From Manual to Autonomous: The Journey Toward Touchless Procurement

Procurement has long been seen as a back-office process—one that depends on paperwork, manual approvals, and endless supplier communications. For decades, procurement professionals relied on spreadsheets, emails, and filing cabinets to manage contracts, purchase orders, and supplier records. While effective in its time, this manual model slowed down operations and limited procurement’s ability to create strategic value.

Today, the story is changing. With advances in automation and artificial intelligence (AI), organizations are moving beyond digitization to embrace touchless procurement—a model where the entire source-to-pay cycle runs with minimal human intervention. This journey, from manual to autonomous procurement, is transforming how businesses manage spend, build supplier relationships, and deliver value.

The Manual Procurement Era

In the manual era, procurement tasks required heavy human involvement at every step. Purchase requisitions were typed or handwritten, approvals were routed physically, and contracts were stored in filing cabinets. Key challenges included:

• Slow cycle times: Processing purchase orders could take weeks due to manual approvals.

• Data inaccuracy: Reliance on spreadsheets led to errors, duplicates, and inconsistent records.

• Compliance risks: Tracking spend against policies or regulations was nearly impossible without automation.

• Limited visibility: Decision-makers lacked real-time insight into spending patterns or supplier performance.

This model often resulted in higher costs, maverick spend, and delayed business outcomes.

The Shift Toward Digital Procurement

The first wave of change came with digital procurement platforms. By introducing electronic workflows, e-sourcing tools, and supplier portals, organizations reduced paper dependence and improved process visibility.

Digital procurement introduced capabilities such as:

• E-procurement systems for automated purchase order generation

• Supplier portals for onboarding and collaboration

• Contract management systems for digital storage and alerts

• Basic analytics for spend tracking

This digitization improved efficiency but still required significant human input. For example, employees had to select suppliers, initiate approvals, and analyze reports manually.

Enter Automation and AI

The next phase of evolution builds on digitization with advanced automation and AI technologies. These solutions go beyond electronic records to actually perform procurement tasks autonomously.

Key advancements include:

• AI-powered spend analysis: Automatically classifies purchases, detects anomalies, and identifies cost-saving opportunities.

• Natural language processing (NLP): Reads contracts, flags risks, and sets renewal reminders without human review.

• Predictive analytics: Forecasts demand and supplier risks to optimize sourcing strategies.

• Autonomous approvals: Rules-based workflows approve low-value, low-risk purchases instantly.

With these tools, procurement shifts from reactive paperwork to proactive strategy, enabling professionals to focus on supplier collaboration and innovation.

Defining Touchless Procurement

Touchless procurement represents the end state of this evolution—a procurement process where most activities are handled autonomously, with humans intervening only for exceptions or strategic decisions.

In touchless procurement:

• Requisitions are automatically created when inventory drops below threshold.

• Suppliers are selected based on AI-driven recommendations.

• Approvals for compliant, low-risk purchases are completed instantly.

• Invoices are matched with contracts and paid without manual entry.

• Exceptions (e.g., unusual pricing or high-risk suppliers) are escalated to humans.

This model reduces cycle times from weeks to days—or even minutes—while ensuring accuracy, compliance, and cost savings.

Benefits of Touchless Procurement

Organizations that move toward touchless procurement achieve measurable outcomes:

• Speed: Purchase orders and approvals happen in real time.

• Cost savings: Eliminates maverick spend and improves supplier negotiations.

• Risk management: AI continuously monitors compliance and supplier performance.

• Employee productivity: Staff focus on strategic tasks instead of routine paperwork.

• Visibility: Unified platforms provide real-time dashboards for spend, suppliers, and risks.

The Role of AI Platforms

Solutions such as Zycus’s Source-to-Pay platform and Merlin Agentic AI are making touchless procurement a reality. By integrating intake management, procure-to-pay, supplier management, and contract automation into one ecosystem, organizations can move seamlessly from manual intervention to autonomous execution.

Merlin Agentic AI acts as a digital co-pilot—analyzing data, automating tasks, and recommending actions—while still allowing human oversight for strategic decisions. Intake management ensures employee requests are intelligently captured and routed, reducing delays and ensuring compliance from the start.

The Road Ahead

The journey from manual to autonomous procurement is not about replacing people—it’s about empowering them. By removing repetitive, error-prone tasks, procurement professionals can focus on high-value work: building supplier partnerships, driving sustainability, and shaping business strategy.

As organizations continue to embrace AI and automation, touchless procurement will become the new standard—delivering speed, accuracy, and resilience in an unpredictable business environment.