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Last week Levelpath hosted our very first LevelUp conference, and it exceeded every expectation we had.
We brought together an incredible group of procurement leaders, customers, partners, and innovators to explore what becomes possible when procurement scales with AI.
Throughout the week we talked about a shift that is already happening across the enterprise. AI is moving beyond assistants and into something much more powerful: agents that can actually execute work.
Instead of asking software how it can help, systems are starting to take action. Instead of “how can I help?” it becomes “here is how I handled it.”
LevelUp was about showing what that shift looks like in the real world.
Putting AI Agents into Attendees’ Hands
LevelUp began with hands-on training sessions tailored for Levelpath and agentic AI.
Attendees did not just hear about AI. They started building with it.
Participants in our AI Agents workshop explored how AI agents can orchestrate procurement workflows, route requests, surface insights, and move work forward automatically. Groups of attendees used Orchestration Studio to design custom AI Agents during the session.
By the end of the session, ten groups had submitted AI Agents for a friendly competition and were left asking what they could automate next.
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What AI Transformation Actually Looks Like
Wednesday shifted the focus to the people who are actually reshaping procurement inside their organizations.
We opened the day with a keynote on Agentic AI and why procurement teams are beginning to rethink how work moves across the business. The teams building out their AI playbook now will move faster than everyone else. The future of work will require new skills, elevated roles, and updated goal metrics.
Next, our customers took the stage and shared how they are introducing new technology, building stronger stakeholder relationships, and creating better visibility into procurement activity across the enterprise.
Customers shared stories from:
- Adam Andolina, Chief Procurement Officer at Acrisure walked through how he built a modern procurement function and what it means to redefine procurement’s partnership with the business as the company continues to scale.
- Leigh Barbeau, Director of Indirect Procurement at Ace Hardware shared how they are cutting through procurement noise by centralizing intake, creating more transparency across teams, and bringing structure to a large and complex supplier ecosystem.
- Meg Kociemba, Sr. Director, Office of the CIO at Suffolk explained how their team is approaching vendor engagement and contract management with a stronger focus on risk readiness, using structured processes and technology to reduce exposure from the beginning of every supplier relationship.
- Fraz Baig (Director of Category Management and Operations at Ace Hardware), Andrew Dickerson (Senior Procurement Manager at MX Holdings), Meara Fallon (Senior Manager, Procurement Operations at Zendesk), and Nikhil Gaur (Director, Strategic Projects & Research Analyst at Hackett Group) spoke on a panel, where they discussed how they scaled their procurement processes, increased adoption, and where Levelpath’s AI has been most valuable.
- Jason Cammarota (Chief Procurement Officer at Emerald), Jonathan Schwarz (Director of Global Procurement at TKO), and Sarah Toomey (Head of Finance at Levelpath) joined the second panel to talk about how they achieved time to value by designing a procurement process that worked for stakeholders and creating one unified foundation to build off.
The day also included several broader perspectives on leadership and the future of procurement. Rick Sherlund, Senior Advisor, TMS Investment Banking at Wedbush, shared how AI-native organizations are attracting increasing investment as legacy organizations struggle to adapt. Former Navy SEAL John Rudella spoke about leadership and navigating complex situations under pressure.
Dr. Elouise Epstein, Partner at Kearney, closed out the day with a thought-provoking session on how humans, suppliers, data, and intelligent agents will begin working together in entirely new ways.
Real AI Playbooks Took Shape in the Masterclass Sessions
We brought our incredibly popular AI Masterclass webinar series to the stage at LevelUp.
These sessions focused on practical applications of Levelpath’s AI led by customers who are already implementing more advanced workflows.
The sessions included:
- AI Front Door: Rachel Kegel, Director, Sourcing Operations at SSM Health walked through how she created a single intake “front door” for procurement requests. Instead of fragmented requests arriving from different systems and teams, everything now enters through one unified workflow where AI can route, analyze, and coordinate work.
- AI in Sourcing: David Hurtado, Division President, Regional Operations at Congruex explained how Levelpath’s AI capabilities helped their sourcing team accelerate event analysis, reduce manual steps, and uncover opportunities faster.
- IT & Integrations: Zach Margolis, IT Operations Analyst at Emerald, demonstrated how AI-powered automation and integrations dramatically reduced procurement cycle times while improving IT visibility into procurement activity.
- Task Agents: Vicki Munson, Procurement Director at Instructure, shared how Task Agents automate repetitive procurement work such as contract reviews and approval workflows, cutting contract turnaround times from months to just a few days.
AI becomes meaningful when it is applied to real operational problems. These Masterclass sessions showed that procurement teams are already experimenting with agentic workflows that can scale across the enterprise.
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Product Innovation Showed What Agentic Procurement Looks Like
The week also gave us the opportunity to share the product vision we are building toward.
The day two keynote, led by the Levelpath Product Team, explored what it means for a platform to be truly AI-native. Instead of software that simply records work after it happens, the goal is to build systems where AI Agents can actively participate in moving that work forward.
A major part of that vision is Orchestration Studio, a new way for non-technical users to build their own AI Agents and multi-agent workflows. Rather than relying on rigid approval chains or disconnected tools, teams can design workflows where AI Agents coordinate tasks, surface information, and take action across the platform.
The keynote walked through examples of what that looks like in practice. Some AI Agents summarize procurement projects for stakeholders. Others review contracts against company playbooks and highlight potential risks. Some monitor projects and alert teams when deadlines slip.
Levelpath also introduced an AI Agent Library, where teams can deploy or customize agents for specific use cases like supplier QBR preparation, contract renewals, or automating low-touch agreements like NDAs.
The broader goal is simple: give procurement teams their time back. AI Agents can take on repetitive work, route requests automatically, and allow procurement teams to focus on the decisions that actually move the business forward.
The Future of Procurement Is Being Built by This Community
When Alex and I look back on LevelUp, the best part of the week was connecting with the community that came together to make it happen.
Customers shared their success stories. Procurement leaders exchanged ideas and challenged each other to think bigger. Industry experts offered perspective on where procurement technology is headed next.
The conversations throughout the week reinforced something we strongly believe.
The future of procurement will be agentic, intelligent, and collaborative. Levelpath is committed to being a partner that helps procurement teams define their own AI playbook and begin to scale.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the week so special. We cannot wait to continue building this future together and we are already looking forward to the next LevelUp.
-- Alex Yakubovich and Stan Garber
