Across every industry, Chief Procurement Officers are under pressure to deliver tangible ROI from AI – and to do so fast. Boards want to see productivity improvements, cost efficiencies, and accelerated speed to market. But the question many procurement leaders are still wrestling with is: Where does AI create the value quickest?

In a recent webinar, procurement leaders from Invesco and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) offered a clear answer: start with sourcing. Both organizations concluded that agentic AI-driven autonomous sourcing delivers measurable business impact far more quickly than any other area of the procurement lifecycle – and they have the results to prove it.

Sourcing: The Biggest Opportunity for Procurement 

For both Invesco and BMS, the sourcing process was the point of greatest friction. It relied on manual steps, inconsistent scoping, stakeholder back-and-forth, and limited visibility into supplier options. The experience slowed down stakeholders, constrained competition, and left sourcing teams bogged down in administrative work instead of strategic value delivery.

As Clare Cassano, Head of Procurement Strategy & Execution, Invesco explained, “We knew that we couldn't add new headcount to start covering some of the spend that we hadn't had access to before. We really needed to find a technology solution that was going to enable us to do more with what we had in terms of our resource capacity. 

"Globality’s AI-guided creation of sourcing events was a game changer. They told us implementation would take weeks… and for once, it really did.”

Similarly, Rhonda Spraker Gristci, Executive Director, Agile Sourcing, Bristol Myers-Squibb shared that while many organizations begin their digital journey by trying to improve request management, she quickly realised that intake and orchestration without sourcing transformation simply funnels demand into the same outdated, legacy processes.

"We deployed Globality in weeks, not months — it was simple and fast," she said. " We implemented Globality first because it had an impact out in the organization, but it also had an impact within procurement in terms of elevating the skill sets of the team to be able to work with the AI tools in a very easy way that got them excited about the rest of the changes that were coming." 

Why Sourcing Delivered the ROI on AI 

Both leaders pointed to five major reasons sourcing is the quickest path to AI-driven value:

1. Efficient Scoping Changes Everything

Globality’s agentic AI automatically translates business needs into high-quality, precise scopes of work. This eliminates ambiguity and removes a major source of delays, rework, and poor supplier alignment.

"Previously, it was very painful to do an RFP process," said Griscti. "It took six to nine months, and we're down to 27 days so that's huge. We're able to do more but at the same time, we're able to do more with less, because this work was being outsourced to a third party, and it was not efficient."

2. Time-to-Decision Accelerates Immediately

With scope clarity and AI-driven supplier insights, teams moved from request to evaluation weeks faster. This freed sourcing professionals to focus on negotiations, supplier strategy, and stakeholder partnering.

"Previously, it was very painful to do an RFP process," said Griscti. "It took six to nine months, and we're down to 27 days so that's huge. We're able to do more but at the same time, we're able to do more with less, because this work was being outsourced to a third party, and it was not efficient."

3. Business Stakeholders Love the Improved Experience

Stakeholders at both companies gained a system that was easy, intuitive, and guided. Instead of feeling hindered by procurement, they felt supported.  

"We did almost no training, yet adoption has been unprecedented," shared Gristci while Cassano added that her team now runs renewals, negotiations, and sourcing all through Globality — not just RFPs.

4. Strategic Value Increases as Manual Work Shrinks

AI took on the manual work – drafting scopes, recommending suppliers, summarizing proposals – allowing sourcing teams to operate at the level leadership expects.

“We previously had 12,000 email in a procurement inbox that Globality eliminated the need for," said Cassano.

Results That Speak for Themselves

Both organizations saw rapid and material impact:

• BMS sourced more than $1 billion in spend within 10 months of deployment—an unprecedented pace for a new sourcing technology.

• Invesco delivered “faster, more consistent outcomes for the business” almost immediately, with better clarity, better competition, and better quality at the front end.

• Both teams reported meaningful cycle-time reduction and higher stakeholder satisfaction.

• Supplier diversity and innovation naturally increased thanks to expanded competitor sets and stronger scope precision.

These results underscore a key theme from both leaders: AI does not just automate the sourcing process, it fundamentally improves it.

Why Sourcing Is Procurement’s Best First Step into AI

For Invesco and BMS, autonomous sourcing was not just a technology deployment – it was a strategic move to transform procurement’s role in the business. Sourcing sits at the intersection of demand, suppliers, value creation, and strategic decision-making. It is where procurement has the greatest opportunity to influence outcomes and where AI can take on the largest share of manual work.

By modernizing sourcing first, both companies unlocked:

• Faster speed to value

• Stronger, more competitive supplier events

• Better data and decision-making

• A foundation for enterprise-wide AI adoption

In short: sourcing delivered the impact CEOs and boards expect from AI right now.

The Bottom Line

Invesco and BMS reached the same conclusion independently: AI-powered sourcing is procurement’s fastest, most reliable, and most strategic path to value.

As procurement leaders continue to be tasked with delivering more with less – and proving ROI from AI – these two companies show exactly what’s possible when sourcing becomes the first step in that journey.