ZKH Group Deep Dive Case Study: From Traditional MRO to AI-Powered Procurement Leadership

AI and AI Agents being deployed today

Welcome to a new type of content on The AI Procurement Blueprint. There are some incredible stories out there in the world of companies doing amazing things with a range of AI in procurement.

ZKH Group came up in some weird and wonderful research I was doing into AI Agents using Perplexity (a AI Platform where I’m a Business Fellow), which is my favourite tool currently.

Anyway, after playing around with the data, visualisations, and more, I managed to work out this “case study”.

This is one for the nerds among you.

One for the deeply curious.

Their current approach genuinely blew me away. Let me know in the comments what impressed you the most.

Executive Summary

ZKH Group Limited stands as a compelling example of how traditional industrial procurement can be transformed through strategic AI implementation. This deep dive analysis examines one of China's most successful MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) procurement platforms and its systematic approach to deploying agentic AI across its entire value chain.

AI investment surge showing companies planning to invest over $1 million in GenAI capabilities, doubled from 11% to 22% between 2024 and 2025

Despite persistent economic uncertainty and budget pressures across industries, procurement teams are dramatically doubling down on AI investments heading into 2025.

The numbers tell a compelling story: organisations planning to invest over $1 million in GenAI capabilities have more than doubled from 11% in 2024 to 22% in 2025, demonstrating unwavering confidence in AI's strategic necessity regardless of economic conditions.

Key Transformation Highlights:

• Material processing speed: From 24 hours per 100 entries to 3 minutes per 1,000 entries