Gartner: Confidence Gaps in AI Operational Redesign

Gartner has revealed a productivity gap as individual AI gains fail to translate into team-level improvements, with low confidence in restructuring operations

A productivity disconnect is emerging between individual AI users and broader supply chain teams. According to Gartner, only 36% of Chief Procurement Officers show high confidence in their capacity to restructure roles and workflows around AI technologies.

The finding came from research presented at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo.

The survey polled 101 CPOs during January and February 2026. Results were shared with attendees at the International Barcelona Convention Centre between May 18 and 20.

The event is considered one of the world's major gatherings for Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) and supply chain executives. Three-day discussions covered disruption prediction, visibility achievement and leadership through AI and innovation.

According to the Gartner survey, gen AI deployments in procurement could improve individual productivity across time savings, output volume and quality. Those results drop substantially when measured at team output level.

Gartner calls this gap the AI productivity paradox. The disconnect exists because procurement operating models have not adapted quickly enough to reflect the effect of gen AI on existing roles.

When AI automates part of a role, the individual may gain productivity. The organisation does not automatically capture the same benefit unless work is restructured across the function.

"Procurement teams are seeing productivity gains from gen AI, but without intentional redesign of roles and processes, those gains remain confined to the individual level." - Fareen Mehrzai (Senior Director Analyst in Gartner's Supply Chain practice)

Fareen told attendees that CPOs must design next-generation human roles focused on guiding AI toward financial outcomes rather than efficiency gains alone. This approach could improve returns on AI investments and unlock organisational gains.

According to Fareen, traditional productivity measurements focused on output-per-unit of time are increasingly misaligned with a modern, AI-enabled procurement function. To maximise gen AI value, CPOs must evolve productivity measures to capture innovative outputs and new sources of value.

Next-generation human roles take on more complex and cognitively demanding tasks in this model. The shift moves away from measuring simple efficiency metrics.

Gartner describes this restructuring as necessary for organisations to realise the full potential of their AI investments. Individual productivity gains do not automatically translate to enterprise-level improvements without intentional redesign.

Gartner shared recommendations for CPOs to redesign procurement roles and processes for AI productivity. Fareen outlined a roadmap for next-generation procurement.

The recommendations include evaluating current procurement roles and identifying common tasks. CPOs should separate work into innately human tasks and AI-native tasks.

AI gains should align with financial outcomes. This means focusing on cost optimisation and revenue growth rather than relying solely on efficiency metrics.

Productivity measures need updating to expand performance measures. These should capture innovation, complexity and new outputs created through AI-enabled work.

Source: Supply Chain Digital