880: The State of AI in Procurement: Who's Getting the ROI? W/ Nick Heinzmann

"There's an absolute risk of procurement's role and scope being diminished by AI, unless we embrace new ways of working." - Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research, Zip

According to new research from Zip, only 17 percent of organizations can demonstrate clear ROI from AI today. The difference between those seeing results and those still struggling offers some timely and important lessons for procurement.

In this episode, Philip Ideson welcomes back Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip, to unpack findings from Zip's 2026 State of AI in Spend report. They explore what separates organizations achieving measurable returns from those still dabbling with AI, and why deeper adoption requires procurement teams to rethink how work gets done.

Nick also shares what the research reveals about procurement's changing operating model, including the emergence of new AI-focused roles and the growing importance of evaluating AI outputs rather than simply generating them. He discusses how leaders can create room for experimentation while managing shadow AI, why traditional three-to-five-year transformation roadmaps are becoming less practical, and how procurement can use its unique position across the enterprise to help shape AI governance and adoption.

In this episode, Nick discusses how procurement can:

-Establish a stronger role in enterprise AI adoption and governance

-Move beyond AI experimentation to achieve measurable ROI

-Treat shadow AI as a signal for unmet demand while maintaining appropriate governance

-Move past common blockers and use early AI challenges to guide what comes next

 

Links:

Nick Heinzmann on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-heinzmann-787a5041/ 

2026 State of AI in Spend Report: https://zip.com/resources/state-of-ai-in-spend-2026 

Subscribe to the AOP Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe 

Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtofProcurement