In a significant stride towards procurement innovation within the Indian media and entertainment sector, Tata Play, India’s foremost direct-to-home (DTH) service provider, has embraced Zycus’ Autonomous Negotiation Agent (ANA) to revolutionise its tail spend management. This move signals a shift from viewing tail spend—traditionally considered fragmented and low-value—to recognising it as a strategic lever for growth.
Tata Play’s adoption of Zycus’ ANA, built on the Merlin Agentic Platform, leverages advanced Agentic AI to autonomously conduct multiple rounds of supplier negotiations. This innovation brings unprecedented scale, speed, and measurable results in complex procurement scenarios that were previously managed through manual and often inefficient processes. Jaswinder Saini, Vice President and Head of Supply Chain Management at Tata Play, emphasised in a statement that this is “not just about incremental automation” but a fundamental transformation in sourcing. The company has transitioned from “manual tail-spend firefighting” to conducting large-scale strategic negotiations that accelerate decision-making, maximise cost savings, and allow procurement teams to focus on higher-value activities.
The initiative is projected to cut costs by approximately 15%, particularly impacting facilities management, a function historically laden with tail-heavy procurement transactions. It also promises a significant boost in productivity by liberating procurement teams from time-consuming low-value tasks. The company’s move embodies a broader commitment to innovation and operational excellence within India’s media landscape, showcasing AI-driven procurement transformation at a defining moment.
Zycus’ Founder and CEO, Aatish Dedhia, described Tata Play’s approach as an example of “deep value procurement,” underscoring that it is not merely about expense control but about fundamentally changing how organisations conceive procurement’s role. This focus aligns well with Zycus’ broader vision, which dedicates nearly half of the company’s resources to research and development, driving innovation through its Agentic AI platform that spans the entire source-to-pay lifecycle. The platform’s autonomous agents, including the Merlin Negotiation Agent and Merlin Intake Management, enable procurement teams to streamline sourcing, approvals, and policy adherence with minimal human intervention.
At the Zycus Horizon Europe 2024 event, the company demonstrated live how its Gen AI and Agentic AI technologies are transforming procurement workflows, enabling smarter decision-making, enhanced compliance, and reduced manual workloads. This aligns with global trends in autonomous procurement, where leading corporations such as Heineken, Delta Air Lines, and Porsche Cars North America have deployed similar AI-driven solutions to unlock cost efficiencies and operational agility.
Additionally, Zycus’ expansive ecosystem of strategic partnerships with global technology and consulting giants like Microsoft, Accenture, IBM, Infosys, KPMG, and TCS further amplifies its capabilities. The integration of Merlin Intake Management with Microsoft Teams exemplifies efforts to embed procurement seamlessly into everyday professional workflows, enhancing accessibility and responsiveness.
Tata Play’s pioneering step in AI-led tail spend management serves as a beacon for organisations seeking to harness AI for procurement transformation. By strategically leveraging agentic AI at scale, Tata Play demonstrates how technology can shift procurement from a back-office function into a core driver of value creation and strategic advantage in the competitive and evolving media sector.
Source: Noah Wire Services
