Procurement has historically been slower to adopt digitalization than other business areas for several reasons: Microsoft Office remains the main system for daily tasks, and there are limited resources to identify the right technological solutions within the procurement teams. Procurement is not seen as a strategic priority for digital investments. Hence, IT roadmaps often focus on other areas like marketing or production. Furthermore, high implementation costs and uncertain ROIs hinder progress. Lastly, procurement’s traditional focus on cost efficiency limits innovation due to tactical orientation. Recent advances in traditional and generative AI provide new opportunities to advance procurement processes.

Our study analyzes start-ups in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) that focus on improving procurement process performance through technology-based innovations and answers two guiding research questions:

1. Which procurement-related start-ups exist, and for which processes do they offer solutions?
2. What technologies do they use, and how does artificial intelligence contribute to their solutions?

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