The executive guide to agentic AI in procurement

This shift is already underway. Procurement is now able to do significantly more with less, enabling their teams, mitigating risk, and accelerating impact without losing control.
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We believe agentic AI is a 100x opportunity for procurement. It will fully transform procurement into a fully strategic function: dynamically routing approvals, anticipating requests, and identifying suppliers without manual review. Agents act. Agents learn. Agents adapt.
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In this guide, we’ll show you what agentic AI means for procurement, how to separate hype from reality, what purpose-built agents can really do, and how to build an organization ready for this future. Because when agentic AI flows through procurement, business flows.

Download this guide (with bonus Agentic checklist)

II. What is agentic AI in procurement?

Most AI tools today are reactive: you prompt, they respond. But agentic AI is proactive, autonomous, and continuously learning. It can process inputs on the fly and take action. It’s not a chatbot. It’s an agent.

Agentic AI refers to software that can make decisions, pursue goals, process inputs, orchestrate action on the fly and take action. These systems reason in context, adapt to changing inputs, and execute outcomes across systems. For procurement, this marks a fundamental shift in process.

Where traditional automation requires rules and triggers, agentic AI uses what Gartner calls agentic reasoning, or the ability to make decisions based on real-time context, enterprise data, and evolving goals.

In short:

It doesn’t wait for a request. It initiates.

It doesn’t just follow rules. It adapts strategies.

It doesn’t rely on dashboards. It takes action.

According to Gartner, agentic AI will transform generative AI from a single-use tool into an autonomous strategist. What we’re describing is not some futuristic scenario. It’s already here.

Every employee will be a manager of agents. If we have 100 people today, we might have 125 tomorrow, but also 1,000 agents.”

Dr. Eloise Epstein

Kearney

But for agentic AI to deliver real value, it needs direction. That’s where orchestration comes in. Without it, agents can create chaos. With it, they become an engine of scale.

III. What can agentic AI in procurement do?

Procurement is a natural home for agentic AI. Why? Because the function is rich with repeatable decisions, contextual complexity, and cross-functional workflows. When AI agents can act autonomously, they deliver speed and precision at scale.

Here are just a few ways agentic AI is already making an impact:

“Find suppliers that meet pricing, criteria, and ESG thresholds.”

“Route requests dynamically based on region, budget, and urgency.”

“Flag high-risk vendors and recommend safer alternatives.”

But even the most advanced agents need structure. That’s where orchestration comes in. Without it, agents create chaos. With it, they become a scalable engine of value, working within guardrails for visibility, accountability, and compliance.

Procurement teams are already using agentic AI to automate decisions, generate insights, streamline workflows, and other tasks that once required full-time staff. As this technology evolves, agents will take on even more:

Dynamic supplier evaluation

Real-time market intelligence

Scenario simulation for category strategy

Autonomous risk mitigation

Agentic AI is orchestration in motion, and Zip was foundationally built for this moment.

Our orchestration engine scales AI across intake, approvals, risk, and sourcing, giving companies the limitless power of agentic AI without losing control.

IV. How Zip brings agentic AI to life

At Zip, agentic AI is already transforming procurement. Our platform includes 50+ purpose-built AI agents that automate critical tasks across procurement, security, legal, and IT, helping teams move faster without losing control.

Imagine if you could have autonomous agents performing tasks in the background while you work. Here are some examples of what these agents could do for you.

Of course, you can build your own in our AI Agent Builder, which provides an easy, no-code platform to build, customize, deploy, and train AI agents.
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In Zip’s AI Agent Builder, built on top of Zip’s Integration Platform, you can describe the task you want your agent to do, select the actions for it to perform, connect it to Zip data and third-party data sources, and decide exactly where in your procurement workflows you want the agent(s) to work.

