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Optimizing procurement and analyzing the spending within a business are challenging tasks that can be potentially transformed by modern technology. 

Traditional category management struggles with complexity, shifting market dynamics, and data silos, making it difficult for businesses to stay agile.

As procurement functions seek to accelerate digital transformation, more organizations are modernizing category management with AI.

An AI-powered intelligent category management (ICM) solution addresses the challenges category managers have traditionally faced by providing real-time visibility into the supply chain and a centralized platform for data-driven decision-making.

By leveraging automation and predictive analytics with an ICM solution, businesses can take the next step in their digital transformation journeys while streamlining operations, adapting to market trends faster, and optimizing category performance for increased efficiency and profitability.

What is intelligent category management?

Intelligent category management is the next step in the evolution of category management, or the process of shifting from managing individual purchases to strategically overseeing groups of related goods as unified, value-driving business areas.

By embedding AI to deliver continuous, insight-driven strategies, ICM helps procurement teams make faster, more informed decisions, anticipate risks, and uncover new savings opportunities — all while adapting to real-time market dynamics.

“ICM intelligently gathers marketing intelligence, monitors category trends, performs real-time data analysis, provides strategy recommendations, and tracks execution — all within a collaborative platform,” Alex Zhong, Global Head of Product Marketing at GEP, says. “With upcoming agentic AI, ICM will further empower users by autonomously surfacing risks and opportunities, suggesting next-best actions, and even initiating strategic tasks to streamline execution and accelerate value capture.”

Three transformative benefits of intelligent category management

Leveraging AI and data-driven insights, ICM can transform procurement by improving collaboration, increasing resilience, and enhancing decision-making.

1. Better alignment between procurement and other business functions

More than half (64%) of procurement leaders believe AI and genAI will transform their roles within five years, suggests a recent study from The Hackett Group.^[1] ICM will play a key role in enabling this transformation by using AI to consolidate workflows, reduce manual tasks, and surface powerful insights.

With fewer repetitive tasks, procurement professionals can spend more time working with stakeholders in other departments — like finance and business units — which increases alignment between procurement and other functions. This improved cross-functional collaboration helps ensure procurement strategies are fully integrated into broader business goals, making it easier to achieve organizational objectives.

2. Stronger business strategies

By providing real-time visibility into supplier disruptions, ICM helps procurement teams determine the best strategies to accomplish business goals — whether it’s cost savings, risk mitigation, sustainability, or supplier innovation.

“ICM proactively flags risks — such as supplier concentration, pricing volatility, or regional exposure — and recommends mitigation strategies,” Zhong explains. “With AI-driven insights and scenario planning, ICM enables procurement teams to monitor risk impacts, adjust strategies rapidly, and align with business continuity goals, making the supply chain more adaptive.”

3. Smarter actions, faster outcomes with AI recommendations

By automating processes and integrating data from multiple sources — including internal spend, supplier performance, and external market signals — ICM delivers real-time deep analysis that helps procurement teams act faster and more confidently, with AI-driven data enrichment and error correction to ensure accuracy, Zhong says.

Decision-making support isn’t stagnant, either: ICM helps with both execution and tracking outcomes, enabling teams to take action and modify strategies as needed as new data comes in.

While ICM is already helping improve decision-making today, its value will only grow with the evolution of agentic AI.

“Strategies will no longer be static documents but live, adaptive frameworks that evolve in real time based on shifting data,” Zhong predicts about next-gen ICM. “Human-AI collaboration will deepen, enabling rapid iteration and faster decision cycles.”

about how intelligent category management can reshape your procurement function.

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