SAP has been named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce Platforms, making SAP the only vendor recognized as a Leader 12 times since 2014.

We believe the 2026 evaluation recognized SAP for strengths in areas that are increasingly important to enterprise commerce: using AI to make commerce more intelligent, supporting complexity at global scale, and connecting commerce with operational data.

For SAP, these areas come to life in how we help customers simplify complex commerce and prepare for what comes next.

Making commerce more intelligent with AI

AI is changing how customers discover products, interact with businesses, and complete purchases. It is also creating opportunities to simplify work for commerce teams.

SAP Commerce Cloud helps bring AI into customer experiences and commerce workflows while maintaining the business controls required for enterprise transactions.

Ericsson provides an example of what this can look like in practice. Generating a customer quote could once take more than two weeks. Today, after digitizing and streamlining its commerce processes with SAP Commerce Cloud, many of those requests can be completed in minutes or even seconds. With that digital foundation in place, Ericsson is now exploring how AI agents could support quote creation while employees remain responsible for oversight and decision-making.

The goal is straightforward: use AI to reduce complexity, make commerce easier for customers, and give employees more time to focus on higher-value work.

Supporting complexity at enterprise scale

For global enterprises, commerce rarely means managing a single storefront or business model. Businesses may need to operate across multiple brands, markets, sites, languages, currencies, channels, and customer types while maintaining consistency and control.

SAP Commerce Cloud helps enterprises manage that complexity and provides the flexibility to evolve as their businesses grow.

Daimler Truck North America demonstrates the value of building that foundation for the long term. Roughly 30,000 users interact with its commerce platform every day, and DTNA reports approximately 40% compound annual growth over the lifetime of the platform. Those results have been built through years of investment in platform modernization, cloud migration, dealer collaboration, and alignment between business and IT.

As businesses expand and customer expectations evolve, having a commerce platform that can grow and adapt with the organization becomes increasingly important.

Connecting commerce with your operations

A great commerce experience depends on what happens behind the storefront.

Customers expect accurate products, prices, inventory, entitlements, and order information when they need it. Businesses need commerce to work with the operational processes and enterprise data behind every interaction.

SAP Commerce Cloud connects commerce with those operations, helping businesses deliver more consistent customer experiences while simplifying execution across the enterprise.

SAP Commerce Cloud, cloud ERP edition, noted in this year’s report as a recent platform release, extends this approach to mid-sized and growing businesses running SAP Cloud ERP. Purpose-built for B2B companies looking to modernize customer engagement without adding complexity, it turns the pricing, availability, order, and invoice data already in their ERP into a direct self-service experience for customers, with faster deployment, lower total cost of ownership, and no middleware required.

That connection is also central to Autonomous Unified Commerce from SAP: connecting customer, commerce, operational, and financial processes on a common data foundation, while embedding AI into business workflows to help organizations execute more efficiently and drive profitable growth.

Looking ahead

AI is creating new ways for customers to discover products, get answers, and complete purchases through AI-powered interfaces and assistants beyond the traditional storefront. Commerce is evolving to support these new channels via the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and Model Context Protocol (MCP).

The real work is getting AI into the daily operations that actually drive revenue, reduce cost, and help businesses serve their customers better. Our focus is to help customers navigate these changes by making complex commerce simpler, supporting growth at enterprise scale, and creating more connected and intelligent ways of working.

We are proud to mark SAP’s 12th recognition as a Leader and grateful to the customers, partners, and SAP teams who continue to move commerce forward.

To learn more and explore the digital commerce platforms market, access a complimentary copy of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms here.

Kollen Glynn is global head of SAP Commerce Cloud for SAP Customer Experience at SAP.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms, Aditya Vasudevan, Penny Gillespie, Sandy Shen, Jason Daigler, Mike Lowndes, 19 October 2026.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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SAP was recognized as SAP Hybris in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

A delayed delivery rarely stays in one part of a business. It can disrupt production, postpone a launch, affect a customer commitment, and change a financial forecast.

The signal may appear in one transaction or document, but the response depends on context from several functions. Which orders are affected? What alternatives are available? Who needs to act and what should happen next?

Why context matters

This is the role of Industry AI: applying artificial intelligence to industry-specific business data, processes, and expertise so people can move from a signal to an informed action. SAP Business AI Platform supports people in the applications they use every day. Industry AI extends that foundation across the workflows and decisions that matter in a particular industry.

