Sourcing Forum Meeting Overview (April 2025)

With the marketing landscape constantly evolving, procurement teams face growing pressure to achieve more with the same – or even fewer – resources. They must balance operational excellence with strategic thinking, while moving beyond a sole focus on cost reduction for its own sake. As GenAI emerges as a potential enabler, organisations are exploring how it can help them work more strategically.

In this session, 47 WFA members came together to reflect on the growing influence of GenAI on partner management, remuneration models, and the limitations of today’s tools. The conversation was kick-started by our guest speaker, R3, who offered an external perspective on how GenAI is beginning to shape agency offerings, alongside examples of measurable impact – ranging from cost efficiencies and KPI refinement to improved collaboration models. You can find R3's presentation and slide deck here.

The member roundtable began with a live pulse check: 70% of participants said their agencies are already using GenAI on their behalf, but only 15% have seen long-term tangible benefits. This disparity highlighted a key theme of the session – how to turn emerging capabilities into sustained value. The group explored how GenAI could drive stronger performance and smarter savings – particularly when its use is rooted in collaboration and aligned with clear business outcomes. For those already seeing impact, a new question is emerging: who truly benefits from the efficiencies realised? This sparked a broader conversation on the case for fair compensation, and the need to evolve value-based models that reflect both the opportunities and the complexities introduced by GenAI. As organisations move into 2025, the challenge will shift from experimentation to scalability – ensuring that proven use cases can be embedded across teams and markets. With members at different stages of maturity in their GenAI journey, there was strong alignment that continued dialogue, shared learning, and responsible implementation will be critical as the space continues to evolve.

Members can download the full overview below