, we are seeing high demand for solutions that can manage the commissioning and management of external workers.
AI also plays an important role here, as it can help standardize the information from third parties and bring this data into procurement systems, generating a single source of truth. For instance, AI can be used to support the search for suitable people or third-party service providers, including in-depth analysis of CVs as well as commissioning and billing. At the same time, local risks such as bogus self-employment documents can be actively addressed and reduced. By making this data easy to review, as a part of the source-to-pay process, AI technology makes recruiting easier while helping reduce costs and ensuring transparency and compliance.
3. Critical mineral shortages will disrupt the supply chain.
Electric vehicles and advanced electronics demand is growing, setting a collision course with current critical mineral supply constraints in the upcoming year. As more countries implement export controls on these resources, we’ll see choke points emerge within global supply chains. However, companies can’t afford to have their production lines halted due to the lack of access to minerals or components.
As a result, we’ll likely see more large manufacturers pursuing vertical integration strategies to secure their supply chains, including diversifying their suppliers or developing stronger supplier relationships to maintain access to critical minerals. The companies that succeed will be those that take a proactive approach rather than waiting for shortages to impact their production capabilities.
4. Unrealistic sustainability goals will force a reassessment of strategies.
Despite efforts to align with ambitious green targets, many organizations will face the harsh reality that they are not on pace to meet declared corporate sustainability goals. This shortfall will become clear ahead of new legislation, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which comes into effect in June 2026. This directive will push organizations operating in the EU to increase corporate transparency and Scope 3 responsibility, and many companies may find themselves unprepared to fully meet the requirements.
However, this realization is not necessarily a bad thing for organizations. Previous goals may have been well-intended but were based on limited information or real experience regarding the challenges. Now that organizations have started to progress in earnest on these initiatives, they are more informed and qualified to establish realistic goals and schedules. Empowered by this data and emboldened by their experience, organizations will be in a much better position to re-evaluate their goals and replace them with more accurate, achievable targets. This will be critical as they prepare to demonstrate compliance with regulations like CSRD.
Adapting To Constant Change
As businesses step into the new year, their success will hinge on their ability to build resilient supply chains amid protectionist policies, financial uncertainty, shifting sustainability targets and shortages.
While change is inevitable, enhancing visibility into their supply chains will allow organizations to pinpoint vulnerabilities, make informed decisions and swiftly adapt to challenges. Agility is key to strengthening supplier networks and mitigating risk. This will help businesses transform uncertainty into opportunity and position themselves to succeed where their competitors fail. As the saying goes, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
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