Art of Procurement

"Supply chains are going to get more complex. As we adopt more agents, there's going to be more coordination, not just between humans but between bots and humans and bots themselves." Nick Gospodinov, Founder and CEO, Mandel AI
Today's procurement organizations live in two worlds: ERP platforms and mountains of emails and spreadsheets. That disconnect can (and all too often does) lead to missed quotes, lapsed deadlines, and significant hidden costs… especially in direct procurement, where stakes are high. 
With AI finally mature enough to process natural language, the opportunity to bridge these worlds is here.
In this Startup of the Week episode of the ProcureTech Insider podcast, Mandel AI founder Nick Gospodinov shares how his team built an "AI supply chain coordinator" focused on the true communication backbone of procurement. Mandel AI doesn't just automate ERP tasks, it reads buyers' inboxes, detects disruption, and escalates real business risk before procurement even knows there's a problem. 
Listen in to hear why fast, scenario-based deployments can drive immediate value, how escalation features find money others miss, and what CPOs need to ask before introducing new tech.
In this episode, Nick covers:
- Connect real-time communication to procurement action  
- Tackle the "coordination tax" that slows supply chains  
- Overcome trust and adoption hurdles for AI in manufacturing  
- Find deeper ROI beyond time saved, like preventing quote expiration  
- Deploy AI automation with speed and flexibilit
 
Links:
Nick Gospodinov on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-gospodinov/ 
Visit the Mandel AI Profile in the AOP Provider Directory: https://artofprocurement.com/provider-directory/mandelai 
Subscribe to the AOP Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe 
Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtofProcurement

Procurement teams are under steady pressure to do more with less, and AI has made boards impatient for faster, smarter answers. Most teams can't build every capability they need in-house, so the CPOs pulling ahead are redesigning their operating models around the right external partners. Getting that right depends on removing friction from the process and building trust with stakeholders and suppliers alike.
In this episode, I'm joined by Hiten Parmar, Chief Procurement Officer at Beazley, and Prerna Dhawan, Chief Product Officer at Beroe, for a candid look at how their partnership actually works. Hiten explains how he decides what to build and what to bring in, and why he looks for partners who iterate and learn rather than chase perfection. Prerna shares the moment she chose not to charge a customer more, and why that decision protected a relationship that has since grown from market intelligence into risk.
We also talk about the shift from too little data to too much, why provenance is now scarce, and the one question Prerna wishes procurement teams would ask their suppliers. 
In this episode, Hiten and Prerna cover how to:
- Test every capability against your core business, then find who is best in the world to deliver it.
- Judge partners on cultural fit, trust, and willingness to iterate, not only on price.
- Pair a partner's decision-grade data with your own context on supplier criticality and exposure.
- Ask suppliers where you rank on their priority list, not just how risky they are to you.
- Push your team to speak in business terms and bring supplier ideas to stakeholders.
Links:
Hiten Parmar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiten-parmar-033b421?originalSubdomain=uk 
Prerna Dhawan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prerna-dhawan31/?isSelfProfile=false Join AOP and Beroe at ProcureTEX in Amsterdam, November 3rd: https://hubs.li/Q04lR_Xg0

Dear Diary… "I was watching a lot of smart people, day in and day out, looking across documents, opening folders."
Most procurement teams pick AI use cases by asking what the technology can do. Liza Tsimbal started somewhere else. On a random Tuesday, an OEM technical issue had a room full of smart people hunting through old drawings, contracts, and email chains for one piece of information. Her conclusion: information you cannot retrieve fast enough might as well not exist.
Liza is the Director of Supply Chain Management at TransAlta, one of Canada's biggest power generators. She leads a team of roughly 30 people across buying and strategic sourcing that supports more than 90 generating facilities in Canada, the United States, and Australia.
In this episode of The Agentic Procurement Diaries podcast, Philip Ideson and Liza discuss:
- Why TransAlta chose requisition-to-purchase-order automation and contract and PO leakage as its first agentic pilots, based on four criteria: high volume, rules-based, disliked by the team, and reversible
- Liza's test for taking the human out of the loop, and the decisions she won't hand to an agent, such as new material obligations or anything with a safety implication
- How she avoids AI FOMO by tying every use case to a measurable business outcome
- The risk of automating procurement's apprenticeship, and why the ability to define what good looks like becomes the scarce skill
Links:
Liza Tsimbal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liza-tsimbal-mba-59433242/ 
Zycus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zycus/ 
AOP Provider Directory | Zycus: https://artofprocurement.com/provider-directory/zycusinc 
Subscribe to the AOP Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe 
Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtofProcurement

