Agentic AI procurement,
built for leading retailers.
Not isolated agents doing tasks, but governed multi-agent workflows across every indirect category, from store supplies and facilities to marketing and logistics.
Recognized by the World's Leading Analysts
Four pressures retailers face that
generic procurement tools cannot solve
Tariff cost pressure
US import tariffs climbed from 2.6% to roughly 13% across 2025, and consumer-facing companies project close to $15 billion of impact in 2026. Store fixtures, equipment, and operating supplies reprice faster than an annual sourcing calendar can answer.
Reuters, US BLS, 2026Growth without margin
NRF projects US retail sales up 4.4% to $5.6 trillion in 2026. But spending is concentrated at the top, and value pressure runs back down the supply chain. Growth will not close the margin gap. Cost discipline will.
NRF and Oxford Economics, 2026Workload outpaces budget
Hackett's 2026 Procurement Agenda puts workload up 10% against budgets up 1%. That nine-point gap cannot be hired away. It closes only when agents take on execution.
The Hackett Group, 2026 Key Issues StudyContract-to-payment gap
Contracts in one system. Approvals in another. POs somewhere else. Payments disconnected from all three. In retail, that gap is where off-contract buying, duplicate invoices, and negotiated savings that never land all live.
Observed across retail S2P evaluationsNot a point tool.
A procurement operating system.
Zycus delivers Intake to Outcomes on one connected agentic platform, from request to payment. Built in, not bolted on: other platforms offer AI that advises, Merlin deploys agents that act.
AI Control Tower for every request
A store manager, a marketing lead, and a category buyer all raise requests differently. Merlin Intake takes each in plain language, classifies it against your category taxonomy, and routes it into a governed sourcing event. No email queues. No maverick spend.
- Teams and Slack-native: plain-language requests, zero training required
- Automatic category classification across every indirect category
- Policy and budget gates enforced at intake, not after the invoice lands
- One audit trail across every store brand and legal entity from day one
Autonomous negotiation on the tail
ANA, the Autonomous Negotiation Agent, works the high-volume, low-risk spend that never reaches a sourcing analyst: store supplies, facilities, maintenance and repair, small logistics contracts. Business users launch it themselves inside procurement's guardrails, so the same team covers far more spend.
- Negotiates repetitive tail categories without human intervention
- Run by business users, governed by procurement policy
- Tail spend savings captured without adding headcount
- Every agent action logged for audit and approval
Category strategy through to award
Sourcing strategy should not start with a requisition. Describe a business problem and MAS runs category intelligence, should-cost modeling, supplier discovery, and the full RFP through to an award recommendation.
- Should-cost models built in hours, not consultant weeks
- Supplier discovery with D&B health, AVL compliance, and ESG weighted up to 40% of rank
- Go and No-Go gates disqualify non-compliant suppliers before they see the RFP
- Four award scenarios modeled, from lowest TCO to incumbent retention
AI decides. Suite governs. Enterprise stays in control.
Retail Transformation in Action
Outcome: 40% faster contract cycles, 35% faster request cycles.
Outcome: 78% faster procurement and a 171% productivity boost.
Outcome: Source-to-Contract and Procure-to-Pay streamlined group-wide.
Outcome: 90% less paper-based procurement, 75% savings on signature spend, and 55% faster contract cycles with the Zycus S2C suite and Certinal eSign.
Read the Case Study →