Category Management's Next Era: From Cost Control to Risk Intelligence
Two headlines on January 13, 2026 told the same story from different angles: procurement is getting smarter, faster, and more strategic. An interview with Tristan Fletcher, CEO of ChAI, spotlighted how category management (CatMan) is shifting. Meanwhile, En Route strengthened its leadership bench with the appointment of Rebecca Neale as category development director. Together, they mark a clear direction for leaders: blend technology with talent, and treat CatMan as a strategic hub, not a back-office function.
Why CatMan Is Shifting
Commodity prices now move faster than annual sourcing cycles. Supply risk is higher, regulations keep tightening, and geopolitics can change your plan overnight. As Fletcher put it, "Category management is undergoing a structural shift: from a cost-focused discipline to a risk-intelligent one."
Planning cycles are getting shorter. Teams must work across procurement, finance, ESG, risk, and operations. That demands shared intelligence, clearer decision rights, and tools that make market signals obvious and actionable.
What Technology Must Deliver
Technology earns its keep when it removes busywork and sharpens decisions. According to Fletcher, it should automate low-value tasks, surface predictive insights, and make market information accessible to non-experts.
- Forecast price levels and volatility with clear drivers and confidence ranges.
- Monitor supply chain risk across geopolitical, regulatory, and physical constraints.
- Automate market scanning and summarization using LLMs so teams stay current in minutes, not days.
- Translate market shifts into procurement-ready actions: timing, volumes, clauses, and hedging options.
- Equip negotiators with concise market summaries and supplier-specific context.
What's Holding Teams Back
Leaders want reliable, near-real-time market intelligence-but face familiar roadblocks. Many teams rely too much on supplier-provided insights, creating information asymmetry at the table. Internal misalignment and budget constraints add friction, and embedding risk into day-to-day decisions remains a work in progress.
- Poor data quality and siloed systems slow analysis and erode trust.
- Integration friction-processes vary across business units and regions.
- Low trust in AI outputs, especially in relationship-heavy categories.
- Skill gaps in analytics and large language models (LLMs).
- Tacit knowledge is hard to capture and easy to lose.
- Rigid processes that don't match faster planning cycles.
What Leading Adopters Get Right
The organizations seeing material value share a few traits: an innovative mindset from leadership, a senior internal champion, a flexible culture, and grounded expectations. They prioritize quick wins that prove value and build confidence.
- Faster access to trustworthy market intelligence.
- Better negotiation outcomes and fewer surprises.
- Clearer understanding of price drivers and risks.
- Time savings that return hours to strategy instead of admin.
- More confident planning and budgeting.
As Fletcher noted, adoption is climbing, but maturity varies. Tools that integrate easily, show value fast, and reduce complexity move first.
How ChAI Is Building for This Future
ChAI focuses on validated, explainable intelligence: rigorous model checks, multi-source triangulation, real-time updates, and feedback loops with clients. Teams use the output in budgeting, supplier negotiations, risk planning, and hedging-via a web app or API integration.
The roadmap includes carbon-premium pricing, hedging suggestions, early-warning signals for volatility and tightness, and scenario planning across multiple risk dimensions. The message to buyers is simple: the tech is ready; the shift happens when leaders back adoption and embed it into daily workflows.
Leadership Matters: En Route Appoints Rebecca Neale
En Route appointed Rebecca Neale as category development director, strengthening its push to innovate in airline catering. Neale brings more than 20 years of senior retail experience at Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, and Waitrose, where she helped build award-winning own-label ranges.
She will lead category strategy across En Route's global portfolio, guiding product development through consumer insight, creativity, technical rigor, and commercial efficiency. As Neale said, "I'm thrilled to join En Route at such a dynamic stage of its growth… There is huge opportunity to accelerate innovation and develop products that delight passengers and offer strong value to our airline partners."
Nick Wiley, Managing Director, added, "Rebecca's appointment represents a significant strengthening of our leadership team and our category development capabilities… Her experience and mindset will help us expand our proposition and continue delivering high-quality, commercially effective solutions."
What This Means for Management
Category management is now a strategic intelligence hub connecting finance, operations, risk, ESG, and suppliers. Cost still matters, but resilience and speed matter more. The organizations that win will blend AI-driven insights with experienced operators and clear execution.
- Appoint a senior sponsor for CatMan tech adoption with budget authority.
- Define risk KPIs (exposure, volatility, lead-time variability) and tie them to incentives.
- Clean and connect data sources early; agree on a single taxonomy for materials, suppliers, and regions.
- Pilot one high-impact category for 90 days; measure cycle time, forecast accuracy, and negotiation outcomes.
- Upskill the team on analytics and LLMs; consider focused programs to close gaps here.
- Capture tacit knowledge in playbooks and prompt libraries; make them searchable.
- Set AI guardrails: data provenance, explainability, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints.
Further Reading
- Interview coverage on CatMan trends: Spend Matters
- Leadership update in airline catering: Hospitality & Catering News
The signal is clear. Treat category management as a risk-intelligent, cross-functional discipline. Back it with AI that explains itself, leaders who drive change, and teams with the skills to use both. Those choices will set the standard for performance in procurement and commercial strategy.
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