What’s now and next for Finance and Procurement

Automation, digitisation and the future of global trade

Add bookmark

This 2019 report, carried out by The Economist Intelligent Unit, surveyed over 400 senior contacts within Finance and Procurement to find out what they thought were the key and current trends happening in their industry that they should prepare for. 

Key findings include:

  • Expectation that automation would be the driver to free up time required to adapt and play a role more focused on strategic initiatives​
  • Automation of payments, procurement processes and supply chain management will supersede AI as having the greatest impact on an organization. ​
  • Just over 60% of respondents believe that their finance and procurement functions are prepared for the impacts of digitisation within the next 18 months​
  • Almost 25% of respondents cited post-Brexit trade negotiations and US/China relations as the trend expected to have the greatest impact within the next two years.​

Download the report here.


Latest Webinars

The Governance Gap: Why Agentic AI Is Outrunning Internal Controls

2026-09-30

10:00 AM - 10:45 AM EDT

Learn why internal controls need to be part of the design input for your agentic AI strategy, not an...

Why AI in BFSI Stalls After the Pilot — and What Leading Institutions Should Consider Doing Differently

2026-09-28

11:00 AM - 11:45 AM EDT

BFSI leaders have AI budgets and pilots, but scaling stalls. Join senior practitioners for a candid...

It's Nearly Fulltime for E-Invoicing in France and Germany: Don't Let it Go to Penalties

2026-09-24

04:00 PM - 04:45 PM CET

France's September 2026 and Germany's January 2027 e-invoicing mandates are the final whistle –  har...

Recommended