It’s the fourth year that WorldCC has reported on the role and impact of AI within the commercial and contract management process. During that time, we have monitored changing attitudes, a shift from optimism to skepticism, and now, a growing sense of practicality and realism.

These sentiments are mirrored across boardrooms, as AI moves from experimentation to expectation. CEO studies by EY and PwC show senior leaders increasingly viewing AI as central to productivity, resilience, and competitive advantage in an environment of continuing uncertainty - a world defined by volatility, geopolitical disruption, regulatory change, and supply chain fragility.

Yet these same studies reveal an unresolved tension, as this latest WorldCC study directly confirms. While executives are pushing for faster, better decisions, many organizations lack the operating models, data foundations, and governance structures required to deliver them. Indeed, the 2025 WorldCC Benchmark Report found that almost 80% of the organizations surveyed are struggling to develop the adaptability needed to operate effectively in today’s market conditions. Transformation is constrained by execution capability.

Contract and commercial management (CCM) sits at the heart of this challenge and represents a critical insight into the dilemma facing business executives. For many, contract management is seen as a standardized activity, a prime candidate for full automation. On one level, they are right -but this is a story of transformation, not elimination. Contracts govern how organizations commit resources, manage risk, respond to change, and realize value. If AI is to improve decision-making at scale, it must work through a contracting system designed to enable, rather than a compliance model that operates as a bottleneck. Simply moving today’s contract management tasks into AI systems will add to inflexibility and expose process inadequacies. AI represents an opportunity for fresh thinking and value uplift, an opportunity for broad organizational efficiencies. Indeed, if we summarize the findings of this study, we find:

“When respondents are forced to prioritize value, they consistently rank capability, innovation, and productivity above cost reduction or compliance. This suggests organisations see modern contract management as an efficiency tool, but as an enabler of better commercial decisions and strategic capacity.”