How Procurement Earns Its Seat at 30,000 Feet

Change this big can’t be mandated

American Airlines just turned 100! Our centralized procurement function, however, is just over two years old. American Airlines was born from a merger of American and US Airways in 2013 and as is always the case with mergers, it came with multiple rulebooks and procurement processes.

For several years, we didn’t have a CPO and procurement remained scattered across different business units, creating inconsistent processes and less visibility. It took time to make centralized procurement a reality. Once our new CPO landed, we started pulling all of the different pieces into one function with a real process behind it.

At this size and with this much history, procurement can’t announce a transformation on Monday and expect everyone to be on board by Tuesday. You have to earn a change this big, not mandate it. That was the challenge in front of us.

Take your time with buy-in

To achieve meaningful change, leadership invested significant time upfront building relationships and trust. For months, we engaged stakeholders across the business, listening, learning, and explaining the rationale behind proposed changes before implementing anything new.

Our Chief Procurement Officer joined the company in early 2024, and we did not release our first procurement policy until October 2025. This was not a result of delay, but rather a deliberate decision to understand the organization, establish credibility, and build a strong foundation before introducing change.

Our first major initiative was the launch of a standardized intake process. Adoption came quickly because the solution was designed to make stakeholders' jobs easier. By simplifying how requests entered Procurement, we delivered immediate value and built momentum through an early, highly visible success.

Had we attempted to immediately impose a significantly different process, it is likely stakeholders would have found ways to work around it. Sustainable transformation requires more than new rules or procedures; people need to understand the why behind the change. Equally important, the first changes introduced should provide tangible benefits that make it easier for stakeholders to embrace the journey ahead.

What can AI take off your plate?

For our plans to scale in 2027 and beyond, AI will be critical for the repeatable, manual tasks. Procurement is running with a lean team, trying to do a lot with less. Our first question for AI isn’t ‘who can this replace?’ but rather ‘what will this take off our plates?’

For example, someone on my team can now open Copilot, ask a question, and get back market context on a supplier that would have taken hours to track down a few years ago. This might seem small, but it adds up quickly across a procurement team at such a large organization.

Certainly with AI, some roles will change but mostly the tactical roles that SaaS systems and tools were already absorbing. My goal as a procurement leader isn’t to have fewer people, it’s to free up the people we have for work that actually moves the business.

The work is leveling up

Thirty years ago, I managed a team that included approximately 50 buyers. Today, that number would be closer to five. However, this is not a story of workforce reduction. It is a story of the work itself evolving into category managers and strategists along with the continuous improvement of technology.

As technology, automation, and AI have transformed procurement, many traditionally transactional buying activities have become more streamlined, creating opportunities for professionals to focus on higher-value work. Roles that were once centered on tactical purchasing are increasingly focused on data, analytics, insights, and strategic decision-making.

The shift is also evident in the talent we attract. Today's interns are not solely focused on procurement disciplines; they are gaining experience in analytics, data configuration, digital tools, and procurement practices simultaneously. As the nature of the work has changed, the skills and capabilities required to excel in the profession have evolved as well.

This is the reality procurement leaders should embrace. AI is not diminishing the profession; it is elevating it. By automating routine tasks and enabling more informed decision-making, AI is allowing procurement professionals to operate more strategically and deliver greater business value. As a result, procurement is continuing to mature as a critical business discipline and strategic partner, rather than being viewed simply as a back-office cost center.

AI is only as good as your data

I'll leave you with this: AI only delivers value when the fundamentals are in place. If your data isn't clean, accurate, and well-governed, it doesn't matter what AI tool you put on top of it, you'll simply get faster answers to the same problems. That's why we invested significant time in the less glamorous work of improving data quality, establishing governance, and creating a solid foundation. When you get that right, AI can finally do what it was intended to do and drive better business outcomes.

Looking back, that's really the story of the last two years. None of our progress came from mandates or forcing change. It came from listening to our stakeholders, building relationships, delivering a few early wins, and taking work off people's plates rather than adding to it. At the same time, we focused on putting the right processes and data in place so our teams could spend less time on administrative work and more time on activities that create value, things like strategy, negotiations, supplier partnerships, and solving business problems.

That's how procurement earns a seat at the table. Not by requiring the business to engage with us, but by becoming a partner they want in the room because we help them achieve better outcomes. In an organization our size, that credibility isn't automatically granted. You earn it every day through the value you deliver and the trust you build.