ProcureTech Unpacked

By Pure ProcurementBusiness Technology Education

ProcureTech Unpacked episodes

November 13AI adoption in procurement: getting out of pilot jail
Your AI pilot worked in the demo. Six months later it still isn't in production. AI adoption in procurement keeps stalling at this point because the pilot tested a tool and nobody changed how the work gets done.

Amanda Prochaska led the Coupa rollout at MGM Resorts, ran Source-to-Pay at Kraft Heinz, and now runs Wonder Services.

Her new book is ALICE: Leading Change in the AI Era. In this episode, she and Joël cover:
Why tech-first pilots stall, and why vendors and investors keep selling them
Building something small yourself before you scope a pilot
What AI adoption in procurement needs from the 2027 operating model: process, people and data
The ALICE framework for leading teams when nobody knows the outcome yet
The first move for January: reset the mission and the measurement

For procurement leaders with a list of AI pilots and no concrete plans for AI adoption in procurement beyond them.

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35 min
November 06What Is an AI Token, and Why Procurement Should Care
A new line is forming on your software invoice, and it isn’t a license or a seat.

It’s AI tokens, the raw fuel your agents run on, and almost nobody in procurement is managing the spend.

Gaurav Sharma of Supernegotiate priced five everyday procurement workloads two ways: the default flagship model, and a model right-sized for each task.

The bill went from about $800 dollars a month to about $40, for the same output. He joins Joël to break down:
What an AI token is, and why input, output, and reasoning tokens cost very differently
Why the same task can cost up to 125x more depending on the model you pick
When to use a cheap workhorse model, when to keep the premium one, and how batch processing cuts the bill further
Why he thinks tokens become a procurement category, and eventually free

For procurement and finance leaders running AI agents who want to manage the spend before it scales out of view.

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49 min
October 30What is an MCP server? A guide for procurement leaders
Your procurement software vendors all claim to be MCP-ready, and you have to judge whether that means anything before you sign.

This minisode explains what an MCP server is in plain business language.

Your S2P suite is the kitchen, its APIs are the meals, and the MCP server is the menu your LLM reads to answer your question. You'll get:
How an MCP server lets an LLM answer ad hoc procurement questions across systems
What makes an MRP server useful for procurement professionals
What MCP won't fix: data quality, structured integrations like PO exchanges, and server ownership
Seven questions to test any vendor that claims MCP support

For procurement and finance leaders sitting through demos where every vendor says MCP-ready.

Based on the following edition of The Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/what-is-mcp-for-procurement
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14 min
October 23Building a ProcureTech Stack for the Complex Enterprise
If your procurement runs across a dozen ERPs, constant M&A, and demand from every function, a single Source-to-Pay suite was never going to cover it.

In the first episode of "Building a ProcureTech Stack for the Complex Enterprise", a series sponsored by ORO Labs, Joël hosts with Chris Vesey, ORO's VP of Innovation and Customer Value.

Chris ran global Source-to-Pay operations at JPMorgan Chase and led the spend management transformation at Goldman Sachs. Together they define what makes an enterprise complex and where intake and orchestration fits.

You'll get:
Eight markers of the complex enterprise, from multi-ERP landscapes to regulation and operating model shifts
A plain definition of intake and orchestration, built on a hospital analogy: triage, general surgeon, specialist
Why "Idea-to-Pay" is more than another Source-to-Pay rebrand
What SAP's new Solution Extension agreement with ORO Labs covers, and what it leaves out
When intake and orchestration is more than your business needs

For procurement leaders running across multiple ERPs or S2P suites who've been told transformation has to wait for the next ERP program.

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48 min
October 16How to choose procurement software when every pitch sounds the same
You're evaluating procurement software, and every vendor sounds identical. AI-powered, agentic, end-to-end, one platform for all your spend. Four demos in, you still can't say what makes any of them different.

James Meads has spent years on both sides of this market, fixing positioning and go-to-market for the vendors and helping buyers choose the right tech.

He explains why the whole procurement software market blurs together, and what to do about it when the marketing can't help you. We get into:
Why vendors are bad at saying what sets them apart (It's not you, it's them)
How to treat a market map as a starting point, not a verdict
The filter that cuts a long list fastest: your company size
The questions that separates an honest vendor from a hopeful one in a demo

This one is for heads of procurement, CPOs, and finance leaders who have to choose procurement software and keep running into a wall of identical pitches.

