The PASA theme for 2026 – ADAPTABILITY

3rd February 2026

By Jonathan Dutton FCIPS

PASA’s 2026 theme is Adaptability.

It follows 2024’s focus on Responsible Procurement and last year’s focus on Efficiency, Collaboration and Transparency. In 2026, the profession is often being asked to do three things at once: protect supply, reduce cost, and deliver stronger ESG outcomes, while technology and risk levels change faster than some traditional operating models can respond.

Adaptability is not just about speed. It is classically defined as the ability to adjust one's behavior, thinking, and emotions to fit new, changing, or uncertain situations: Or, in a procurement context, perhaps;

the capability to make commercial decisions quickly, with minimal friction, while maintaining probity, compliance, and stakeholder trust.

The core challenge is that rapid decision-making and low friction processes are not always associated with high process integrity and outcomes that stakeholders value. They are often associated with more risk and lower governance standards. Yet, crucially, whilst we all recognise that we now live in a VUCA world, on the supply-side we now need to move beyond ‘admiring the problem’ and proactively re-engineer our approach:

Problem	Solution	How to do this ...
Volatility	Vision	Create a compelling picture of the future to provide direction and stability during turbulent times – what does success look like?
Uncertainty	Understanding	Go beyond surface-level issues and symptoms of change. Develop the curiosity & insight to grasp the key root-cause forces driving change
Complexity	Clarity	Organise information, map the process and use clear language to align stakeholders and manage the interconnected factors at play
Ambiguity	Adaptability	Take small steps and be prepared to correct course quickly when the situation is unclear or information is incomplete

In practical terms, procurement teams that are adaptable in 2026 will:

• sense change early (risk, demand, market movement) and act before disruption becomes a crisis

• move work through simpler pathways using pre-approved governance and reusable templates

• use contracts that flex (price, volume, scope) without constant renegotiation

• build supplier relationships that support joint risk management, innovation and improvement

• use technology and data to close the productivity gap without losing control of risk

The key question for 2026 …

How can procurement teams adapt in 2026 and beyond in order to continue to deliver value?

McKinsey has previously suggested that we must build our adaptability quotient (AQ). Applied to procurement this means that you can re-price, re-source, or re-contract quickly based on leading indicators (risk data, supply signals, demand shifts), while keeping governance intact (probity, compliance, stakeholder confidence). Added to IQ (procurement’s greatest strength is process) and EQ (procurement have invested heavily in emotional intelligence of late), this triumvirate can perhaps set the foundation for a new level of procurement capability:

The role of technology

Two widely cited signals point to the same conclusion for procurement leaders in 2026:

• Demand is compounding fast: procurement workload is rising by around 10% per annum, while resourcing grows by less than 3%. (Source: The Hackett Group 2023-25) – many see technology (including AI) as bridging this productivity gap.

  
  

• Yet, half of eProcurement business cases fail, a further 37% are cut back, and only 13% succeed as presented. (Source: Gartner 2023)

What these two findings mean when you put them together is simply that procurement is being asked to deliver more value, faster, across a wider mandate (risk, ESG, supplier resilience, cost pressure), with the same resources and without the capacity to just “work harder” as the main solution.

At the same time, the obvious lever (technology) has a high failure rate when treated as a single big project rather than a capability change. The productivity gap forces simplification and automation, but the Gartner outcomes warn that success depends more on your operating model, adoption culture, strong governance, and data quality rather than the platform itself. AI is not a panacea. In context with user-friendly interfaces, intake design, compliance tools, orchestration of legacy systems, then AI can help significantly.

How PASA’s 2026 theme helps

Throughout 2026, PASA will focus on how to build procurement adaptability and the practical question - How do we make commercial decisions quickly, with minimal friction, while maintaining probity, compliance, and stakeholder trust? Perhaps partly through commercial flexibility, adaptive governance and tech that fits.

Join PASA throughout 2026 at our wide range of events to work out how you can adapt your procurement approaches better and faster https://procurementandsupply.com/