“We’re accelerating into an era where AI isn’t a distant promise for procurement, but a catalyst for change happening right now. In the next two years, leaders who embrace agentic technology and learn collectively will define the competitive edge,” declared Sudhir Bhojwani, CEO of ORO Labs, as ORO Imagine kicked off with a surge of energy and momentum.
The future of procurement is not waiting on the sidelines. That much was clear as industry trailblazers took the stage at the annual ORO Imagine, hosted inside Amsterdam’s iconic Heineken Experience on the eve of DPW Amsterdam.
A recurring message threaded throughout this year’s event was that procurement is being reimagined at speed. Today’s challenge is not simply adopting technology, but dynamically connecting people, technology, and process, to drive breakthrough results. As the perfect prelude to DPW Amsterdam, ORO Imagine proved one thing beyond a doubt: AI is no longer theoretical. It’s already reshaping how procurement teams deliver impact.
Despite technology’s obvious presence, ORO Imagine began the sell-out event with a human touch. Lance Younger, EVP, EMEA GM and Global Partnerships at ORO Labs, urged everyone in attendance to stand up and introduce themselves to the people next to them. The thinking was that every idea in the room was people-driven, and ORO is renowned for ‘humanising the procurement experience.’
ORO’s founders, Sudhir Bhojwani and Lalitha Rajagopalan, anchored the event by challenging the audience to connect what organisations typically keep separate – systems, processes, and data – and explored how true transformation means making these elements work together seamlessly for everyone. Bhojwani emphasised that “agentic AI alone is not a differentiator, because soon everyone will have agents. ORO’s evolution into ORO AI V2 aims to become the universal front door for users – meeting every need, every time.”
Agents were certainly top of mind. It was the overriding theme of the keynote delivered by futurist Dr. Elouise Epstein, Partner at Kearney, who explored the history of procurement technology and outlined four transformational generations, starting with the dot-com boom, to the procurement suites, which she explained were “built for a different time and place, to the SaaS explosion, to the AI-native procurement platforms of today.”
According to Epstein, agents will soon take over, moving the needle from human to machine to machine to machine. Source-to-pay processes will soon be fully automated, with humans remaining in the loop for oversight and governance. Epstein was insistent that this transformation will be great for procurement, allowing leaders within the function to focus on more strategic work that drives real value to the business while developing supplier relationships and embracing innovation.
Epstein told the audience: “No one wants to do this work. As procurement, we can start to do our real jobs that everyone has tried to do for the past 20 years.”
Following Epstein came the afternoon’s first panel, which explored orchestrating agentic procurement and focused on strategy versus execution. Contributing to the panel were Paula Glickenhaus, Chief Procurement Officer at Bristol Myers Squibb, Damien Robillon, Director of Procurement Enablement at Heineken, Martin Ward, Digital Procurement Lead at Roche, and Marc Ofiara, Lighthouse Lead, Category Management at Bayer. They explored whether they believed strategy or execution was more important and how AI would shape key decision-making in the future.
Ward helps lead the Roche team that implements apps and solutions under an agreed strategy to deliver better business outcomes. “Getting solutions and medicines to patients quicker is our primary business goal,” he said. “We’ve translated that down by departmental goals to work out what procurement can do to achieve those goals and support the overall mission of the business. What do we want to do on the digital side? What is the methodology we want to apply? At Roche, we want to try and make sure every department is aligned on the strategy.” On the other side of the debate, Glickenhaus was unequivocal about what she believes is most critical. “Execution eats strategy for breakfast,” she told the room. “You can have the best strategy, but if you don’t execute properly, then you’ll get lost. I believe execution is most important, especially with the amount of change management as a result of AI transformation.”
Later came another panel, which this time included Alan Rice, Managing Director at Cache Procurement, Julio Peironcely, Global Director, Data Analytics and Digital at Danone, Stu Rogers, VP, Development at Liberty Blume, and Scott Whelan, Senior Director at Pfizer. When asked about the best way to manage data-driven insights when automating unstructured data through agentic AI, Peironcely suggested involving category managers from the beginning of the model design process. “This means the model will do what it should do and doesn’t hallucinate while ensuring people are kept engaged because they are an important part of the process,” he told the room. “We see a greater excitement in our procurement people if they are working with the technology instead of just having the technology land on them.”
Then came Chris Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader from The Hackett Group. In his keynote, Sawchuk highlighted the impact of procurement orchestration and disclosed findings from an ongoing study. According to the survey, orchestration is already having a major impact despite it being relatively early days. Most organisations are beginning with three main areas – sourcing, supplier onboarding and intake management – and are observing faster cycle times and happier users. For example, supplier onboarding dropped to an average of 20 days for orchestrated processes, in comparison to 26 days elsewhere. “Last year, I was at DPW, and there was only a handful that were talking about agentic AI,” declared Sawchuk. “Is there anyone out there who’s not talking about agentic AI today? We don’t know what we don’t know. The question is what we’re going to be thinking about in the future.”
The final presentation was delivered by former Johnson & Johnson Chief Procurement Officer Shashi Mandapaty, who explored the art of the possible in AI-driven procurement transformation. Mandapaty urged attendees to accept AI as a new way of working and to expand the possible, not simply use it for technology’s sake. He shared that procurement expertise will be decentralised and procurement will sit within the business, not a siloed function out on its own. Mandapaty explained how generative AI investments will only pay off when yesterday’s best practices are reimagined, while he also urged leaders to possess a greater understanding of how their organisations actually work. “We are no longer the process experts; we have to be outcome experts.”
ORO Imagine 2025 was ultimately a celebration of people powering radical change. Technology alone isn’t enough; real innovation happens when procurement leaders reimagine the possible, adopting agentic AI to free teams for deeper supplier partnering and true value creation.
The tools are here – the future depends on how bold procurement leaders reimagine what’s possible.
Sudhir Bhojwani, CEO and Co-Founder, ORO Labs
“We’re at a tipping point. Our teams and partners are not just willing, but eager for change. Combine this momentum with hands-on experiences like our earlier hackathon, and the story is clear: the procurement community is ready to shape the future together.”
Lalitha Rajagopalan, Co-Founder, ORO Labs
“One of the biggest changes that we did this year was to introduce a hackathon because people needed to experience something hands-on, and it really opens up the imagination. The second change we made was that when customers are sharing their journeys, we want them to see it in action and get provocative people to poke, prod, and stretch the art of the possible.”
Lance Younger, EVP, EMEA GM and Global Partnerships, ORO Labs
“The hackathon was sold out, and we had hundreds of people on the live stream, so we’ve been incredibly pleased. Change is going to come big and fast. I don’t think people realise how quickly everything will transform. This is not a 10-year change – this is a two to three-year change.”
Check out the article in the DPW Amsterdam Takeover Edition here.
Find out more about ORO Labs here.
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