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47 min
October 09What Is Procurement Intake and Orchestration, Really?
Your stakeholders route around procurement because following the process is harder than getting around it.

Procurement intake and orchestration is the software category built to fix that, and almost every vendor now claims it.

Joël breaks down what procurement intake and orchestration does, and where it fits:
Intake vs. orchestration: the front door and the glue, and why most vendors are stronger at one
Three technology architectures, from suite-only to best-of-breed, and where I&O pays off in each
Five signs you need I&O, and four signs you don't
Why I&O platforms and S2P suites are converging, and what that changes in your next evaluation

For procurement and finance leaders whose stakeholders keep bypassing the process, or who hear "procurement intake and orchestration" in every pitch and need to know if it applies to them.

Based on the following edition of The Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/procurement-intake-orchestration-complete-guide
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14 min
October 02The 2026 State of Autonomous Sourcing
Your autonomous sourcing pilot worked in the sandbox. Getting it into production is a different problem, and the technology is the smaller part of it.

In this episode, Joël sits down with Tiago Melo, VP of Solutions Consulting at Fairmarkit, for a practitioner's read on the 2026 state of autonomous sourcing. You'll come away with:
How to tell autonomous from automated, and why you should pin down a vendor's definition before anything else
Why pilots stall in "pilot jail," and how to test your process and org changes alongside the tool
Where AI sourcing performs today (competitive, commoditized buys) and where it still struggles (requirements definition, relationship-based suppliers, regulated spend)
Why "good enough" data beats a two-year cleanup project
How accountability works when an agent runs 400 events for you: through policy that is versioned and auditable
Why sourcing policies should follow the shape of a purchase, not its dollar value

For digital procurement leads and sourcing managers with autonomous sourcing ambitions.

Recorded at SOAR 2026, Fairmarkit's annual conference. Fairmarkit is a content sponsor of Pure Procurement though this episode was not sponsored.

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48 min
September 25The 5 Foundations of Agentic Procurement Teams
You can buy the most advanced agentic AI on the market and still crash it into a wall if your procurement function isn't built for autonomy.

This minisode is a readiness check to run before you sign a contract or hand your team a build mandate. It walks the five system design concepts that decide whether an agent becomes a force multiplier or an expensive mistake:
Policy as the rulebook: the business rules an agent needs before it can act
System ownership: what procurement must control and what stays with IT
Process design: mapping every fork before you try to automate it
Configuration management: testing, versioning, and rolling back agent logic safely
Adoption and trust: why people route around systems they can't see explained

For CPOs and procurement leaders weighing an agentic AI investments, whether build or buy.

Based on the following edition of The Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/agentic-procurement-team-playbook
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9 min
September 18Do You Want a ProcureTech Software Provider or a Partner?
You're not just licensing software. You're deciding what kind of relationship you'll have with the company behind it, and most procurement teams find that out too late.

This deep dive lays out seven dimensions that separate a real ProcureTech partner from a plain software provider, and makes the case that your expectations should rise, not relax, now that AI is in the stack:
Accountability: logins, or outcomes?
Roadmap: handed off at go-live, or co-owned?
Transparency: what's shipping, or what's demo-ware?
Data: locked in, or yours?
Access: a support ticket, or someone who can change something?
Incentives: your renewal, or your success?
Point of view: a feature list, or a challenge to your process?

It's also a first and a last: Matthew's final deep dive episode as co-host, and the introduction of the one taking over.

For procurement and finance leaders sizing up a new software vendor, renewing a contract, or being sold an AI roadmap they can't yet verify.

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42 min
September 11Inside IDC's 2026 Spend Orchestration MarketScape
Spend orchestration and source-to-pay started as separate purchases. They're converging, and that shift changes the technology decision sitting in front of you.

IDC's Patrick Reymann, Research Director for Procurement Applications and Agents, joins the show to break down his 2026 Spend Orchestration MarketScape.

You'll get:
What the latest MarketScape found, and how the category has matured
Why S2P suites and intake and orchestration are collapsing into one market
Where agentic AI actually delivers, and where it's still hype
What to do next if you're choosing procurement technology this year

If you own procurement technology decisions and you're trying to separate real capability from the noise, start here.

Patrick's study, the IDC MarketScape on AI-enabled spend orchestration: https://my.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US54663526

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36 min

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ProcureTech Unpacked is an independent podcast for procurement and finance leaders navigating technology decisions.

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ProcureTech Unpacked

ProcureTech Unpacked episodes

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