Episode 10 | DPW's Matthias Gutzmann on Rebuilding for AI

In this episode of The Procurement Podcast, host Matt High sits down with Matthias, Founder of DPW, live from DPW New York. He cuts straight to the chase, telling us how he founded the event in 2019 because procurement conferences were, in his words, a little boring. What he built instead attracted over 1,000 attendees, 100 technology partners and 80 CPOs this year alone, giving him a unique perspective of the trends, strategies and people driving the sector. 

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In this episode Matt and Matthias explore:

• Why layering AI onto broken processes produces broken results
• What Recode means and why it's DPW's boldest theme yet
• How DPW helps procurement leaders arrive with a problem and leave with a plan
• Why institutional investors are finally backing procurement technology at scale
• Why face-to-face connection is getting more valuable in an AI-driven world

Recode: rebuild, don't optimise

This year’s theme came from watching the same pattern repeat. Organisations invest in AI, layer it onto outdated operating models and legacy systems, and wonder why nothing changes. Matthias is pretty direct in this episode, explaining that you can't build a castle on sand. The question he put to every procurement leader at DPW is whether they're optimising their current factory or designing a new one. His answer? Incremental improvement isn't the opportunity. Rebuilding from the ground up is.

Cutting through the noise

Nearly 100 technology solutions exhibited at DPW New York. Even Matthias admits he doesn't know all of them anymore. The risk for any CPO walking the expo floor is leaving more confused than when they arrived, but DPW's answer is structure – themed tech safaris, guided tours, and a deliberate push to get attendees arriving with one or two specific challenges already in mind. The goal of recoding or rebuilding isn't exposure to everything, but leaving a step closer to solving something real.

What excites him most

This year, it’s investors. Over 60 institutional investors attended DPW New York in 2026. For Matthias, this signals a key change: procurement is finally attracting the serious investment that sales and marketing have enjoyed for years. The money, he says, is arriving, and with it the kind of innovation that changes what procurement technology is actually capable of.

Building events around experience

DPW exists because Matthias went looking for a procurement conference that would take startups seriously and couldn't find one. What he built instead was deliberately different, centred around live bands, greenhouse venues and a festival atmosphere that treats attendees as a community. 

The future of events

Matthias believes in-person moments are becoming more valuable, not less, because of AI. In a world where it's increasingly hard to know what's real, face-to-face carries more weight, he says. What keeps him up at night isn't attendance numbers, but whether the connections made at DPW are meaningful enough to last and drive real change. Will the future see avatar hosts and other incredible innovations? You’ll have to listen to find out. 

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Explore More from the Procurement Podcast Series

Catch up on Episode 9, featuring Nils Windahl, Director of Group Procurement at Sinch, who discusses AI, procurement transformation and the future of procurement leadership.