Coupa’s Nari Viswanathan on Autonomous Spend, AI Accessibility, and the Future of Planning

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Nari Viswanathan, a veteran innovator in the planning and procurement technology space and a key leader at Coupa. The two reconnected after several recent collaborations—including webinars, industry sessions, and conversations in Dallas—and discussed the new realities of supply chain planning and how organizations are embracing technology like never before.

Coupa and Autonomous Spend Management

For those less familiar with Coupa, Viswanathan explained the company as the global leader in autonomous spend management—a framework that brings together direct and indirect spending to help organizations manage total spend more intelligently. Direct spend, of course, is where supply chain operations come into focus, making planning, design, and cost optimization central to the value Coupa delivers.

Viswanathan leads Coupa’s global supply chain strategy, shaping how the company positions and scales its solutions across the market. After years spent in supply chain planning technology, he now sits at the intersection of procurement, supply chain, and advanced analytics—an area he believes has never been more exciting or more critical.

Old Problems, New Pressures—and a Greater Willingness to Innovate

When asked about the biggest challenges facing planners today, Viswanathan emphasized a familiar set of themes: complexity, volatility, disruptions, and data overload. These challenges have not gone away. In fact, they’ve intensified.

What has changed, however, is people’s willingness to adopt new technology.

The reason? AI has landed in everyday life. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini have made AI tangible and accessible, even to non-technical users. As a result, Viswanathan is seeing more openness—especially in planning organizations—to experiment, test, and implement new capabilities.

AI Must Start With Real Use Cases

Referencing insights shared by Noha Samara in a session earlier that day, Scott noted a case study where a company grounded its AI strategy in the end users’ specific business needs. Viswanathan wholeheartedly agreed: AI only works when tied directly to a use case.

Coupa itself has been using AI for more than a decade, long before AI was a market buzzword. One example: when a buyer adds an item to a shopping cart, Coupa can instantly show how similar customers purchased that item, at what price, and whether the decision aligns with best practices. This real-time, comparative intelligence is only possible because Coupa aggregates large volumes of anonymized spend data across thousands of customers.

Scenario Planning at Speed: A Real-World Example

Viswanathan also pointed to more strategic applications. In his upcoming conference session, he would highlight GAF, a major building materials manufacturer using Coupa’s planning and optimization tools to run rapid-fire scenarios.

In a sector affected by interest rate shifts, macroeconomic changes, and even storm-related demand spikes, GAF uses AI-driven models to understand impacts quickly and develop confident responses. Speed and insight, Viswanathan emphasized, are critical advantages.

Connecting With Nari

For leaders looking to learn more, Viswanathan recommends connecting with him on LinkedIn, as well as visit Coupa’s website. We invite you to check out one of Nari’s past webinars on Supply Chain Now, including this one from 2025 entitled “Adapting to Volatility: Navigating Trade Wars, Supply Chain Disruptions & AI”.

Take a listen to the full audio version of this interview with Scott W. Luton and Nari Viswanathan: click here.