Beroe and Kearney Launch MAX: The AI-Native Decision Engine That Makes Procurement Continuously Competitive

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Beroe; Kearney

03 Jun, 2026, 16:00 GMT

  • MAX sits as the missing connecting layer between data and execution systems
  • The first platform to continuously surface margin opportunities while simultaneously optimizing risk and ESG
  • Powered by codified Kearney methodology and 30M live market signals from Beroe
  • Designed with a Strategic Advisory Council of 13 global procurement organizations, representing some of the world's most complex supply chains

RALEIGH, N.C. and CHICAGO, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Beroe, the global leader in procurement intelligence, and Kearney, the global management consulting firm, today announced the launch of Beroe MAX powered by Kearney, an AI-native, always-on decision engine designed to make procurement continuously competitive. Launched from the main stage at DPW NYC, MAX is the first product to close the gap between intelligence and decisive action, providing a unified view across cost, risk, and ESG.

Why procurement needs a new operating system

The Chief Procurement Officer mandate has expanded faster than the function's operating model. Procurement leaders are now accountable for resilience, ESG exposure, tariff response, margin protection, and more, often with the same or fewer resources than they had five years ago. This environment introduces three critical challenges:

  • Velocity: Supply markets move in hours, not quarters, yet category strategies update infrequently.
  • Fragmentation: The profusion of procuretech in recent years has armed procurement teams with tools that provide insights, and others that help execute, without a connection.
  • The Missing Link: What has been missing is an intelligent system that bridges the two.

Continuous intelligence, applied in context

MAX closes that gap. Built on a neurosymbolic framework that leverages best-of-breed agentic AI, MAX sits as a connecting layer between data and execution systems. It continuously combines Beroe's global market intelligence and specialist third-party data via a data marketplace, with Kearney's proprietary consulting methodology, benchmarks, and decision frameworks, applied against a user's own spend, contracts, and supplier base. The result is recommendations surfaced in the organization's specific context, as soon as opportunities arise. When a tariff is imposed, a commodity price spikes, or a supplier risk rating shifts, MAX reassesses affected categories and flags the decisions that need attention before teams have to go looking for them.

Built with procurement, for procurement

MAX results from a multi-year partnership between Kearney and Beroe which set out to enable previously impossible decisions and outcomes in procurement. The product was designed with a Strategic Advisory Council of 13 global procurement organizations, representing some of the world's most complex supply chains, who shaped the product design, validated its application across categories, and continue to steer its roadmap today. Their involvement ensures that MAX reflects the real decisions procurement teams face, not a theoretical model of what those decisions should look like.

Vel Dhinagaravel, Founder and CEO, Beroe, said: "The processes procurement relies on today were built for a world that no longer exists. Teams have always had access to market data, but what they have lacked is a system that connects that data to their specific spend, applies procurement logic, and tells them where to act, continuously. MAX puts that capability into the hands of every category manager, not just the ones in the room with a consultant, enabling decisions and outcomes that were previously impossible."

Suketu Gandhi, Co-leader of Global Strategic Operations, Kearney, said: "CPOs are being asked to deliver competitive advantage in markets that move in hours, not quarters. MAX gives procurement leaders the real-time visibility and prioritized recommendations they need to anticipate shifts, focus where it matters, and move decisively. This is not a faster version of the function procurement has always been. It is a different function, one that stops waiting to be asked. It moves from responding to anticipating, from episodic to continuous. That is what it means to compete."

A CPO member of the Strategic Advisory Council added: "Today, category managers are forced to be selective; focusing on the top 20 percent of spend, the most strategic suppliers, and the categories with the largest potential savings. Smaller opportunities go unrecognized because the analytical cost outweighs the return. MAX changes the economics of that decision. Category managers can now cover every supplier, every category, every day."

MAX is being unveiled today at Digital Procurement World (DPW) NYC – one of the largest procurement conferences in the US – and will be available to select customers over the coming months.

About Beroe

Decision-grade intelligence, enabling your decisions, wherever they are made

Beroe powers the decisions that drive procurement, from intelligence to execution. Building on 20 years of deep category experience, the company provides decision-grade intelligence that combines the benefits of cutting-edge AI with 'human-in-the-loop' expertise, trusted by the world's largest enterprises.

Beroe's intelligence is delivered wherever decisions are made, through its portfolio of data products, AI agents, and workflows, enabling procurement teams to make strategic, defendable decisions for sourcing, supplier management and risk mitigation, at speed.

www.beroe-inc.com 

About Kearney

For 100 years, Kearney has been a leading management consulting firm and trusted partner to three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 and governments around the world. With a presence across more than 40 countries, our people make us who we are. We work impact first, tackling your toughest challenges with original thinking and a commitment to making change happen together. By your side, we deliver—value, results, impact.

Learn more at www.kearney.com.

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