Zycus Horizon 2026 U.S.: From the Rockies to the future of Agentic AI-powered procurement

As the Founder and CEO of Zycus, Aatish Dedhia is the driving force behind the industry's pioneering Agentic AI procurement platform — taking enterprises Beyond S2P to Intake to Outcomes.

Aatish's vision — that procurement's job is delivering outcomes, not processing transactions — has been consistently validated by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC.

Under his leadership, Zycus built the Merlin Agentic Platform: where AI agents deliver, tools execute, and the suite governs. Today, Merlin Intake serves as the AI Control Tower for procurement requests, ANA (Autonomous Negotiation Agent) autonomously negotiates tail spend and contract renewals, and Merlin Agentic Sourcing turns a vague cost question into an RFP-ready strategy — all built on a proven, organically developed S2P foundation.

Prior to Zycus, he was part of the core design team of Intel. He holds a B.Tech from IIT Mumbai and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

Kaitlynn Sommers is a part of the Sourcing and Procurement team within Supply Chain Research. She advises Chief Procurement Officers and Procurement Technology Leaders on digital transformation initiatives in procurement. This includes helping define and identify technologies across the source-to-pay process and create procurement technology strategy. She helps clients understand the market landscape, prioritize investments, evaluate vendors and determine best-fit, negotiate contracts, and deploy best practices across a variety of market segments including Source-to-Contract (S2C) (spend analysis, supplier management, e-sourcing, and contract life cycle management) and Procure-to-Pay technologies. She also assesses and advises clients on the use of emerging technologies, such as AI, RPA, and advanced analytics, across sourcing and procurement. Ms. Sommers is also a Key Initiative Leader for Procurement Digital Transformation. She is responsible for curating content and working with the analyst team to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of research that addresses client questions and provides topical thought leadership.

Patrick Reymann is the Research Director, Procurement Applications & Agents, IDC, responsible for the worldwide procurement applications market. His core research coverage includes the worldwide research of procure to pay, sourcing, buy-side contract management, spend analysis, supplier relationship management and spend orchestration. He is focused on procurement digital transformation use cases, the procurement buyer’s journey, innovative workflows, and the issues faced with technology selection, implementation and usage as organizations add or integrate with other solutions.

Prior to joining IDC, Patrick worked as a sourcing and procurement consultant for over 20 years, supporting clients in the areas of M&A due diligence, procurement transformation, cost take out and technology implementations. Patrick holds a Coupa Platform Certification.

Mr. Sawchuk is a Principal, Global Practice Leader and leadership team member with The Hackett Group, an intellectual property-based strategic consultancy to global companies.

He has over 20 years of experience successfully advising hundreds of Fortune 500 as well as midsized companies across all industries globally. Mr. Sawchuk has provided operational and transformational guidance in strategy and organizational change as well as process design and digital technology enablement to significantly improve the supply management capabilities of these companies.

He is globally recognized in his specialty of supply management including strategic sourcing and supply risk management. He is cited regularly in business publications, a frequent presenter at industry events, author of numerous research papers, and a current and past member of the advisory boards of several developing companies.

Mr. Sawchuk’s background includes engineering, operations and sales roles with both United Technologies and IBM. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Union College and a Masters in Business Administration from Binghamton University (State University of New York). He is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of South Florida.

Alla is a Principal Analyst at Forrester serving security and risk professionals. She covers governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), third-party risk management (TPRM), contract lifecycle management (CLM), and supply chain risk with a special focus on risk management frameworks.

In this role, Alla helps Forrester clients establish strategy, adopt best practices, define a governance framework, and select technology to manage risk, improve business resilience, and strategic value-add. Her research also includes ethics and trust in digital transformation, enterprise risk management (ERM), and protecting the organization’s brand.

Andrew Bartolini is the Founder and Chief Research Officer at Ardent Partners. With 25 years in the industry and 15 years leading the charge at Ardent Partners, Andrew is a globally-recognized expert in sourcing, procurement, supply management, and accounts payable. As the Chief Research Officer at Ardent Partners, Andrew oversees all research and client programs including the annual State of the Market and Metrics that Matter eBook Series’, Technology Advisor Reports, Ardent’s monthly webinar series, as well as its in-person and virtual CPO Rising Summits. Andrew is also the publisher of CPO Rising, the news and research site for Chief Procurement Officers and other procurement leaders (www.cporising.com). Advisor to corporate executives and leading solution providers alike, Andrew is a sought-after presenter, having lectured and presented more than 575 times in ten different countries. Under his leadership, Ardent has benchmarked thousands of enterprises across all facets of their sourcing, procurement, supply management, and accounts payable operations and actively covers the technology marketplace as well as trends in sourcing, procurement, supply management, and accounts payable and has been published or quoted in leading business publications Prior to becoming an industry analyst, Andrew developed, packaged, deployed, and used supply management solutions on behalf of enterprises in the Global 2000 while working for several prominent spend management solution providers (Ariba & Commerce One). Additionally, his experience in strategic sourcing (where he managed sourcing projects totaling more than $500 million in aggregate client spend), business process transformation, and software implementation provides a “real-world” context for his research.

