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As the Chief Marketing Officer at Zycus, I’ve had the unique opportunity to witness firsthand the rapid evolution of procurement technology over the years. But nothing has generated the combination of excitement, anxiety, and genuine curiosity quite like the emergence of AI agents in the source-to-pay process.

In our countless conversations with procurement leaders over the past year, a clear pattern has emerged: there’s tremendous enthusiasm about the potential of agentic AI, coupled with significant uncertainty about implementation strategies and organizational readiness.

This dichotomy became so apparent that we decided to partner with The Hackett Group—the gold standard in procurement benchmarking and research—to develop a comprehensive, data-driven report on how AI agents are transforming procurement operations.

The Urgent Need for Agentic AI in Procurement

The timing couldn’t be more critical. According to our research with The Hackett Group, procurement workloads are predicted to increase by a substantial 9.8% in 2025, while headcount and budget will see only marginal increases. This growing productivity gap makes the case for AI agents not just compelling but essential.

What’s particularly striking is that 64% of procurement executives now believe that digital procurement and artificial intelligence (specifically generative AI and AI agents) will drive the greatest transformational impact on procurement teams over the next five years. Yet, despite acknowledging its importance, most executives expressed low confidence in their ability to successfully navigate these technologies.

This knowledge gap is precisely what we aimed to address with our collaborative research.

What Makes AI Agents Different from Traditional Automation

During our research, it became clear that many procurement leaders still conflate traditional automation with the advanced capabilities of AI agents.

The distinction is substantial and worth clarifying:

Traditional automation

Executes pre-defined, rule-based processes without deviation.
It’s effective for standardized, repetitive tasks but lacks intelligence and adaptability.

AI agents

Combine the reasoning capabilities of large language models with the ability to take autonomous actions.
They can perceive information from their environment, make decisions based on that data, and execute actions that influence outcomes—all while continuously learning and improving.

As one CPO told us during our research interviews:

“We’ve spent years implementing rules-based automation. But AI agents represent something fundamentally different—they can handle ambiguity, learn from experience, and make nuanced decisions that previously required human judgment.”

From Theory to Practice: AI Agents in Source-to-Pay

What makes our report particularly valuable is its practicality. Working with The Hackett Group, we identified 14+ specific use cases where AI agents are demonstrating tangible value in procurement operations today:

Intake orchestration
Supplier and stakeholder inquiry management
Autonomous negotiations and supplier analysis
Market analysis and price comparisons
Supplier identification and onboarding
Strategic sourcing
Contract management
Risk management
Compliance monitoring
Spend analysis and intelligence

For each area, we documented concrete examples of how organizations are implementing AI agents and the results they’re achieving.

The findings are compelling, showcasing how Agentic AI helps unlock Deep Value across.

Accelerated cycle times
Increased efficiency
Personalized stakeholder experiences
Reduced compliance risks
Enhanced decision-making, and
Improved spend management

The Organizational Foundation for Success

Perhaps the most valuable insight from our research is the identification of six foundational capabilities organizations need to develop to scale agentic AI throughout procurement:

Strategy and innovation: Developing a clear vision for how AI agents will transform procurement
Governance and ethics: Establishing protocols for responsible AI use
Organization, culture and talent: Preparing teams for working alongside AI agents
Technology enablement: Building the technical infrastructure to support agentic AI
Data management and architecture: Ensuring data quality and accessibility
Operations enablement: Creating processes for monitoring and managing AI agents

These capabilities don’t develop overnight. You may access Zycus’ maturity assessment model and implementation roadmap here

Change Management: The Human Side of AI Transformation

One of the most insightful aspects of our research concerns change management. The successful deployment of AI agents isn’t just a technological challenge—it’s fundamentally about people.

In our conversations with organizations at the forefront of adoption, change management emerged as the critical factor separating successful implementations from disappointing ones. The report details specific strategies for addressing common challenges:

Integration complexity
Data privacy and security
Ongoing training and maintenance
Balancing automation with human oversight
Managing stakeholder expectations
Addressing ethical concerns

The Future of Procurement Teams

Perhaps the most exciting finding from our research is how AI agents are reshaping procurement organizational models. Rather than the wholesale displacement of jobs that many fear, we’re seeing the emergence of hybrid teams where humans and AI agents work in complementary roles.

The report includes a hypothetical future-state procurement organization chart that illustrates how this might look, with Strategic Sourcing Agents, Negotiation Agents, and Contract Renewal Agents working alongside category managers and other procurement professionals.

This model offers a compelling vision of how procurement teams can evolve to deliver greater strategic value as routine tasks are increasingly handled by AI agents.

Explore Zycus’ Merlin Agentic AI Platform

Why We Created This Report

As a technology provider deeply committed to the procurement community, we recognize our responsibility goes beyond developing innovative products. We must also help organizations understand how to successfully implement and benefit from these technologies.

That’s why we partnered with The Hackett Group to create what we believe is the most comprehensive and practical guide to AI agents in procurement available today. By combining The Hackett Group’s unparalleled benchmarking data (drawn from 97% of Dow Jones Industrials and 89% of Fortune 100 companies) with Zycus’ deep expertise in procurement technology, we’ve created a resource that cuts through the hype to provide actionable guidance.

Access the Full Report

We’re making this essential resource available to procurement leaders who want to get ahead of the agentic AI revolution. The full report goes into much greater depth on implementation strategies, organizational readiness, and change management considerations.

Download the complete “Gen AI From Idea to IMPACT” report

I welcome your thoughts and questions on this research. How is your organization approaching AI agents in procurement? What challenges are you facing? Let’s continue the conversation in the comments below or connect with me directly on LinkedIn.

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Amit Shah

Amit is a seasoned business leader who brings to Zycus about 18 years of experience in strategic marketing and communications, business management, and strategy. As CMO and Head Global BD, he is responsible for all aspects of global marketing and demand generation. He also leads other strategic functions like sales ops, bid desk and sales enablement. Before joining Zycus, Amit was based in London and served as Managing Director at OakNorth, a B2B SAAS unicorn and supported large enterprise engagements across the US, Europe, and Australasia. Amit holds an MBA from IIM Mumbai and B.E from REC Surathkal (NIT Karnataka). He has also completed an executive program in strategic marketing from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was recognized as 40under40 by Reputation Today in 2017, has been a Power Profile on LinkedIn in 2018 & 2016, and has served on the advisory board of S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research and Fintech committee of FICCI.