The same event can mean something different in manufacturing, retail, or global trading. A change in demand can affect planning, procurement, and production. A delivery date can influence revenue forecasts and customer commitments. AI becomes more useful when it can recognize these relationships and work with the people who understand them.

People define objectives and guardrails and remain in control. AI assistants, agents, and intelligent applications can help analyze complex situations, bring together relevant information, and coordinate next steps. The value is not only faster execution of an individual task. It is the ability to connect decisions across the business.

How context turns into action

ITOCHU Corporation, a global trading company, is working with SAP to apply AI to financial processing for complex trading transactions. The initial use cases bring together information from transaction documents and related business activities so finance specialists can determine the appropriate accounting treatment more efficiently.

One example is intelligent general ledger posting for raw-material transactions. The solution helps identify the relevant general ledger account and commission information, including the context required for different transaction models. This makes the first step concrete: use AI where a defined process contains repetitive work, complex business rules, and a clear need for context.

The approach keeps the human role clear. Finance specialists review and guide the result, while AI helps prepare information and reduce manual effort.

Beyond a single process

The opportunity extends beyond one finance process. ITOCHU and SAP are using the initial implementations to explore a broader Industry AI approach for the trading industry. Trading companies connect suppliers, customers, products, logistics, contracts, and financial outcomes across business units. An AI capability that understands one process can create a foundation for connecting the next.

SAP brings enterprise applications, business data, process knowledge, and AI together. In collaboration with customers and industry experts, SAP uses that foundation to develop capabilities around the outcomes and requirements of a specific industry. Lessons from customer projects can inform solutions that are repeatable and scalable, while the original customer context keeps the work grounded in actual business needs. That is how SAP can turn an individual customer use case into a foundation for future industry capabilities.

From use cases to Industry AI

This approach will be discussed at SAP Connect in Las Vegas from October 5-7, 2026. At the Finance Connect keynote, “Autonomous Finance: From road map to reality,” ITOCHU Corporation will share how its initial AI use cases can support an Industry AI initiative across the trading business. The session will be available in person, live online, and on demand.

AI should be measured by more than the quality of a single answer. Its real value lies in helping people understand what is happening, decide what matters, and act across the business. That is how the value of AI multiplies: insight creates clarity, and action creates impact.

Andre Bechtold is president of SAP Industries & Experiences and chief revenue officer of Industry AI at SAP.

This year marks the fifth consecutive edition of Economist Enterprise’s Procurement Imperative research, sponsored by SAP. The latest study, Procurement at a Crossroads: From Optimism to Realism, surveyed 2,648 C-suite executives across 23 countries and examines how procurement leaders are responding to pressures ranging from cost control and geopolitical volatility to the rapid advance of artificial intelligence.

The anniversary offers an opportunity to look beyond any single year and consider how procurement has changed since the first year of this survey in 2022. What stands out is that the function has not followed a simple path from tactical to strategic. Its mandate has broadened, but so has the expectation to prove its value: control cost, anticipate risk, strengthen supply continuity, and turn technology investment into measurable outcomes.

Five takeaways from the research help show where procurement has been and where it may be heading next.

Takeaway 1: cost never left the job description—but it’s now more important than ever

In 2022, procurement leaders were still operating in the shadow of the pandemic. Supply chain risk ranked as the leading organizational risk, while COVID-19 disruption was the top driver of digital transformation.

As conditions changed, procurement’s agenda expanded to resilience, visibility, supplier diversification, and digitalization. But cost never disappeared. In 2022, cost savings led the areas where respondents believed procurement could deliver greater value. In the 2026 study, 54% of executives identify cost savings and optimization as procurement’s primary contribution to the organization. The line of questioning is not directly comparable year over year, but the broader pattern reveals that a more strategic mandate has not lessened the importance of financial discipline.

That is not a retreat. Modern cost management requires understanding demand, supplier economics, working capital, risk, and the operational consequences of commercial decisions. Procurement’s cost mandate has become more sophisticated, not less important.

Takeaway 2: digital transformation has moved from funding to execution

One of the clearest changes is what now stands in the way of transformation.

In 2022, budget was the leading barrier to digital transformation at 30.2%. By 2026, it dropped to fourth on the list, as ease of deployment became the primary concern of 71.7% of executives, a category that did not exist as a response option in 2022. Budget still matters, but it is no longer the defining obstacle.

Procurement spent years making the case for technology investment. The conversation has moved past “Can we afford it?” to “Can we actually implement it?” Procurement leaders are now challenged to embed technology across real processes, data environments, and organizations.