Abbie Eastman is known for her dynamic leadership and ability to bring order from chaos in complex, matrixed environments. With a proven track record of operational excellence, Abbie specializes in identifying and embedding efficiencies across departments, leveraging technology, and driving strategic change. Her career spans a breadth of industries and organizations, where she has consistently delivered cost-saving innovations and enhanced service delivery.

She brings deep expertise in managing the Source-to-Contract (S2C) process, vendor and stakeholder relationships, and continuous process improvement. Abbie is an energetic problem solver with strengths in project management, change management, strategic planning, and data-driven decision-making. She is also highly skilled in system implementation, policy and process design, and team leadership development. Her agility, creativity, and relentless focus on outcomes make her a valued leader and change agent.

David Everett has spent most of his Career in Indirect Procurement, working in businesses such as BAE Systems, Harley-Davidson, Honda and now Tate & Lyle. Someone with a passion for Procurement who specialises in bringing indirect out of the transactional world and on the journey to being a business partner, engaging stakeholders with humour, understanding and joint actions to help them deliver on the company objectives.

Anna McGovern is a strategic advisor to the C-suite and executive teams seeking to turn their supply chains into engines of growth, margin, and resilience. As the founder of Pondview Consulting, she works with private equity firms, mid-market disruptors, and global brands across CPG, beauty, food, and beverage—transforming procurement and supply chain into competitive advantages.

With over 30 years of hands-on leadership, including roles as Chief Procurement Officer for Unilever Personal Care and Chief Supply Chain Officer for Food Bank For NYC, Anna brings deep operational fluency, financial acumen, and the ability to drive impact where it counts—top-line growth, working capital, and risk mitigation.

Known for her straight-talking, results-driven style, Anna helps organizations align strategy with execution—building supplier partnerships that unlock innovation and implementing pragmatic playbooks that improve cash, cost, and customer experience.

She is the author of Antifragile Supply Chains: Building Resilience Through Better Strategy and Stronger Relationships, a member of the Executive Committee for CONNSTEP, and holds CPIM, CSCP, and an MBA. Anna is a trusted partner to executives who expect more from their supply chains—and are ready to invest in growth.

Kandyss Watson is a Senior Manager within Delta's Corporate Supply Chain Management (SCM) Center of Excellence at Delta Air Lines, Inc. She has supported technology implementations, advanced data analytics, strategic sourcing initiatives, and process improvement efforts across the entire source-to-contract procurement process. Kandyss led the implementation and ongoing product ownership of the Zycus platform In the organization.

Kandyss has been with Delta for over 10 years, leading large enterprise cross-functional improvement, analysis and technology projects and teams in both operations and commercial divisions across the company. Prior to joining Delta, she held both leadership, strategic management, and industrial engineering roles in multiple industries, including pharmaceutical, healthcare, and transportation. Kandyss is a proud alumni of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, GA, holding a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, and is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt under the American Society of Quality.

Baptiste Collot is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-founder of Trustpair, a leading fraud prevention platform. Since co-founding the company in 2017, Baptiste has been instrumental in shaping its vision, driving product innovation, and establishing Trustpair as the reference solution for large corporations to take action against vendor fraud. With a strong focus on operational excellence, Trustpair supports procurement and finance teams in supplier data management projects for some of the largest corporations around the world.

Amanda Prochaska is a procurement transformation expert and change leader with over 21 years of experience helping organizations achieve what many thought impossible: 90%+ adoption rates for new systems and processes. After leading major sourcing and source-to-pay transformations at MGM Resorts International and Kraft-Heinz, Amanda recognized a critical gap in the industry—organizations were investing millions in new technologies only to see adoption stall out because they weren't putting people first in change.

In 2019, she founded Wonder Services, a platform-agnostic consulting firm that takes a human-centered approach to transformation. Wonder Services uses proprietary methodologies like the ALICE leadership framework and RAE adoption enablement to help organizations from Fortune 500 manufacturers to innovative tech startups achieve sustainable change that actually sticks.

Amanda also founded Global Women Procurement Professionals (GWPP) in 2020 to empower women in the field and elevate procurement's strategic value. A passionate advocate for change management, she was named SIG's 2023 Sourcing Star and recognized as a top voice of change management on LinkedIn. Wonder Services is proudly WBENC-certified as a women-owned business.

