AI in Procurement: The Full Agentic AI Demo

Most "AI in procurement" today is a chatbot bolted onto an old tool. It waits for you to ask a question, then hands back a graph. At Horizon US 2026, Bikash and Devika Sanil from the Zycus product team showed what the alternative looks like: Merlin, an exception-based agentic system that takes a goal and drives it to a measurable outcome, pulling in a human only when real judgment is needed. This is the full platform demo, run live. You will watch a plain-language purchase request (intake) in Microsoft Teams become a structured requirement with no form to fill, ANA (the Autonomous Negotiation Agent) run a goal-based supplier negotiation, Merlin Agentic Sourcing scope and should-cost a full AV and event-production RFP (strategic sourcing for services), a brand-new agentic flow get built just by describing it in words, and a contract-value agent surface 1.3 million dollars in recoverable rebates sitting inside already-signed contracts (contract management). The thread running through all of it: a point agent does a task, an agentic flow delivers an outcome. This is what AI agents and autonomous procurement look like across the full source-to-pay process. Chapters 00:00 Why most "AI in procurement" is just a chatbot 01:07 The Zycus vision: exception-based, outcome-driven AI agents 02:14 Intake: a natural-language purchase request, no forms to fill 03:06 The core idea: point agent vs. agentic flow 07:47 ANA, the Autonomous Negotiation Agent, for tactical tail spend 13:02 Goal-based supplier negotiation, from the supplier's side 16:06 Merlin Agentic Sourcing for strategic sourcing categories 18:04 Live: sourcing full AV and event-production services 20:02 Should-cost modeling and complex bid analysis in minutes 23:55 The Merlin Agentic Platform: build a flow by describing it 26:07 Governance: upload a procurement policy, let Merlin find the loopholes 29:44 Contract value leakage: recovering hidden rebates 35:21 Customer story: a Japanese automotive OEM 36:06 "Bring us your ugliest procurement policy" What you will learn The difference between a point agent and a true agentic flow, and why it decides whether AI in procurement actually delivers value How agent-to-agent handshakes move a purchase request from intake to supplier negotiation to award with no manual triggering How autonomous negotiation works on goals you set (lowest cost, fastest delivery, better warranty), not a hard-coded discount target How agentic sourcing handles the hard stuff: should-cost models, services RFPs, and complex bid analysis that normally takes weeks How to build and govern AI agent workflows without drag-and-drop or code Where your biggest pool of recoverable value is hiding: the contracts you already signed See it live at PLAN 2026 This demo is a preview. The theme of PLAN 2026 is Merlin Autonomous Sourcing, and you will not just watch it, you will leave with a deliverable, not a recording. PLAN 2026 is on 18 November 2026. Register free: https://tinyurl.com/hvsjnrhh #AIinProcurement #AgenticAI #AIagents #SupplierNegotiation #StrategicSourcing #Procurement #SourceToPay #Zycus #Merlin #PLAN2026