Photo Courtesy of: WorldCC

LONDON, Nov. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new global report released today by Commerce & Contract Management Institute (CCM Institute) has found that up to 80 percent of organizations lack clear accountability for contracting performance, leaving businesses exposed to inefficiency and risk in a period of persistent uncertainty, and that organizations that have successfully made technological advances in their contracting processes, are significantly better equipped to navigate market uncertainty.

The report, titled Benchmark report 2025: The Race Is On - Navigating Uncertainty Through CCM Resilience, was produced in partnership with the World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC), NCMA, and Sirion. It draws on global data from thousands of organizations across industries and regions to measure the maturity, capability, and resilience of contract and commercial management (CCM) functions.

According to the findings, 87 percent of organizations report operating under high and sustained levels of uncertainty, yet only a small proportion have established governance frameworks that clearly define responsibility for contracting outcomes. The absence of accountability, the report notes, continues to slow progress in operational performance, even as investment in digital tools and automation increases.

“This report is a clear mandate for immediate action,” said Sally Guyer, Chief Executive Officer of WorldCC.“For too long, organizations have treated commercial and contracting excellence as a complex, second-tier priority, and that has created a structural vulnerability we can no longer afford. The data is definitive: the organizations that will thrive in this 'new normal' are the ones who recognize that CCM is the catalyst for business resilience. We urge leaders to stop delaying this critical transformation and start addressing the foundational issues of accountability and leadership.”

The findings highlight a sharp decline in scepticism toward AI's role in contracting, with over 80 percent expecting it to play a major role within the next two years. It underscores the accelerating presence and importance of AI in contracting. Beyond its established use in contract repositories, AI is increasingly being leveraged for contract creation and drafting, summary generation, and contract review. Obligation extraction has also emerged as a rapidly growing area of focus.

The benchmark highlights a growing divide between buy-side and sell-side organizations. Across all performance metrics, suppliers are outperforming buyers by more than 20%. This gap is attributed to differences in leadership alignment and organizational design, as well as levels of investment in full contract lifecycle technologies. While sell-side units tend to have clear commercial governance structures, buy-side teams are often fragmented, with many operating under procurement or finance functions that prioritize cost control over performance visibility.

The report also indicates that technology adoption alone is not closing the capability gap. The sell-side demonstrates a 37 percent technology advantage, averaging 8.41 digital capabilities per person compared with 6.52 on the buy-side. However, the data shows that digital systems deliver limited value without defined accountability and leadership oversight.

“Our research uncovers a fundamental governance failure,” said Tim Cummins, Executive Director of the CCM Institute.“When 70 to 80 percent of businesses lack a single point of clarity for contracting performance, it creates a system defined by inertia and risk. You cannot automate your way out of a governance crisis. The race for resilience will not be won by those who invest the most in new tools, but by those who first establish clear accountability, build adaptive leadership, and invest in the human talent needed for an AI-transformed future.”

The report identifies leadership, structure, and talent development as the key drivers of commercial resilience. Respondents citing high uncertainty ranked leadership quality (30 percent), unclear roles (27 percent), and organizational confusion (25–30 percent) among their most significant barriers to progress.

“Eighty-eight percent of enterprises now recognize that commercial and contract management excellence drives performance. The real question is: how do we turn that recognition into meaningful change?” said Ajay Agrawal, Founder and CEO of Sirion. "At Sirion, we see that evolution taking shape every day-as intelligence becomes part of the system itself, where data, context, and intent come together to guide every decision, every agreement, every action.”

The Benchmark Report 2025 concludes that while awareness of contracting's strategic importance is high, structural change remains limited. The findings call for organizations to clarify ownership, strengthen leadership accountability, and align technology investments with measurable governance outcomes, much like the principles outlined in the Contract Management Standard (CMS). For leaders looking to close the accountability gap immediately, adopting the globally recognized CMS provides the necessary framework to establish this unified practice.

About the CCM Institute

The CCM Institute seeks to improve the world through higher standards in buying and selling. Its rigorous, practical research and insights, both relevant and useful, shape global policy and practice. The Institute helps society by driving up standards for the exchange of goods and services, resulting in better trading outcomes in both the private and public sectors. As a not-for-profit organization, it was founded and is supported by World Commerce & Contracting and NCMA.

About World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC)

World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC) is a global non-profit association dedicated to improving trading relationships and commercial effectiveness. With more than 80,000 members worldwide, WorldCC provides research, standards, training, and resources that enable organizations to achieve better commercial and contracting outcomes.

About Sirion

Sirion is the world's leading AI-native CLM platform, pioneering the application of agentic AI to help enterprises transform the way they store, create, and manage contracts. By uniting an intuitive conversational experience with specialized AI agents, the platform has redefined enterprise contracting. The world's most valuable brands trust Sirion to manage 7M+ contracts worth nearly $800B and relationships with 1M+ suppliers and customers in 100+ languages. For more information, visit .

About NCMA

The National Contract Management Association (NCMA) is the world's leading professional association for contract management professionals. It provides certification, education, and research that elevate contracting standards and practices across industries and governments globally.

Contact Information

Kate Hodgins

Commerce & Contract Management Institute,

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