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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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:

1. Policy as the rulebook: the business rules an agent needs before it can act

2. System ownership: what procurement must control and what stays with IT

3. Process design: mapping every fork before you try to automate it

4. Configuration management: testing, versioning, and rolling back agent logic safely

5. 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

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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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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This episode makes the case that the people who follow ProcureTech closely are, almost by definition, the ones most comfortable with change.

This makes them badly calibrated to lead it.

We get into:

• The Gartner data on change fatigue (why willingness to support change has collapsed while the volume of change has more than quadrupled),

• Why resistance rarely shows up as a clean "no,"

• And the four moves that actually build buy-in: accepting that being right isn't enough, learning to sell internally, shrinking the ask to one visible pilot, and having the difficult conversations early.

If you're a procurement or finance leader with a great idea that's not landing or keeps dying in committee, this one's for you.

Based on the following edition of The Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/your-colleagues-are-not-the-problem

This episode tells the story of an experienced procurement team that skipped the blank page entirely.

Instead of inventing new value, they went back to their original Source-to-Pay business case, measured the gap between what it promised and what it actually delivered, isolated the shortfall caused by low user adoption, and used that number to fund their next project.

Four steps, one honest premise: reclaim the value you already paid for.

If you're an experienced procurement or finance leader heading into budget season with a new investment to justify, this is the fastest (and most credible) case you can make.

Based on this edition of the Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/a-new-way-to-business-case

In this minisode, Joël Collin-Demers lays out three reasons the waiting posture backfires:

• Migrations move slower than anyone plans for,

• The ERP underpins far less of your procurement stack than you'd assume,

• And the real bottleneck is talent and capacity, not technical dependency.

Then Joël walks through the two architecture moves that let you invest now without disrupting the S/4 program, and the budget reframe that turns ProcureTech into the line item that helps pay for the migration instead of competing with it.

If you're a procurement or finance leader with an S/4HANA migration on the horizon and a digitalization plan parked behind it, this one's for you.

Sources:

• SAP's ECC base is barely budging... Just 39% had licensed S/4HANA by the end of 2024 (The Register, reporting Gartner): https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/20/sap_sees_little_progress_in/

• S/4HANA migrations average about 18 months and can run as long as six years (ASUG, The State of SAP S/4HANA Adoption): https://www.asug.com/insights/the-state-of-sap-s-4hana-adoption-trends-successes-and-challenges

• SAP's clean core doctrine, build beside the core rather than on it (SAP News): https://news.sap.com/2025/08/extend-sap-s4hana-cloud-right-way-clean-clear/

This week, Joël and Matt break down why the real question isn't build vs. buy, it's how many integrations you're willing to own.

They walk through the five cost drivers that actually determine total cost of ownership (TCO), and the three-question heuristic for knowing when a capability belongs in your core system versus when it's safe to bolt on.

For procurement and IT leaders staring down a best-of-breed pitch, evaluating an internal build, or trying to figure out why last year's "quick integration" still isn't reconciling cleanly.

Subscribe to the Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/subscribe

Now, every serious procurement platform has one. But before you take any "Studio" label at face value, it's worth knowing what the term actually means...

In this minisode, Joël Collin-Demers cuts through the naming noise to the one distinction that decides your future flexibility:

A studio lets your team author its own AI agents and LLM-supported workflows, while embedded AI just lets you consume the vendor's.

You'll also get the single question to pressure-test a vendor "studio" in any demo, the four things that separate one studio from the next, and why the real work only starts after you've signed.

If you've got a platform decision or a vendor demo on the horizon, this one's for you.

Based on this week's Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/what-is-an-ai-agent-studio

Other resources mentioned:

"What Is a Process Scope Diagram (IGOE)?": https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/what-is-a-process-scope-diagram-igoe

Agentic business process management: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/procurement-business-process-management

This minisode makes the case that the model behind your platform is a strategic supplier (one you'd never let into your supply base unvetted).

Joël Collin-Demers breaks down the four forces pushing procurement toward "Bring-Your-Own-LLM" (cost, performance, data security and control), points to the enterprise vendors that already shipped it, and gives you three questions to put in your next software RFP while asking them still costs a conversation instead of your leverage.

For procurement and IT leaders with an agentic platform in evaluation, or a vendor already in the inbox promising AI agents.

Subscribe to The Pure Procurement Newsletter for more content like this: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/subscribe

Reports referenced in this episode:

LayerX, Enterprise AI & SaaS Data Security Report 2025: https://go.layerxsecurity.com/hubfs/LayerX_Enterprise_AI_and_SaaS_Data_Security_Report.pdf

Cyberhaven, 2026 AI Adoption & Risk Report: https://info.cyberhaven.com/hubfs/Webflow_Resources/Cyberhaven-AI-Risk-Report-2026.pdf

For most procurement technology, supplier enablement is the "long pole in the tent"... The thing everything else depends on.

And it's the one part of the project you have no authority over.

In this minisode, Joël Collin-Demers explains why internal change management is the easy half, why every supplier login screen is a leak in your business case, and walks through six questions to pressure-test any vendor selling you a "modern supplier onboarding" experience.