Omid Ghamami, MBA, CPSCM™ is the President of the Procurement & Supply Chain Management Institute (www.PSCMinstitute.com), a corporate procurement and negotiation capability building and consulting organization. He is an 18 year veteran of Intel Corporation, where he was Director of Corporate Purchasing Operations, with a $16B annual scope.

He has 30 years’ experience with many of the Fortune 500 as clients in 29 countries. He is an accomplished procurement author of 2 books and many articles in prominent journals.

Mr. Ghamami holds an MBA from the University of CA system (Class President) and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in Finance and Economics from California State University, Sacramento.

Mukul Agrawal is a results-driven technology leader who blends strategic foresight with practical execution to deliver measurable business impact. As Head of ERP at VistaPrint a Cimpress USA Incorporated company, Mukul leads transformative initiatives spanning SAP enterprise solutions, supply chain digitization, cloud migration, and workforce enablement—all with the goal of making technology an engine for business growth.

Over his career, Mukul has successfully orchestrated large-scale global implementations, including rapid SAP migrations, complex system integrations, and cross-functional automation programs. Known for his ability to unite diverse teams across time zones, he champions a culture of collaboration, ownership, and innovation.

Beyond the technology, Mukul is passionate about building scalable processes, empowering teams to take initiative, and ensuring every project delivers clear value to the business. His leadership style is rooted in clarity, accountability, and a belief that great results come from aligned vision and shared purpose. Mukul is known for his ability to connect enterprise strategy with technology direction—anticipating future needs, fostering cross-functional alignment, and ensuring that every technology initiative strengthens the company’s competitive advantage. His leadership style focuses on clarity of vision, global collaboration, and building scalable foundations that support both today’s operations and tomorrow’s opportunities.

Jill is a seasoned Pharmaceutical Procurement executive turned sales advisory expert with over 25 years of experience

She is a fierce negotiator and having sat on the ”other” side of the table for over two decades, she has sold to and negotiating with the largest companies in the world; Jill is now helping companies increase their leverage and margins when selling to enterprise Procurement

Strategic Procurement Advisor for Biotechs, serving as their “Fractional Chief Procurement Officer” delivering supplier innovation, process improvements, system implementation and strategic category management

Sales Advisory & Coaching highlights: Sales Kick Off meeting keynote speaker for 3 clients, developed and delivered “Inside the Head of Procurement” sales training resulting in increased margins and sales, increased win rates with clients selling to their Pharma clients from <65% to >90%,

Steve Linville is a transformational finance executive with over 30 years of experience leading strategic change across the insurance industry. Steve is deeply passionate about empowering teams to embrace change. As VP and Corporate Controller at Health Alliance Plan (HAP), he spearheads enterprise initiatives like the Source-to-Pay transformation with Zycus, aligning financial operations with long-term strategy. His leadership has modernized finance functions through platforms like Workday, Oracle, NetSuite, Blackline, and Adaptive Planning, delivering multimillion-dollar efficiencies and enhancing transparency.

Steve is known for translating complex financial issues into clear, actionable insights for board-level and C-suite audiences. Steve enjoys working collaboratively to solve challenges. His prior roles at Penn Mutual, AF Group, and Ernst & Young reflect a consistent focus on finance transformation, stewardship, and process modernization. Steven, a CPA, holds a Master of Accounting from UNC Kenan-Flagler and has served on the Board of Trustees at Siena Heights University.

Adjunct Professor Khairul Azman is a certified procurement and supply chain professional with demonstrated success in leadership, strategic sourcing, negotiation, category management and all other areas of supply chain. With a proven ability to partner with stakeholders, foster relationship and drive changes, Khairul motivate his team to excel and achieve maximum value for stakeholders while minimizing risk and streamlining process.

Khairul have over 28 years working experiences in Purchasing and Supply chain with an impressive career growth in an establishing local and multinational company in various industries including 18 years experiences and exposure of a global and regional role. Prior to DRB-HICOM, Khairul had served well known local and multinational companies namely PROTON, Modenas, TRW Automotive, Continental, Johnson Control Automotive, Baker Hughes, Prysmian Group, and Cement Industries Malaysia. His objective is to add value and produce positive impact on overall organization performance by being the “Game Changer” to the organization and industry.

Tyler is a seasoned procurement leader with over a decade of experience driving strategic transformation for large, global companies. As Senior Manager of Procurement Strategy at Panasonic North America, Tyler leads the Center of Excellence team, overseeing the evaluation and implementation of Source-to-Pay (S2P) technologies and processes. He recently led the implementation of Zycus’ Source-to-Contract suite of applications.

Prior to Panasonic, Tyler was a consultant at KPMG, where he specialized digital procurement transformations. He began his career in strategic sourcing and supply chain planning, supporting global operations for a major airline.