Zycus puts autonomous procurement at the centre of its Merlin MAX roadmap

At its Horizon 2026 conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Zycus used the setting to present a more ambitious argument about where procurement software is heading: away from static source-to-pay workflows and towards an operating model in which AI agents carry out work across the process, with humans setting policy, goals and guardrails.

The annual event drew customers, partners and sponsors for two days of product briefings, customer case studies and analyst discussion. Against...

the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, Zycus framed its message around agentic AI and the idea that procurement technology is moving beyond task automation towards measurable, end-to-end outcomes. The company also used the conference to unveil Merlin MAX, a new platform it says will arrive in mid-2027.

Chief executive Aatish Dedhia used his keynote to argue that the market’s relationship with AI has changed markedly over the past year. Procurement leaders, he said, are no longer simply expressing curiosity; they are asking sharper questions about implementation, scale, governance and commercial impact. That evolution, he suggested, reflects the company’s long investment in AI and its decision to push further into autonomous execution.

Merlin MAX is positioned as the centrepiece of that strategy. Zycus says the platform will be built around three layers: an intake layer for business requests, a strategy layer for human-led planning and decision-making, and an outcomes and autonomy layer where agents will execute work. The company described the broader architecture as an AI-first source-to-pay suite, though it also stressed that existing products will continue to evolve rather than being abruptly replaced. In practice, that implies a gradual progression for current customers rather than a wholesale migration.

The company’s pitch is that AI will increasingly become the interface through which procurement is accessed, while agentic workflows become the underlying applications. In that model, a user request would be able to trigger sourcing, negotiation, contract review, supplier onboarding, renewals or value-leakage activity without the requester needing to know which module should handle it.

Underneath that layer sits what Zycus calls the Merlin Trusted Core, a governance framework intended to control what agents can see, decide and execute. The company says that layer will combine data, access, responsibilities, integrations and enterprise controls, enabling organisations to expand their use of AI without losing oversight. That emphasis on governance reflects a broader trend in enterprise AI, where vendors are increasingly pairing autonomy with auditability and permissions management.

The conference also provided a close look at Zycus’ current agentic features. Merlin Intake, for example, is designed to take a simple business request, classify it, prompt for missing information, surface possible risks and route it into the correct workflow. Zycus characterised it as a system that can turn a one-line request into a structured set of questions, reducing the need for employees to understand procurement process complexity before they begin.

For more tactical purchasing, the company highlighted ANA, its Autonomous Negotiation Agent. According to the demonstrations shown at Horizon 2026, ANA can negotiate directly with suppliers across multiple rounds and optimise for different priorities depending on the use case. Those priorities may include savings, payment terms, lead times or standard service levels. Zycus said the agent can also use sentiment analysis during supplier exchanges to judge when further pressure in a negotiation may become counterproductive.

Another area of interest was contract value leakage. Zycus presented an agent that can read contracts, identify agreed entitlements, compare those terms with actual transactions and flag missed rebates, volume discounts, incorrect pricing, credits and other discrepancies. The company said the process can continue until a matter requires human intervention. It also previewed autonomous supplier onboarding and an updated category management capability focused on AI-assisted intelligence, scenario analysis and guided decisions.

Customer presentations added practical context to the product narrative. Ben Cutting of TKC Holdings described the complexity of building a more unified procurement model across businesses spanning correctional foodservice, commissary and technology services, as well as hospitality supplies. In that environment, procurement has to work closely with legal, IT and finance, turning the transformation effort into an operational coordination exercise as much as a technology project.

TKC’s selection process was notable for its emphasis on reasoning rather than presentation polish. The company reviewed a broad field of suppliers before narrowing the shortlist, and one slide from its presentation captured the approach bluntly: “We didn’t evaluate slide decks. We evaluated thinking under pressure.” TKC ultimately chose Zycus, citing the company’s contract lifecycle management capabilities and its wider vision. The organisation said it had already seen early sourcing savings, even as its longer-term roadmap stretches from intake and sourcing through contracts, suppliers and procurement outcomes.

Another customer story came from Paul Hastings LLP, where Ann-Marie McCarthy, head of global procurement, described a very different starting point. The law firm, which has a global footprint and substantial revenue, had not previously operated with an integrated source-to-pay platform. Contract approvals could take around six months, supplier onboarding could take months, and highly paid professionals were spending time on routine procurement and accounts payable tasks.

After comparing six major source-to-pay providers, the firm selected Zycus. McCarthy highlighted Merlin Intake inside Microsoft Teams, the vendor’s understanding of the firm’s requirements and its willingness to co-develop around legal-specific needs.

Taken together, the conference reinforced Zycus’ broader direction. The company is no longer presenting AI as a useful add-on to conventional procurement software, but as the mechanism through which procurement work itself will increasingly be done. That view is consistent with Zycus’ earlier messaging around an intake-to-outcomes model, in which agents interpret intent, orchestrate workflows and trigger downstream actions with less manual intervention.

For now, the gap remains between ambition and universal deployment. Some of the capabilities shown at Horizon 2026 are already being used by early customers, while Merlin MAX remains a future release. Even so, the event made clear that Zycus sees procurement moving towards a more autonomous model, one in which technology is expected not only to support decisions, but to carry them out. For buyers evaluating next-generation procurement platforms, that shift may prove as important as any single product launch.

Source: Noah Wire Services