If you're mid-implementation and wondering why supplier data went stale the week after go-live, or you've got a supplier management demo on the calendar, this is your prep.

Based on the following edition of The Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/supplier-portals-are-obsolete

This week, Joël Collin-Demers breaks down the four-step pricing playbook every major LLM provider is running right now (the same one cloud vendors used a decade ago) using Uber's and Microsoft's own AI budget blowouts as the evidence.

You'll walk away with the exact questions to put in front of your next AI vendor before a flat monthly fee turns into a usage-based bill nobody predicted.

For procurement and finance leaders standardizing on a frontier AI provider, or about to face a ProcureTech vendor's new AI-powered features for the first time.

Based on this week's Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/the-golden-age-of-cheap-ai-is-ending

Other sources referenced:

• Uber AI spending cap (Simon Willison, citing Bloomberg): https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/3/uber-caps-usage/

• Microsoft cancels Claude Code licenses (Forbes, ties Uber + Microsoft together): https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/06/01/microsoft-ends-claude-code-licenses-as-it-pushes-copilot-cli/

• Hidden cloud storage cost survey, 403 IT decision-makers (Backblaze, citing Dimensional Research): https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-hidden-cost-of-cloud-storage-what-400-it-leaders-wish-they-knew-sooner/

Almost nobody could tell you the question.

This week Matt and Joël cut through the noise with a working definition of what an AI agent actually is built on five components: trigger, outcome, guides, enablers, and process.

From there, they lay out three heuristic questions to run before deploying an agent anywhere near your procurement process:

• Is the path to the outcome actually ambiguous?

• Is a directionally-correct output recoverable if it's wrong?

• Are your guardrails defined well enough to constrain it?

Plus: what the Anthropic-Salesforce stack battle signals about who owns the workflow layer, and more evidence of the ongoing convergence in procurement tech (Vendr/Vertice, Tropic/Omnea, Coupa/Rossum/Tonkean).

This one's for procurement and IT leaders who keep hearing "AI agent" in every vendor pitch and want a real framework for deciding when that's actually the right tool... Not just the current buzzword.

In this episode, Joël Collin-Demers breaks down why ProcureTech projects almost never hit their original timeline...

It's not because people are incompetent. It's because of how we build estimates in the first place.

You'll get a clear explanation of the planning fallacy, an introduction to Reference Class Forecasting, how to apply it before your next technology deployment, and a frank look at why the RFP process itself is designed to make the problem worse.

If you have a ProcureTech vendor evaluation coming up (or a business case that needs to go to the CFO), this one's for you.

Based on the Pure Procurement Newsletter, published March 22, 2026: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/reference-class-forecasting

That question is at the heart of this episode. We cover three AI subdomains procurement professionals should actually understand — Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and Anomaly Detection — including what each one does well, where it breaks down, and where it shows up in procurement today.

We also cover something more important: how modern AI systems like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini work by layering multiple types of AI together depending on the problem they're solving. And why that makes "it's powered by AI" one of the least useful things a vendor can tell you.

If you work in procurement and you're being pitched AI solutions, this episode gives you the vocabulary to ask better questions.

Based on the following edition of The Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/10-ai-subdomains

In this episode, Joël Collin-Demers breaks down the only factor that actually matters for your ERP vs. S2P decision: your industry. Not your vendor relationships. Not your IT team's preferences. Your industry.

You'll get two diagnostic scores you can run to compare architecture scenarios, a breakdown of how the right architecture looks completely different for direct vs. indirect businesses, and the two principles that resolves most procurement platform architecture debates before they start.

If you're in a procurement or finance leadership role and you have a technology decision coming up — or a vendor in your inbox — this one is worth your time.

Based on this week's edition of The Pure Procurement Newsletter: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/p/procurement-system-setup-by-industry

In our debut episode, hosts Joël Collin-Demers and Matthew Buckingham dig into what's actually shaping the ProcureTech market right now.

Market Signals:

• SAP's pivot toward becoming an AI company and what that means for your contracts and your architecture decisions. Link: SAP's Latest API Policy

• Breaking down Deloitte's State of AI in the Enterprise 2026 study (3,200+ respondents across 24 countries) and what it reveals about why most organizations are still stuck.

Deep Dive:

• Joël makes the case that the old S2P Suite vs. Intake & Orchestration debate is officially dead, and what you should be evaluating instead.

Rapid Fire:

An Overrated/Underrated round covering everything from supplier portals to reverse auctions to procurement's obsession with being "strategic."

Other Links Discussed:

• Kevin Kelly’s book - The Inevitable

• Epoch AI

• ArtificialAnalysis.ai

If you're a procurement leader trying to make smarter bets on technology, this is the show for you.

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One brings 15 years of procurement technology deployment. The other brings 20 years in the enterprise procurement space in global organizations.

Together, they're launching ProcureTech Unpacked—a podcast for procurement leaders drowning in vendor hype and conflicting advice.

Each month, deep dives into current technology trends. Weekly recaps of the Pure Procurement newsletter in between.

No vendor spin. Just balanced answers.

The first full episode launches June 12th: The 2026 State of Procurement Technology.

Subscribe now.