Since AI agents have a common set of skills, like reading documents, comparing document versions, summarizing information, scanning the internet, agents can handle a broad range of manual, time-consuming tasks. All you need to do is combine the agent’s skills with your preferred data sources, specific instructions on how to execute the task tailored to your business, and your desired procurement workflow. The possibilities are endless.

Zip AI agents operate at your disposal, augmenting procurement teams by handling essential tasks autonomously.

Our agents are powered by 60+ integrations, so they can access the data they need to act intelligently. Built in partnership with OpenAI, Canva, Webflow, and Wiz, Zip AI agents set the new standard in the industry for procurement intelligence.

Procurement orchestration is what connects agents, data, users, and systems into a coherent whole. It’s how you scale AI across the enterprise, without creating silos or losing control.
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Agents benefit from orchestration in their work of course, but we believe orchestration is required to do the work effectively. 
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No agent built on an LLM alone can reliably do the work of procurement.
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To succeed, an agent needs external data and access to tools to accomplish its objective. Orchestration connects the data and tools that agents rely on, serving as the coordinated bridge between the strategy and the execution. 
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Over the next 18 months, the advances in technology will be incredible. The question is: will your people, your leaders, your company—or your competitors—be ready for it?

We live in a world where we must use AI, or risk falling behind. With Zip AI Agents, we have everything we need in one platform: contract details, market research, benchmarks, and agreement summaries. It's all there.”

Idan Cohen

Technology Procurement, Wiz

V. Building an AI-ready procurement team

Agentic AI represents a fundamental transformation of the work of procurement.

As intelligent automation takes on more decision-making and execution, the procurement team of the future will look and behave very differently. We predict that traditional roles focused on transactional tasks will diminish, while roles in strategy, orchestration, and AI stewardship will surge in importance.

This shift won’t happen overnight. But the smartest teams are already rethinking org design, skill development, and what it means to lead in the age of intelligent systems.

The hard truth: your current team isn’t trained for this.

According to Dr. Epstein, legacy training models and ‘procurement academies’ aren’t going to be able to sufficiently train the next generation in agentic AI. Humans learn by doing. And agentic AI isn’t taught by taking a course, but learned through usage.

So then, what does this mean for leadership? A radical shift in how procurement teams grow:

Move away from static training. Invest in real-time, hands-on learning environments.

Teach failure tolerance. As Dr. Epstein puts it: “Fail fast” really means “learn quickly.”

Encourage experimentation. Let team members build and manage their own agents as part of their daily workflows.

Measure adaptability, not tenure. Hire and promote based on curiosity, resilience, and data fluency, not on past playbooks.

Agentic AI is here. Is your procurement team ready?

Download the checklist

Many procurement strategists are recommending shifting competency models toward soft and strategic skills. Dr. Epstein agrees, arguing that skills like category management and negotiations will soon be agent-assisted by default.

Instead, focus on:

Data literacy → Turn clean, relevant data into clear, actionable insights.

Intellectual curiosity → Explore new tools and prompt engineering methodology.

Cross-functional collaboration → Bridge gaps between procurement, IT, and finance.

Network thinking → See supplier ecosystems as interconnected systems.

Ethics and bias detection → Spot and correct unfair outcomes.

Systems orchestration → Design workflows that align agents with goals.

At Canva, we believe in empowering others. With AI agents in Zip, we aim to empower our stakeholders to make smarter, faster decisions while accelerating the buying process.”

Rudy Batts

Head of Global Spend, Canva

The procurement team of tomorrow will be smaller in some places, larger in others, but smarter, more strategic, and more deeply embedded in the business than ever before.

VI. Building trust and responsible AI in procurement

As AI agents become more powerful and autonomous, the stakes get higher.

While some procurement systems today do surface suggestions, agentic AI can actually make decisions. They act. They execute. And when they do, procurement leaders need to be confident that those decisions are transparent, compliant, and aligned with company values.

Trust is the foundation of the agentic AI stack.

