ProcureCon Indirect West returned to Las Vegas this spring with more than 600 procurement and supply-chain professionals ready to share what is working—and what still needs work—in today’s fast-moving market. Across three days of keynotes, peer workshops, and supplier summits, five themes stood out.

Together, they sketch a pragmatic roadmap for procurement and supply-chain leaders intent on turning disruption into transformation. Here are the top five takeaways from ProcureCon Indirect West 2025 and how you can incorporate them into your business.

1. Lead With Purpose to Unlock Discretionary Effort

When former nuclear-submarine commander Marc Koehler asked the audience how many had faced an unexpected "enemy submarine” moment in business, nearly every hand shot up. The lesson: teams that know why they exist keep solving problems when playbooks run out.

"If you are a leader, the number one thing you must do is emotionally connect everybody to the mission and the purpose of what you’re trying to do.”

— Marc Koehler, Leadership Keynote Speaker, Lead with Purpose

Koehler’s three-step "captain’s orders” model translates nicely to corporate life:

1. Connect to the mission. Distill purpose into a two- or three-word code word ("Capturing Hearts,” "Service First”) that fits on one page.
2. Push decisions down. Teach every employee the 40/70 rule—act when you have 40–70% of the data—and celebrate fast course corrections over slow certainty.
3. Define your "Bravo Zulu.” Publicly recognize behaviors that advance the mission; a handwritten note or a Slack shout-out provides a quick release of dopamine at zero cost.

Why it matters: Gallup’s latest survey shows the steepest quarterly drop in U.S. employee engagement since 2014. Purpose-driven teams are more productive and more likely to retain talent and hard savings.

Leadership Ideas

• Run a one-page mission workshop with your leadership team; test whether everyone can recite the mission in five seconds.
• Add a "purpose check” slide to sourcing kick-offs—how does this project serve customers or communities?
• Build a peer-nominated Bravo Zulu channel and recognize one purposeful act per week.

2. Move AI From Experiment to Everyday Engine

Last year’s "wait-and-see” buzz around artificial intelligence morphed into get-it-done pragmatism. In the "Is AI the New Coke or New iPhone?” panel, executives compared use cases, ROI, and caution flags for generative AI.

• Intake orchestration: "Natural-language AI is just the next disruptor—our job is to filter the hype and solve real intake-to-pay problems,” said Bryan Redmond, SVP & CPO at Umpqua Bank.
• Accounts payable automation: Teams using vision-learning to extract invoice data have trimmed cycle time and redeployed clerks to analytics.
• Supplier-risk radar: AI scrapes internal files and public sources to flag bankruptcies, tariff hits, or ESG controversies quickly.

Denise Miller, CRO at Zycus, captured the cultural hurdle:

"AI drives outcomes and trust drives adoption; AI that can’t explain its data will never scale.”

Practical AI Guardrails

Many procurement leaders recognize that with higher levels of efficiency come higher levels of risk, especially if AI isn’t provided with the right guardrails. According to the panel, these are some steps teams can take to safeguard their AI programs:

1. Closed-loop data. Feed models only with data you own; redact sensitive fields and maintain an audit trail.
2. Explainability mandate. Require AI vendors to show why an invoice failed or a supplier was flagged.
3. AI governance squads. Cross-functional teams (Procurement, IT, Legal, Risk) review models, bias tests, and ROI every quarter.

Early adopters reported savings and cycle-time cuts—enough for most CFOs to keep funding pilots. The idea is to automate tactical, day-to-day activities, free humans for complex decisions, and measure repeatedly.

3. Use New Focus Areas to Build a Resilient Supplier Ecosystem

Supplier ecosystems face more scrutiny than ever. However, there are three shifts underway that allow companies to build a more resilient supplier ecosystem.

