At Horizon Asia 2025, this panel brought together procurement leaders from three powerhouse organizations—DRB-HICOM, JG Summit, and Tata Play—for a candid discussion on what it really takes to lead procurement transformation in highly diversified, complex businesses. From data standardization and stakeholder buy-in to piloting Agentic AI, each panelist shared honest reflections and practical lessons from their respective journeys toward digital procurement maturity.
Key Takeaways:
- Procurement in Conglomerates: Both DRB-HICOM and JG Summit face the challenge of aligning procurement across varied business units.
- Platform Visibility as a Business Imperative: Ariel Faraon highlighted a critical issue—lack of spend visibility across the group.
- Agentic AI in Action: Jaswinder Sani shared Tata Play’s leading-edge adoption of Zycus’ Agentic AI.
- Risk & Compliance in the AI Era: All panelists echoed the importance of dynamic supplier risk visibility. Khairul Azman recounted a serious past incident involving a Tier-3 supplier’s use of child labor—an experience that highlighted the need for real-time risk intelligence, now made possible with AI.
- Vision for the Future: Panelists agreed that procurement teams that fail to adopt Agentic AI risk falling behind.