Agentic AI systems must be governed by new enterprise frameworks to prevent ‘value drift’, biased outcomes, and regulatory exposure​. Traditional software oversight, like role-based access or approval tiers, isn’t enough.

You need to build trust across four key dimensions:

1. Transparency

Can users and auditors understand how the AI made a decision?

Are workflows explainable and documented?

2. Security

How is data encrypted, stored, and accessed by agents?

Can you prevent unauthorized learning from sensitive inputs?

3. Human-in-the-loop safeguards

Do humans have oversight, and the ability to intervene or override agent decisions when needed?

Are escalation points clearly defined?

4. Bias mitigation

Are datasets representative and regularly reviewed for skew?

Can the system detect and self-correct anomalies?

Humans have two key jobs in the age of agentic AI: detect the bias, and validate the output.

Not every platform claiming to use AI is agentic, or safe. As you assess providers, move beyond the hype and ask pointed questions:

Which specific workflows are powered by AI? Can you demonstrate how AI makes decisions or takes action in real time?

How does the platform maintain a clear audit trail for AI-driven decisions?

Can business users customize AI behavior without technical expertise?

What governance and override mechanisms are in place to ensure safe deployment?

What does your responsible AI framework look like? Can you share your approach to transparency, security, and bias mitigation?

At Zip, we believe agentic AI should always be transparent, secure, and entirely under your control. Our commitment to responsible AI is grounded in three core principles:

Privacy first: We follow a zero data retention policy to protect your privacy. Your data is never used to train our models without your explicit consent.

Full transparency: Our agentic AI features are clearly marked across the platform, so you always know when you’re interacting with AI-powered capabilities.

Complete control: Zip AI is opt-in by design. You decide when, where, and how you leverage AI across your procurement workflows.

We believe agentic AI should never be a black box. With the right design, you can maintain world-class safety standards, while always operating at peak performance.

VII. Zip’s roadmap for Agentic AI: What’s next

AI is redefining what the procurement function is capable of.

For decades, procurement has been stuck in reactive cycles: responding to intake, chasing approvals, policing policy, and juggling suppliers. But with autonomous agents, real-time data, and orchestration at the core, that dynamic is flipping.

Procurement is evolving into a proactive, embedded, and intelligence-led function. One that helps the business move faster, smarter, and with more confidence.

In the next two years, Zip’s agentic AI will expand from intelligent tasks management to the full orchestration of complex, cross-functional workflows. Agents are executing, but also optimizing.

Cycle times slashed significantly: Agents will handle the majority  of requests and approvals autonomously, with many approved instantly.

Greater cost savings: Accelerated cycle times, reduced overhead, and faster supplier onboarding will drive significant savings.

Proactive risk mediation: Agents will continuously monitor vendor, contractual, policy, and financial risks, flagging issues and suggesting solutions within hours.

This is where procurement becomes a proactive, intelligence-driven function, working faster without sacrificing control.

By 2027, Zip’s agentic AI will become even more adaptive, responding to changing business conditions and external data in real-time.

Greater policy compliance: Agents will dynamically enforce policies at every step, learning from other systems and external signals.

Faster execution on business goals: Agents will detect business context, both inside and outside the organization, accelerating approvals and driving faster time-to-market.

Majority of risks will be reduced: Agents will identify and mitigate vendor, security, and compliance risks immediately, based on real-time signals.

Imagine agents that respond instantly to external disruptions, whether it’s a supply chain disruption, a financial crisis, or a pandemic. In this future, agentic AI is an active on-the-ground (or, in the server) participant in protecting your business in real-time.

AI agents won’t replace procurement teams. But they will multiply what’s possible. And the infrastructure that aligns agents with enterprise strategy—the connective tissue—is orchestration.

At Zip, we’ve built the leading procurement orchestration platform, enabling companies to scale safely into the agentic era. With over 50 pre-built agents in Zip’s Agentic AI platform, your team can lead with confidence, transforming procurement into a proactive, strategic function.

Because when procurement flows, business flows.