The motivation for transformation has also shifted. In 2022, pandemic disruption was driving both preparation and investment. Today’s expectation of flat-to-cautious growth is more structurally normal, but the pressure to do more with less remains a constant. The question for today’s procurement teams is whether they can deploy new technology effectively enough to generate repeatable business value.

Takeaway 3: AI has raised both the opportunity and the standard

The latest findings make the scale of the AI shift unmistakable. Sixty percent of executives name digital transformation as procurement’s top strategic priority for the next 12 to 18 months, up from 38% in 2025, with agentic AI emerging as the most sought-after near-term technology.

But enthusiasm is now accompanied by greater scrutiny. As AI enters category management, intake, sourcing, and other workflows, procurement leaders need to be clear about the business outcome being improved, the data required, and the controls governing how AI acts.

The five-year view shows how quickly expectations have advanced. In 2022, digital technology broadly led the category-management improvement agenda at 35.8%. By 2023 and 2024, priorities had grown more specific, centering on cost analysis, scenario planning, and data quality. By 2026, AI-driven and predictive insight is the dominant category-management priority, cited by 66.6% of respondents.

Technology is shifting from helping procurement professionals find information toward helping them interpret choices and execute defined tasks. As that happens, the value case must move with it—from access to information toward measurable improvements in decisions and outcomes.

Takeaway 4: strategic influence is becoming more operational

For years, procurement leaders have talked about earning a “seat at the table.” But the research suggests that where procurement sits on the organizational chart may be becoming a less useful measure of its strategic influence.

In 2022, the COO was already the largest procurement reporting line at 33.5%, with the CFO close behind at 29.3%. By 2026, the COO share has risen to 44%, while the CFO share stands at 24.4%, and reporting lines to the CEO have declined from 18.8% to 15.7%.

This suggests that procurement’s strategic relevance is increasingly expressed through operational execution. Influence comes from improving decisions across cost, supply, risk, and technology—not from where procurement appears on an organizational chart.

The results across recent years reinforce that shift. In 2023, 53% of executives agreed that procurement effectively collaborated with the rest of the organization to meet the company’s vision. That rose to 75% in 2024 and 90% in 2025, pointing to growing integration between procurement and the wider business.

That growing integration does not necessarily mean procurement has secured a permanent strategic role. In 2024, 70% of executives said procurement was actively involved in developing the wider organization’s digital transformation strategy, although only 18% strongly agreed. By 2026, executive confidence in procurement’s influence over digital transformation had fallen to 68%, down from 91% in 2025.

The contrast is telling: procurement is becoming more integrated with the business, but greater visibility does not automatically translate into sustained strategic influence. A seat at the table matters less than what procurement delivers once it is there.

Takeaway 5: the skills equation has changed

Technology is not the only thing procurement teams have had to reinvent. The capabilities required to use it effectively have changed just as quickly.

In 2022, skills gaps were relatively dispersed across technology (34.6%), category knowledge (32.0%), risk management (26.8%), and customer experience (25.6%). By 2025, AI proficiency and ethics had emerged as the leading skills priority at 68.2%, far ahead of more traditional procurement competencies at 34.1%.

But there is another part of the skills picture that deserves attention. In that same 2025 research, curiosity was prioritized by just 10% of respondents. That stands in contrast to what I continue to hear from procurement leaders, who increasingly describe curiosity as one of the skills that will separate the teams that thrive in the AI era from those that merely use the technology.

Traditional procurement expertise is not obsolete. If anything, more capable technology increases the value of professionals who understand categories, suppliers, markets, and organizational change. AI fluency on its own is not enough. As technology takes on more work, professionals need the curiosity to question outputs, challenge assumptions, explore what is changing in a market, and bring business context to the decisions technology helps inform.

The opportunity lies in combining deep commercial knowledge with greater AI fluency. The procurement professional of the next five years will need to know not only how to use new tools, but when to challenge their outputs, how to apply business context, and where human judgment still matters most.

The next chapter is about proof

Five years ago, procurement transformation was heavily shaped by external shocks. Today, organizations are making more deliberate choices about AI, analytics, talent, and operating models while being asked to deliver savings, manage volatility, and improve productivity simultaneously.

The next chapter is about forging a clear connection between strategic and cost value, and between human expertise and AI capability. Five years of research suggest procurement has earned a broader role. The next five will be about proving what it can do with it.

Gordon Donovan is global vice president of Research, Procurement, and External Workforce at SAP.