Zycus Bets Big on Agentic AI and Intake-to-Outcomes (I2O)

Article Technology & AI Zycus Bets Big on Agentic AI and Intake-to-Outcomes (I2O) By Georgia Greetham June 01, 2026 undefined mins Share this article Prioritise Us on Google Share this article Prioritise Us on Google Aatish Dedhia, Founder and CEO of Zycus Zycus remains relevant as an enterprise procurement software vendor but have they bet their future on a single pivot: Agentic AI and Intake-to-Outcomes For more than two decades, Zycus has maintained a strong position within the enterprise source-to-pay software market. However, the current corporate landscape requires vendors to demonstrate more than incremental updates to legacy software.  At the Agentic AI Procurement Summit in May, the company focused on a massive strategic shift, reframing procurement processes around agentic systems and intake-to-outcomes (I2O) – an AI-driven procurement operating model. Overhauling the procurement interface The shift from traditional source-to-pay structures to an intake-to-outcomes framework addresses a long-standing challenge in corporate purchasing.  Legacy procurement systems frequently suffer from low internal adoption rates because casual enterprise users find the step-by-step navigation of complex enterprise resource planning interfaces counterintuitive.  This complexity often results in non-compliant buying behaviours, undocumented communication channels and delayed tracking. The I2O model is designed to reconfigure this relationship by introducing a centralised conversational entry point, known as Merlin Intake. This procurement management solution, Zycus says, serves as a “front door to procurement,” with one unified entry point for purchasing, sourcing and legal requests – bypassing clunky, multi-step procurement forms.   The software orchestrates the necessary approvals, risk assessments and transaction execution without requiring manual human intervention at each administrative junction. By focusing on the final commercial outcome rather than the administrative workflow, the approach aims to eliminate compliance gaps while still maintaining operational control.   “The I2O framework marks procurement’s most important evolution yet,” said Aatish Dedhia, Founder and CEO of Zycus. “We’re moving from reactive to autonomous – from managing processes to orchestrating outcomes that directly deliver business value.”  Delivering I2Os across global supply chains I2O architecture is being increasingly adopted by large-scale global enterprises.  Delta Airlines, for instance, has transitioned from fragmented legacy operations to a consolidated source-to-pay infrastructure powered by Zycus's generative intelligence technology.  By establishing a unified procurement framework across its operations, the airline accelerated internal project visibility and expanded supply chain efficiency.  Similarly, IBM has integrated Zycus's agentic tools to address the complex challenges of tail spend management – combining structured intake capabilities with automated negotiation agents – to allow corporate organisations to replace disparate buying processes with a singular decision layer that converts raw user demand directly into compliant financial outcomes. Kuntha Chelvanathan, Global Procurement Operations Offering Leader at IBM “Tail spend has always been Procurement's handicap – too costly to manage manually, too fragmented to prioritise and no technology to manage holistically,” says Kuntha Chelvanathan, Global Procurement Operations Offering Leader at IBM. “By combining IBM's services intelligence with Zycus' Agentic AI, we're offering the market a truly scalable solution to unlock savings, compliance and advanced user experiences where none existed before.” Aatish also commented on the partnership at Zycus Horizon , saying: “At Zycus, our mission is to deploy agentic AI from intake to outcome. “Tail spend is a multi-billion-dollar savings opportunity hiding in plain sight. Our Merlin Intake and ANA bring the intelligence; IBM brings the scale. “Together, we're rewriting how procurement manages its long tail. With innovation at the core and collaboration as the catalyst, we're entering a new era – where procurement is not just smarter, but outcome-driven.” Other major corporate entities, including Regeneron, Belden and Curtiss-Wright, have also moved towards this automated framework to reduce customisation turnaround times and manage cross-border supply chain risks.   Company portals Delta Air Lines IBM Zycus Executives Aatish Dedhia Founder and CEO at Zycus Kuntha Chelvanathan Global Intelligent Procurement Operations Offering Leader Tags Zycus Merlin Intake Procurement AI