Rethinking Indirect Spend in
Specialty Food & Beverage

16^th April 2026

11:00 AM EDT

Let’s be honest. Procurement in specialty food & beverage has a speed problem.

Plant teams need parts now. Operations need services approved fast. Finance wants control. Procurement wants compliance, visibility, and negotiated value. But too many requests still come in through email, spreadsheets, chats, and one-off workarounds.

The result? Intake chaos, delayed approvals, reactive buying, and indirect spend that is harder to control than it should be.

But what if procurement could move as fast as the business? What if AI could turn fragmented requests into guided, compliant action from the moment they enter procurement? What if tactical sourcing and supplier follow-up could happen autonomously, without adding more manual work?

In this 60-minute session, Zycus will show how leading specialty food & beverage teams are flipping the script — using  Agentic AI  to eliminate intake bottlenecks, reduce tactical sourcing drag, and turn procurement into a faster, more strategic business function.

You’ll see how Intelligent Intake and Autonomous Negotiation work together, and walk away with a practical view of how to move from intake chaos to real business outcomes.

Key Points We’ll Address

40–60% of indirect purchases can bypass procurement  in unmanaged environments 
Emergency buying can carry 250–400% premiums  when plants need parts or services fast 
Intake is still fragmented across email, spreadsheets, chats, and local workarounds
Tactical sourcing and supplier follow-up consume time that should go to strategic work

Key Takeaways:

Why the next phase of procurement transformation starts at intake — where demand enters, decisions begin, and control is either built in or lost
How  Agentic AI  shifts procurement from reactive request handling to intelligent orchestration across intake, approvals, sourcing, and supplier engagement
Where  Agentic AI  can create the fastest impact in specialty food & beverage — especially across indirect spend, plant-driven demand, and repetitive tactical work
How  Zycus Merlin Intake and  Merlin Autonomous Negotiation Agent  bring this model to life in practice through a live demo

You’ll also get: a clearer view of the intake-to-outcome operating model, practical specialty food & beverage use cases, and a roadmap for applying agentic AI where it delivers the fastest impact.

Register for the Live Webinar

Speakers

The Intake Advantage: Your Next Step in S2P for Fast-Growing Procurement Teams

Michael McCarthy

VP Sales

Zycus

Ronit Wadhwa

Senior Solution Architect