Nielsen Infuses AI-Driven Sourcing into Global Procurement, delivering an average of $100 million in cost savings in two years

Nielsen shared how its Global Procurement function is driving value and efficiency through AI-drivensourcing, streamlined processes and closer collaboration with business stakeholders, in support of operational excellence and the company’s business goals. The function has delivered an average of $100 million in cost savings in two years, alongside best-in-classturnaround times.

The team’s focus is on delivering cost savings, faster purchase order (PO) cycles and stronger sourcing outcomes through effective negotiation and proactive purchasing support. Structured sourcing strategies streamlinedprocesses and closer collaboration with business stakeholders ensure every purchase delivers maximum value to the organization.

Other accomplishments include:

• Best-in-class PO approval cycle time of 1.83 days on average.
• Best-in-class buyer cycle time of 0.88 business days.
• 10,000+ suppliers managed across global and local markets, with approximately 12,000 POs processed each year.

To optimize cost and reward the best-suited supplier with the best price and terms, the function has developed its processes and policies and continues to transform through AI-driven sourcing, using systematic RFPs and reverseauction tools.

Nielsen’s procurement landscape spans multiple high-value spend categories, including CIO, product and data, as well as corporate functions such as HR, finance, real estate, and marketing and sales. The team balances cost,quality and market intelligence while meeting evolving compliance requirements across data privacy, security and legal.

Nielsen’s Global Procurement team has also moved from transaction-based supplier engagement to strategic relationships built on transparency, joint innovation and shared accountability. Risk is managed through market intelligence,proactive supplier performance scorecards, periodic reviews and a balanced mix of global and local suppliers, which is critical to building a resilient and competitive ecosystem.

Engaging local suppliers in India is a key part of this approach, helping build diversified supply networks with shorter lead times and more agile operations. Procurement in India-based Global Capability Centers (GCCs) carriesdeep ownership of sourcing and analytics, with a broader transactional and strategic scope, while all category insights and transformations remain anchored in Nielsen’s core global procurement policy.

“Procurement plays an important role in driving business value through strategic sourcing, strong supplier partnerships and operational efficiency. Our focus is on building agile, collaborative and resilient procurementpractices that support business priorities and deliver sustainable value across the organization,” said Krishna Kumar, Head of Procurement – GCC and Head of Global Travel, Nielsen.