Coupa Inspire 2025 unveiled an elevated brand and a new leadership team on a mission to leverage two decades of spend data from 10 million buyers and suppliers to build and deploy an agent-driven engagement layer and pivot pricing to an accuracy-based value model. With a seasoned CEO at the helm, and private market success under Thoma Bravo, could this be Coupa’s Cinderella moment?

While the announcements were received with excitement by the audience, much of this highly anticipated roadmap won’t be generally available until 2026. With our different coverage areas, Meng Liu, Jeffrey Rajamani, and I found a few insights that stood out:

  • The roadmap focused on AI agents, not agentic AI. These days, agentic AI is the buzzword around every industry and vendor event, and Coupa Inspire 2025 didn’t disappoint. Coupa’s strategy for agentic AI is less about AI taking action in its environment with increasing levels of autonomy and more about task-specific agents such as those for discovery, operational reporting, analytics, supplier onboarding, engaging users, and making recommendations. Workflow will be initiated by humans, not AI. Details of the adoption strategy were light at best, however, and according to our research, despite the tremendous interest, generative AI adoption remains nascent, especially in many accounts payable (AP) use cases. Customers will need more than a demo and a test drive to take the leap.
  • Coupa’s pricing strategy shifts to value and usage. Coupa is making a bold transition to its pricing strategy: User-based pricing is out, and value-based pricing based on the accuracy of the AI agent’s recommendation is in. Customers will buy a bundle of AI credits. And according to Salvatore Lombardi, Coupa’s new chief product and technology officer, if the AI agent provides an inaccurate or “not good” recommendation, you don’t pay. This approach is definitely unique, however; disputing the recommendation accuracy will likely prove to be a time- and resource-intensive process that could frustrate customers. Additionally, the “pay per recommendation” approach could deter usage necessary to build confidence and trust — both critical factors for broad customer adoption.
  • International expansion is key to Coupa’s business strategy. International market expansion is a critical initiative for Coupa. Citing economic uncertainty, tariffs, and business volatility, Coupa projects 60% growth in the non-US market with a 16% contribution to overall revenue. Just days before the event, Coupa announced the acquisition of Cirtuo, an AI-based category management vendor based in Austria. This move broadens its capabilities and provides a European hub from which to execute its strategy for geographic diversification, giving its focus on the midmarket a boost.
  • The investment to unify AP, payments, and fraud management solutions resonated. Treating AP invoicing and B2B payments as separate functions creates integration challenges and disjointed user experiences that actually increase fraud risk. Turning these fragmented use cases into a single orchestrated solution will help break down those silos and is a refreshing approach to a long-standing challenge in the industry.
  • Third-party risk gets revamped and merged into supplier value management. Coupa Risk Assess, the vendor’s product for third-party risk assessment, is getting rolled into Coupa’s supplier value management offering. The plan is to combine supplier profile information with the supplier’s risk information to create a one-stop shop for supplier onboarding. Companies that conduct superficial third-party risk evaluations so that they can onboard as quickly as possible, however, are blindsided when it comes to changes to their risk exposure and are leaving money, and value, on the table.

For more insights into the event, Coupa’s product offerings, or the markets it plays in, schedule an inquiry or guidance session with us to learn more.