Namely, legacy focus areas are transforming into new focus areas in 2025-26:

• Legacy Focus: Tier-1 diversity headcount
• New Focus: Economic-impact scoring across Tiers 1-2
• Legacy Focus: Annual risk surveys
• New Focus: Continuous AI-driven monitoring
• Legacy Focus: Price-first awards
• New Focus: Dual sourcing with supplier innovation lanes

Why it matters: Moving away from annual, backward-looking risk surveys, organizations are embracing continuous, AI-powered monitoring of suppliers’ health and compliance. AI platforms gather signals from financial health data, operational stability, ESG adherence, and geopolitical risk, often flagging issues far sooner than periodic surveys could detect.

This continuous vigilance leads to more agile responses to emerging supply chain risks, regulatory changes, and disruption triggers.

4. Turn Procurement into a Strategic Value Partner

Multiple sessions tackled the perennial question: how does indirect procurement move from cost police to growth partner?

Ryan Bradford, former CPO and keynote speaker, stressed that focusing on simplifying processes for the business could produce more value than focusing on efficiency:

"The procurement transformations that focus on efficiency don’t actually produce much benefit. Those that focus on simplicity, however, improve the transformation because they make the user experience easy. If your efforts require you to retain the entire organization, they are too complex.”

Hallmarks of Value-Partner Procurement

1. Co-authored category roadmaps. Finance, BU leaders, and Procurement publish one-page KPI decks each quarter.
2. From RFP to RFP+. Replace price-only bids with "request-for-partnership” workshops when speed or innovation outranks cost.
3. Revenue-side metrics. Track marketing-ROI and customer-experience lifts alongside savings.

During one panel, a procurement leader explained how a no-budget tweak delivered ROI: Their team re-used its eSourcing tool as a self-service hub for contingent-labor requests, shortening cycle time and shrinking rogue‐supplier count.

Pro Strategy Tips from Speakers

• Plot your spend on the "effort vs. impact” matrix monthly; tackle high-impact quick wins first.
• Run reverse mentorships—millennial or Gen Z staff teach AI hacks; senior staff teach negotiation craft. Results: higher engagement on both sides.
• Publish a quarterly "wins & misses” video. Transparency builds credibility faster than perfect slides.

5. Equip Talent to Do More with Less—And Thrive

Gen X, Y, and Z leaders swapped playbooks on skills gaps, AI-augmented roles, and culture. AI proliferation, in particular, will lead to some significant skills gaps.

"Generative AI will spawn new roles in software engineering and operations through 2027 that will require 80% of the workforce to upskill,” said a report by AI Business, citing a Gartner report.

Michael Takyi, a customer procurement services advisor and industry expert, used humor and high-energy crowd games to hammer home three truths in his "Putting Procurement in the Driver’s Seat” session:

1. Progress over perfection. "Bad news but no surprises” beats silent failure.
2. Networking is non-negotiable. Spend is like water; it flows where people get answers.
3. Storytelling wins budget. Procurement must "be iconic”—innovative, creative, networked, insights-driven, and collaborative.

Talent Accelerators to Try

Procurement and supply chain leaders are testing new talent accelerators to help teams thrive. Here are a few that were mentioned at the conference:

• PIE career model (Performance–Image–Exposure). Help employees pick one stretch assignment, one image-builder (public speaking, article), and one new network each quarter.
• Micro-upskilling. 30-minute AI-prompt labs, data-storytelling sprints, and supplier-psychology sessions replace eight-hour classrooms.
• Flexible career ladders. Rotate staff through risk, ESG, and AI analytics pods; mobility retains curiosity.

Using These Takeaways to Take Action

The path from conference insights to organizational transformation requires deliberate action and sustained momentum. These five takeaways from ProcureCon Indirect West provide a practical roadmap for procurement leaders ready to drive meaningful changes in their organizations.

1. Pick one takeaway per team. Pilot it with a single category or region.
2. Bookend with a "Bravo Zulu" showcase. Celebrate learning, not just savings.
3. Share the story. Post before-and-after metrics on your intranet; suppliers and stakeholders notice momentum.

Join us at the next ProcureCon event, ready to share how your procurement team transformed its operations with insights from the last event.