Automated procurement: Kärcher's path to negotiation efficiency and quality through AI-driven solutions

Automated procurement: Kärcher's path to negotiation efficiency and quality through AI-driven solutions

Client: Kärcher Global Services GmbH & Co. KG

Industry: Industrial and Consumer Goods

Location: Winnenden, Germany

Revenue: €3.1 billion

Employees: 14,000

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The challenge: Manual tail-spend negotiations drained capacity and delivered marginal ROI

Kärcher, a global leader in cleaning technology with over 14,000 employees in more than 80 countries, was looking to generate more savings, increase efficiency, and deliver greater value to the organization. But manual, time-intensive tail-spend negotiation processes were slowing down operational and tactical procurement and delivered only marginal savings. Valuable hours that could have been spent on more strategic, value-adding initiatives were lost.

The Kärcher procurement team realized they needed a faster, more scalable way to run negotiations—freeing up capacity for higher-impact work while staying on track with their savings goals.

The approach: Implement an AI-native Procurement Automation Platform

Kärcher decided to implement Procure Ai’s AI-native Procurement Automation Platform to automate its tail-spend negotiation process. With Procure Ai’s Autonomous Sourcing & Negotiations solution, Kärcher was able to:

• Integrate seamlessly with existing backend systems, ensuring complete data flow and feedback loops without requiring an additional supplier portal.
• Easily select suitable purchase requisitions for autonomous negotiations using intelligent routing based on criteria such as commodity group, value thresholds, and more.
• Automate the execution of negotiations, securing additional discounts prior to award communication.

The results: More savings, less effort

Implementing Procure Ai’s Procurement Automation platform has delivered tangible benefits across key performance areas:

• Cost savings: Autonomous negotiations enabled Kärcher to secure significant average discounts of 6% with an average negotiation success rate of 50%. 
• Increased efficiency: Implementing the Procure Ai technology helped Kärcher to reduce manual workloads and optimize its processes by eliminating repetitive steps in operational and tactical sourcing.
• Improved supplier experience: Suppliers engage in 90% of the initiated negotiations. Suppliers appreciated the platform’s intuitive interface, flexible processing times, and simplified login process, resulting in reaching agreements in 50% of negotiations.

Our conclusion: Scalable impact, strategic value

The partnership between Kärcher and Procure Ai has delivered measurable performance improvements in procurement efficiency, cost savings, and supplier engagement. By automating tail-spend negotiations and reducing manual work, Kärcher has freed up valuable capacity for strategic procurement activities while improving the overall experience for both buyers and suppliers. Kärcher is now scaling its AI ambitions to additional use cases across the organization with the Procure Ai Procurement Automation Platform.

As Natalia Baum, Specialist Sourcing & Procurement Non-Production Material, explains:

“The intuitive user experience, accompanied by excellent support, has noticeably changed our purchasing dynamics. Suppliers particularly praise the simple login and fast processing. This solution not only emphasises Kärcher's commitment to digitalizing purchasing, but also enables efficient processes going forward.”

This collaboration between Kärcher and Procure Ai highlights the power of AI-driven automation to deliver fast, practical results while enabling long-term procurement innovation.