"If you're not thinking about what you inherit through your procurement decisions, then you're not truly serious about managing your climate impacts." - Nicole Darnall, Professor, Arlene R. & Robert P. Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Sustainability, American University - Kogod School of Business
Companies have spent years setting sustainability goals, developing policies, and asking suppliers for more information, but there can still be a significant gap between those commitments and the decisions procurement teams make every day.
In this episode, Philip Ideson is joined by Nicole Darnall, Professor and Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Sustainability at American University, to explore procurement's role in turning sustainability commitments into measurable action. Nicole has spent more than two decades studying sustainability, including the last decade focused specifically on procurement.
Nicole explains why so much of an organization's environmental and social impact sits beyond its own walls and how purchasing decisions can influence those outcomes. She and Philip discuss the disconnect between sustainability policies and implementation, the growing burden of supplier surveys, and why procurement needs better ways to determine which sustainability information actually matters.
They also explore how procurement teams can identify the purchasing categories where they can have the greatest impact and how sustainability considerations are beginning to intersect with AI and data center sourcing decisions.
In this episode, Nicole discusses how to:
-Close the gap between sustainability policies and procurement decisions
-Identify the spend categories with the greatest environmental or social impact
-Ask suppliers more meaningful sustainability questions
-Incorporate sustainability criteria into the RFP process
-Look beyond purchase price when evaluating true cost
-Use AI to support sustainability decisions throughout the procurement cycle
-Consider environmental, community, reputational, and operational risks when sourcing AI and data services
Links:
Nicole Darnall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-darnall-4a905541/ 
Learn more about the Sustainable Procurement Research Initiative: https://kogod.american.edu/spri 
Subscribe to the AOP Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe 
Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtofProcurement

"Everybody's trying to simplify. Everybody's trying to make the process better and the end-user experience for buying better." - Jeremy Lappin, Co-founder and CEO, Candex
Are you frustrated by the endless friction and noise around tail spend?

Candex Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Lappin shares how procurement leaders are breaking through the complexity of global tail spend and solving supplier onboarding, compliance, and cross-border payments without adding "yet another tool" to the stack.
In this Provider of the Week conversation, Jeremy reflects on Candex's evolution from startup to global player, unraveling the strategy behind their "it just works" reputation. He walks through real challenges faced by multinationals, the difference a seamless user experience makes, and why their growth has been driven by relentless focus on customer needs and edge-case scenarios.
Jeremy also shares practical advice on how to launch quickly, build business cases grounded in real numbers, and expand globally without sacrificing simplicity. Whether you're battling high supplier setup costs, chasing faster adoption, or facing a cross-border compliance maze, Jeremy offers a refreshing perspective for digital procurement leaders.
Listen to the full episode to hear Jeremy's perspective on:
-Lowering tail-spend friction by removing onboarding headaches
-Supporting expansion into 55+ countries while handling local compliance
-Embedding directly into existing procurement stacks, not adding another login
-Scaling adoption gradually, avoiding license-heavy lock-ins
 
Links:
Jeremy Lappin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-lappin-555718/ 
Candex Profile in the AOP Provider Directory: https://artofprocurement.com/provider-directory/candex 
Subscribe to the AOP Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe 
Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtofProcurement