Agents of Change: Highlights from Zip Forward 2025

On a gorgeous sunny week in October, we brought together the global procurement community in San Francisco for the third edition of Zip Forward. 

A two-day experience for the first time, more than 700 procurement and finance professionals joined us at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the W Hotel in San Francisco to connect, learn, and share what’s next for our industry.

This year’s theme was “Agents of Change,” and it couldn’t have been more fitting based on the change-makers in attendance. Technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, and procurement as we know it is transforming forever. But as powerful as AI and orchestration are as a tag-team technological duo, it’s the leaders of our community who are driving the real change.

An international procurement conference like no other

Our marketing and events team outdid themselves with the programming, orchestrating more than 50 sessions and workshops across two venues. From the incredible swag at the Zip Community station to the now-legendary "donut wall" (a stacked grid of donuts people could not stop talking about), each and every detail was designed to delight. 

Throughout the event, demo stations showcased our latest Procure-to-Pay enhancements, Agentic AI assistants, and new PO management platform, giving attendees hands-on opportunities to experience the future of procurement, all staffed by our amazing Zip team.

Day 1: The future takes the stage

Day 1 kicked off at YBCA with a powerful opening keynote that set the tone for everything to come. Our leadership team revealed how Zip's platform is empowering procurement functions to become true agents of transformation within their organizations.

We were honored to welcome some extraordinary guests to the stage for the keynote:

• Ann Fleishell, VP of Procurement at OpenAI, who shared how she built a procurement function from the ground up that now serves two-thirds of OpenAI's workforce in just one year, demonstrating the transformative potential of integrating AI agents directly into operational processes
• Mithun Sharma, Chief Procurement Officer at Block, who joined panels on how AI is reshaping procurement orgs, talent models, and strategic value
• Tigran Avakian, Head of Procurement at Gap, offering a candid look at how to design a future-state where human managers operate alongside agentic category managers.

The keynote was packed with major announcements and demonstration:

AI-powered intake reimagined: We unveiled our new AI-powered intake experience that transforms the requester journey through smart routing, automated pre-fill, and conversational support, creating a seamless, frictionless experience that empowers users while giving businesses full control.

Accounts Payable innovation: We introduced three game-changing AP innovations: AI Payment Risk Insights that scan payments for fraud before money leaves the door, Agentic Invoice Coding that automatically handles complex multi-line invoices, and an Invoice-to-Contract Compliance Agent that flags discrepancies and even drafts vendor communications.

Real results from early adopters: We shared measurable ROI from partners already leveraging our AI agents; OpenAI's intake validation agent saves 1,400 hours annually, Cribl's price negotiation agent saves 15% in costs and 3 hours per request, and Canva's invoice processing agent delivers 2.5× team productivity.

You can watch the full keynote on-demand here.

Big names, and even bigger ideas on stage at Zip Forward

The afternoon featured compelling sessions that went deep into procurement's agentic transformation.

Ann Fleishell returned to the stage for an expanded session on how procurement at OpenAI has evolved beyond simply supporting organizational expansion to becoming a catalyst for impact. She introduced AI-powered tools like Penny, an approachable virtual procurement teammate, and Risk Buddy, a GPT-driven risk monitor, emphasizing that "AI doesn't replace the human in procurement, instead, it reveals our superpowers: faster decisions, better data, stronger partnerships."

You can watch Ann Fleishell’s full session on-demand here.

Michael Simpson, CPO at T-Mobile, shared insights into transforming procurement at the world's largest wireless carrier, focusing on designing procurement experiences that are delightful and seamless for employees while moving toward more strategic, value-add approaches.

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People, Influence and Purpose in the AI Era brought together Ignacio Cabrera (Cloudflare), Katie Streu (Anthropic), and Mithun Sharma (Block) with Zip CTO Lu Cheng to explore how AI is shifting procurement from tactical, transactional tasks toward strategic business partnership.

The day concluded with something truly special: tennis legend Andre Agassi joining Zip CEO Rujul Zaparde on stage for a conversation about managing significant transitions and driving positive change, a perfect return volley on our theme of ‘Agents of Change.’

A community celebration... and one more thing

We rounded out the day by honoring our Zip Community Award winners, celebrating the change makers, rising stars, and other amazing members of our community who are pushing procurement forward every day.

And then came the big surprise: Procure to Play: the world's first procurement game show, live on stage! 

It was a Family Feud-style bonanza, with our Zip Community Award winners duking it out over procurement-themed that left the whole crowd playing along. The auditorium was in stitches as host Christine Vittorio lit up the stage with her quick wit and the contestants' even quicker buzzers. The vibes were high across the entire Yerba Buena grounds, as we enjoyed a happy hour to end the day’s event, an amazing end to Zip Forward Day 1.

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Day 2: Going deeper into tactics and strategy

Day 2 moved across the street to the W San Francisco, where we went even deeper into the tactical and strategic work shaping procurement's future.

The doors opened with reflections from Brad Pittman and Kris Aksteter from Dollar Tree, and Sean Park from Arm, leaders who took the stage at last year's event as they began their orchestration journey.

Twelve months later, the results spoke for themselves. Dollar Tree saw adoption that far exceeded expectations, reaching their anticipated year-one volume in just six months and tracking toward 2,000+ requests by year-end. Arm's net promoter score for procurement jumped from 41% to 84%. As Sean put it: "We made a number of changes, but Zip was a big part of that success."

State of Spend: The data behind the transformation

Nick Heinzmann, Zip’s Head of Research, delivered a professorial deep dive into our State of Spend report: a first-of-its-kind study surveying over 1,030 global leaders on how their spending patterns are shaping business strategy, AI technology investments, headcount shifts, and procurement's evolving role.

The report revealed five key insights:

• AI confidence is seemingly outpaceing AI readiness
• AI skills have become a key hiring requirement
• Companies are scrutinizing spend in services-based categories
• Hybrid tech stacks are the default, and preferred method moving forward
• Procurement have a unique opportunity to lead us into the new world of AI

Nick's prescription for building the bridge to an AI-enabled future was simple: reskill teams around AI and new technology, be willing to take a blank slate to procurement processes, and make strategic investments in the technology that will get you there.

You can watch Nick’s full State of Spend session on-demand here.

Driving cross-functional alignment and enterprise strategy

A session with our partner Brex provocatively titled "Procurement vs. The World,” tacked the vital challenge of achieving cross-department alignment on business purchasing.

Later in the day, Chris Sawchuk from The Hackett Group examined how AI is fundamentally reshaping procurement's operating model, noting that transforming the operating model has rapidly risen to the top of corporate agendas: "At the beginning of this year, we saw transforming the operating model rise to the top of the priority list, something that wasn't even in the top ten just two years ago."

A panel featuring Laurie Hill from Prudential Financial and Nicole Cook from LinkedIn explored enterprise strategies for 2026 and beyond, highlighting how AI is becoming embedded in every contract and category. As Nicole noted: "Every deal and every contract that we negotiate as an organization, there's going to be that AI component to it."

Reality check: A skeptic’s look at AI in procurement

Another major standout of Day 2 came from Joël Collin-Demers of Pure Procurement, who led ‘A Skeptic’s Look at AI in Procurement.’ In a conference filled with excitement about AI’s potential, Joêl played devil’s advocate, and the room was here for it.

His message rang loudly: "The best thing you can do as a procurement professional is to train your B.S. detector." 

As more AI tools flood the market with bold claims, procurement teams need to become digitally literate to ensure the agentic promises actually pass the smell test. It was a refreshing, realistic view of what AI can and can't do, and a reminder that healthy skepticism is part of smart adoption.

You can watch Joêl’s full session on-demand here.

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At the end of it all, it’s all about the people

By the end of our two stacked days of Zip Forward, it once again became clear that it’s all about the people. This is what makes our yearly conference so special: the opportunity to bring together a community of leaders and doers who are looking beyond simply implementing cutting edge technology, but striving to make our work more efficient and optimized for everyone involved.

But what also became clear is that even as agentic AI becomes ever-more ubiquitous, it’s the human side of our work, the relationships we forge, that will become more important than ever. 

As our CTO Lu said in his closing remarks: "AI is introducing a new way of working, but the real agents of change aren't the tools we use, it's you. It's the leaders in this room who will reimagine how work gets done in your organizations."

We can’t wait to host these inspiring leaders again next year.

Find more on-demand sessions for Zip Forward 2025.