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Zycus Horizon US 2025 Ushers in the I2O Era of Procurement and Honors Industry Leaders
Session Spotlight: “Tailwind” – Tackling the Tail Spend Challenge
New Jersey | 29th October, 2025 – Zycus, the pioneer in Source-to-Pay and AI-driven procurement transformation, successfully concluded Horizon US 2025 at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, bringing together hundreds of procurement leaders to explore the future of Intake to Outcomes (I2O) powered by Agentic AI.
Over three days of strategy sessions, customer stories, and analyst insights, Horizon US showcased how enterprises are moving beyond traditional automation to intelligent, outcome-driven procurement.
“The I2O framework marks procurement’s most important evolution yet, We’re moving from reactive to autonomous — from managing processes to orchestrating outcomes that directly deliver business value.” said Aatish Dedhia, Founder & CEO of Zycus.
Session Spotlight: “Tailwind” – Tackling the Tail Spend Challenge
A highlight of Horizon US 2025 was “Tailwind: Tackling the Tail Spend Challenge,” co-led by Kuntha Chelvanathan (IBM) and Bikash Mohanty (Zycus).
The session addressed one of procurement’s toughest challenges — tail spend, the 20% of total spend spread across 80% of suppliers.
IBM shared a real-world consumer products case showing how guided intake and intelligent triage can ensure 100% compliance and bring up to 20% of unmanaged spend under control.
Zycus demonstrated how the Merlin Agentic AI Platform enables autonomous negotiation and category-aware automation, driving tangible results — including $520 million in savings over five years on $1.2 billion of tail spend.
The takeaway: with AI-led orchestration, even the smallest purchases can drive strategic value and measurable business outcomes.
Celebrating Excellence at the Horizon US 2025 Awards
The event culminated in the Horizon Gala Awards Night, celebrating organizations and individuals driving the next wave of procurement innovation, agility, and impact.
Award Winners Include:
- Agentic AI Pioneer Award (Tie) – Delta Air Lines and Tate & Lyle
- Enterprise Impact Award – Panasonic Corporation of North America
- Strategic Partnership Award – Brother International Corporation
- Transformative Trailblazer Award (Tie) – Confie and Health Alliance Plan of Michigan (HAP)
- High Performing Champion Award – Jim Blaha, Broadridge Financial Solutions
- Rising Star Award – Chel’le Littles, Porsche Cars North America
- Delivery Excellence Award – [company name withheld due to publicity clauses]
- Innovative Visionary Award – Mukul Agrawal, Vista (a Cimpress Company)
- Agile Collaborator Award – EY
Procurement’s Future: From Intake to Outcomes
The conference featured thought leadership from Gartner, Forrester, IDC, The Hackett Group, and Ardent Partners, alongside transformation stories from Panasonic, Vista, Delta Air Lines, IBM, Tate & Lyle, Curtiss-Wright, and others.
Through multiple curated sessions, attendees experienced how Zycus’ Merlin Agentic AI Platform enables procurement teams to automate intake, manage negotiations, and drive strategic results — all within a single, outcome-oriented framework.
Watch the sessions here: Horizon US 2025: From Intake to Outcomes
About Zycus:
Zycus, recognized by renowned analyst firms, a leader in procurement technology, empowers teams to unlock deep value through its comprehensive Source-to-Pay (S2P) solutions. At the heart of our S2P solution is the Merlin AI Agentic Platform, which orchestrates intelligent AI agents to deliver simplified, efficient, and compliant processes.
The Merlin Intake Agent offers business users unparalleled ease of use, increasing adoption rates and significantly reducing non-compliant spending. For procurement teams, the Merlin Autonomous Negotiation Agent handles tail spend autonomously, securing additional savings; the Merlin Contract Agent helps draft compliant contracts and reduces risks by actively monitoring them; and the Merlin AP Agent further enhances efficiency by automating invoice processing with exceptional speed and accuracy.
With the flexibility and autonomy of Merlin AI agents, teams can seamlessly guide workflows or delegate routine tasks for autonomous execution. Uncover the full depth of value and achieve procurement excellence with Zycus’ AI-powered S2P solutions.
Disha Gupta
Marketing Manager
Zycus Inc.
disha.gupta@zycus.com