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Last week, the Levelpath community gathered in San Francisco for Connect Plus, and the energy was incredible. Hosted at the Exploratorium, Connect Plus was a celebration of partnership, innovation, and what it truly means to be AI-native in procurement. From bold future visions to practical wins, the day brought together some of the most forward-thinking minds in the procurement space.
Levelpath Training and Customer Connections
The week began with our LevelUp series at the Levelpath office, where participants took part in 101 and 201 sessions, hands-on product workshops, and AI prompting mastery. The highlight was watching procurement leaders from across industries share creative ways they use prompts to drive clarity and efficiency.
That evening, guests came together at McCormick and Kuleto’s for a laid-back happy hour with stunning views of the San Francisco Bay. Over flavorful bites and lively conversation, they explored how to evolve procurement into a truly AI-native experience, moving beyond simple AI enablement to transformative intelligence built into the core of procurement’s processes.
A Future-Forward Vision
On Thursday morning, Levelpath co-founders Alex Yakubovich and Stan Garber kicked off the main event with a keynote that cast a bold vision for the future of procurement. They shared how Levelpath is leading the industry with true AI-native procurement solutions, purpose-built to meet the moment as enterprises double down on AI investments.
While the technology is evolving rapidly, some things will always remain constant. Levelpath’s commitment to customer-centric innovation is unwavering. With a product roadmap shaped by direct procurement feedback and enhancements delivered in weekly releases, Levelpath is not responding to change, we are driving it.
Procurement as a Strategic Advisor
Few stories captured the spirit of Connect Plus like Adam Andolina’s. As CPO of Acrisure, Adam built a procurement function from scratch inside a fast-growing enterprise, starting with a thirty-nine-page business deck and a promise to save fifteen to thirty million dollars. Within twenty-four hours of adopting Levelpath, his team was launching sourcing events, orchestrating workflows, and shifting the culture from reactive buying to strategic enablement.
“Procurement is a strategic growth driver. We are going to enable the enterprise, mitigate risk, and I am going to build you a world-class organization as we do it.” Adam shared.
He detailed how his four-person team is now running more RFPs than the eighty-person team he led at a previous organization. With Levelpath’s AI Assistant, the Acrisure team generated a thirty-five question RFP for disaster recovery in seconds. He emphasized a phased maturity model, starting with a deep listening tour and quickly establishing procurement as a strategic advisor to the business. His message to the audience was clear: simplicity, orchestration, and AI-native workflows are redefining what lean, effective procurement looks like.
Standardizing Supplier Performance
Erica Lagocha, Director Procurement Center of Excellence, at TreeHouse Foods walked through how she transformed supplier performance tracking across twenty-six manufacturing plants. The result: over $985,000 in recouped credits in just a few months and 3300 tracked incidents. By consolidating eleven workflows into one, powered by conditional logic and embedded AI prompts, TreeHouse is now driving supplier accountability, plant transparency, and measurable financial impact via mobile on the manufacturing floor.
“We actually went from eleven workspaces down to one because we have new capabilities within Levelpath. Moving to the conditional formatting has been fantastic and made a world of difference,” Erica said. “We defined everything. I was going big bang, it is going to go out to everyone.”
She also noted how the transformation has driven cultural change inside the company. Before Levelpath, some plants managed issues ad hoc with no visibility or audit trail. Now, the process is standardized, measurable, auditable, and trusted. Plant managers are actively competing to lead in claim recoveries, and Erica’s team has automated supplier communication and data validation to the point where what used to take hours now happens in moments. This is not just about recouped dollars, it is about shifting procurement from reactive problem-solving to proactive performance leadership.
Sourcing and Contracts Powered by AI
In a high-energy panel, GATX and PADNOS shared how they are turning AI into daily value. For GATX, AI-powered contract analysis unlocked $3.5 million in negotiation savings, and their first sourcing events went live within one week of implementation. Field teams now own sourcing execution with support from Levelpath’s intuitive tools, which has improved compliance and accelerated outcomes. Executives can approve savings and review documentation from anywhere, even mid-flight, using the native mobile app.
PADNOS shared how they eliminated a multi-step emergency repair workflow by creating a mobile-first front door for drivers. PADNOS is now running 3.5x more sourcing events and averaging 20% savings per event. Their enriched supplier records allow discovery of new vendor options and capabilities, while internal prompting libraries help cross-train team members and scale expertise. As Rick Spykerman noted, “Now I just type in the AI Assistant in Levelpath and have all the answers I need. Does this contract allow for a price increase? It says yes. Where is it? In the document, there is all the information for it.”
Product Feedback and Future Direction
After lunch, customers joined our Product Team for an interactive session exploring what is next for the Levelpath platform. This was not just a glimpse into the roadmap, but a collaborative discussion where customers helped shape future capabilities across intake, sourcing, contracts, supplier management, and reporting. The session highlighted how AI Assistant usage is expanding, with over two thousand prompts submitted in the last ninety days and 96% of Levelpath customers using the AI Assistant, showing the momentum behind our AI-native approach.
The Levelpath Product team showcased powerful enhancements coming to the platform, including an AI Front Door that simplifies user intake, intelligent sourcing agents to assist in category strategy and evaluation, and a Contract Agent that can uncover clauses, provide renewal insights, and surface key terms in seconds. Upcoming features like Supplier 360, value tracking, and pipeline dashboards will help procurement teams consolidate insight across projects, performance, and partnerships. Our product team is working toward a future where intelligence is built into every step of the procurement journey.
We also heard from Meredith Ruff of Qualtrics, who described how a one-person Center of Excellence transformed a fragmented procurement ecosystem into a streamlined, auditable, and stakeholder-friendly operation. Procurement replaced five disconnected intake tools with Levelpath, unified fourteen workspaces into two, and migrated all high-value contracts into a single repository. Qualtrics results: a 36% increase in stakeholder clarity and timeliness and full adoption across a 5000 employee organization. “Levelpath has been transformational. We went from chaos to full visibility,” Meredith said. “I was able to go in and start playing around and configuring the tool ASAP and making changes on the spot as folks were giving feedback.”
The Standard for Modern Procurement
As the sun set over dinner at Waterbar, one thing was clear: AI-native procurement is not a passing trend, it is a new procurement standard. Whether accelerating supplier onboarding, enabling smarter negotiations, or unlocking enterprise-wide visibility, every conversation affirmed a shared belief: intelligent, intuitive procurement is no longer a future vision, it is here!
To all of our customers who joined us in San Francisco, thank you. Your insights, stories, and partnership are shaping the direction of our platform and redefining what is possible in procurement. We are honored to be building this future with you.
Spending time with our customers last week was a powerful reminder of why we do this work. Your stories, your challenges, and your drive to transform procurement continue to inspire us. We are truly grateful for the trust you place in us and proud to be building something that matters, together. Thank you.
– Alex and Stan
