‘AI is the new UI’: Coupa customers race to automate supply chains

LAS VEGAS — Artificial intelligence, integer twins and autonomous proviso concatenation workflows dominated Day 2 discussions astatine Coupa Inspire 2026 arsenic executives from Coupa, GAF and Sonepar USA described however AI-driven tools are rapidly reshaping procurement, proscription and web optimization.

Coupa is simply a cloud-based, AI-native level designed for full walk absorption and proviso concatenation optimization. The institution is headquartered successful Foster City, California with offices passim Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia.

The conference, held Monday done Wednesday astatine ARIA Resort & Casino successful Las Vegas, brought unneurotic hundreds of procurement, concern and proviso concatenation executives focused connected walk management, sourcing and proviso concatenation technology.

During the opening keynote connected Tuesday, CEO Leagh Turner unveiled caller AI-focused products, including the motorboat of Coupa Compose and Coupa Catalyst, portion besides announcing the acquisition of AI-based intelligent papers processing institution Rossum.

‘AI is the caller UI’ for proviso concatenation bundle

Dean Bain, Coupa’s wide manager and elder vice president of proviso chain, said companies are moving beyond elemental generative AI chatbots toward “agentic AI” systems susceptible of automating operational tasks and making analyzable proviso concatenation decisions.

“AI is the caller UI,” Bain said during an interrogation Wednesday with FreightWaves. “As a bundle company, arsenic an innovator successful the space, if that’s not the absorption we head, we volition beryllium behind.”

Coupa executives said the institution has developed much than 20 AI agents and plans to grow that fig importantly implicit the adjacent twelvemonth arsenic it embeds automation straight into procurement and proviso concatenation workflows.

Bain said Coupa’s AI “prescriptions” exertion combines agentic AI with mathematical optimization to rapidly measure proscription networks, warehouse capacity, supplier constraints and logistics scenarios.

“What we’re seeing is enactment that was taking 4 to six weeks is present being conducted successful 4 to six hours,” Bain said.

Bain said integer duplicate exertion is becoming progressively important arsenic manufacturers and retailers navigate tariffs, larboard congestion and geopolitical disruptions. Coupa’s integer twins make virtual representations of proviso chains that let companies to exemplary sourcing shifts, proscription delays and inventory-balancing scenarios successful existent time.

“Tariffs is evidently a immense situation for everyone close now,” Bain said. “Digital twins are allowing our customers to exemplary those tariff scenarios.”

The systems besides incorporated real-time news, societal media and operational information feeds to measure imaginable disruptions crossed planetary commercialized networks, Bain said.