Today we’re launching the Agentic Skill Studio, available to all Mercanis customers.
AI can now take on almost any task in procurement. What it is missing is the part that matters most: the knowledge of your procurement team. The Agentic Skill Studio closes that gap. Your team writes down how it works, as Skills, and Mercu, the copilot for procurement, applies that knowledge to every task across source-to-pay.
To explain what that means in practice, our Product Marketing Manager Carolin Köckler sat down with Philipp Eschenbach, VP Engineering at Mercanis. Philipp and his team built Mercu and the Agentic Skill Studio.
Your most valuable asset goes home every evening
Think of the best buyer on your team. They know why a contract was signed the way it was. They can tell a delivery is about to slip before the supplier admits it. They know which supplier moves on price and which one only moves on volume.
Very little of that is written down. Some of it sits in negotiation playbooks and sourcing policies. Most of it sits in people’s heads, and it leaves the building every evening.
That is why AI in procurement so often feels generic. The models are capable, but they start every task without your context. The same is true for a new colleague in their first month.
“In procurement, the most valuable knowledge sits in people’s heads. And that knowledge goes home every evening. No model in the world knows that by itself.”
– Philipp Eschenbach, VP Engineering, Mercanis
What is a Skill?
A Skill is your team’s knowledge for one specific task, written in plain language. It sets out the steps to follow, the rules that apply, the templates to use and the tools Mercu may use for the task. Mercu then follows that Skill every time the task comes up.
A Skill might capture how your team prepares a supplier negotiation, including the indices you check and the walk-away points you accept. It might describe how you run an annual supplier review, how you challenge a demand before it becomes a sourcing event, or how a past tender is reused for a new one.
Writing a Skill takes no code. If you can explain how you do a task, you can write a Skill. Every Skill stays readable, so anyone on the team can see exactly what Mercu has been given. Every change is saved in the version history with its author.
“No code. If you can explain how you do a task, you can write a Skill. And every change is saved with its author, so you always see who changed what.”
– Philipp Eschenbach, VP Engineering, Mercanis
How Skills work: one negotiation, start to finish
Using a Skill takes no extra step. You write to Mercu like you would to a colleague, and Mercu picks the Skill that fits the task. You can also name the Skill yourself.
Take a typical case. Supplier A announces an 8 % price increase and points to rising steel prices. You ask Mercu how to go into the conversation.
Mercu picks up your team’s Negotiation Playbook, the Skill for exactly this task. Following the playbook, it checks the steel index and your past negotiations with this supplier.
In this example, the result is clear. Based on the steel index, 2.6 % is justified, not 8 %. And the supplier’s line is running at only 70 % capacity. That is your leverage.
Mercu prepares a counter-offer, holding the price in exchange for a volume commitment, and a walk-away point at +2.6 %. Every figure links back to its source.
Mercu does not take the negotiation away from you. It gives you the preparation there is never time for, built on past negotiations and the whole relationship with the supplier. You still make the call.
“Mercu doesn’t take the negotiation away from the buyer. It gives them the preparation there’s never time for.”
– Carolin Köckler, Product Marketing Manager, Mercanis
That is how we see the role of AI in procurement. Buyers and Mercu work hand in hand, and Skills are how they share the same playbook.
Skills, not an army of agents
Models get better every month, and much of the conversation in AI is about adding more agents. We see the missing piece somewhere else: not in more agents, but in your team’s knowledge.
Intelligence is no longer the bottleneck. Without your context, any AI starts every task from zero and has to guess how your team works. That is why we start with the knowledge.
With Mercanis, there is one place to start every task across source-to-pay: Mercu. Mercu knows how your team works, because it is written down in your Skills.
“Intelligence isn’t the problem anymore. A generic agent starts from zero every time and has to guess how you work. Mercu knows what you know, because it’s in your Skills.”
– Philipp Eschenbach, VP Engineering, Mercanis
Workflows set the rules, Skills bring the know-how
Prompts, workflows and Skills all direct Mercu’s work. Each does a different job.
- A prompt is what a buyer asks Mercu for the task in front of them. It is the fastest way to get started, and it is written fresh every time.
- A workflow holds the fixed rules of your procurement: approvals, thresholds and the audit trail. It runs the same way every time, and nobody can skip it, Mercu included.
- A Skill is your team’s know-how that Mercu keeps. You write it once, and Mercu applies it whenever the task comes up, adapting to the case at hand. Unlike a prompt, a Skill carries your rules and templates. Unlike a workflow, it adapts to every case.
Workflows and Skills never talk to each other directly. Mercu is the bridge between them: it works the way your Skills describe, inside the limits your workflows set.
| What it is | Best for | |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt | An instruction for the task at hand | One-off requests and getting started quickly |
| Workflow | Fixed rules that run the same way every time | Approvals, thresholds and anything that must never be skipped |
| Skill | Your team’s know-how, applied by Mercu whenever the task comes up | The tasks your team does again and again, done your way |
Skills can also be combined. One Skill can hold how your team negotiates, another how it reviews suppliers, and Mercu draws on both when a task needs it. Each Skill stays focused on one task.
Flexible where it helps. Fixed where it matters.
With AI in procurement, the conversation quickly turns to control. Mercu adapts to every request. Your purchasing rules do not.
Mercu works inside your process. Mercu only does what a buyer could do in the platform, with the same permissions. Its actions run through the same workflows: deterministic and fully auditable.
People make the decisions. Anything that needs an approval waits for a person. Skills guide how Mercu works, and your rules decide what is allowed.
Every step is logged. You see which Skill Mercu followed and which sources it used, step by step.
“Mercu only does what a buyer would do in the platform. The same permissions apply, and its actions follow the same workflows. Anything that needs approval waits for a person, and every step is logged.”
– Philipp Eschenbach, VP Engineering, Mercanis
Your data stays yours. Your IT approves which AI models are used. Personal data never trains AI. Mercanis is certified to ISO 27001:2022 and AICPA SOC 2, and is GDPR compliant.
Start with 100+ Skills
Your team doesn’t have to write every Skill from scratch. The Agentic Skill Studio comes with more than 100 Skills, prepared by our procurement experts across sourcing, negotiation and supplier management.
Use them as they are, adapt them to how your team works, or write your own. The Skill Store lists every Skill available to you, so the right one is easy to find. And every Skill your team adds makes Mercu better at your work.
What changes for buyers
The knowledge of your best buyers no longer stays with them. It sits in Skills that the whole team can read, improve and use. A new buyer works with the experience of the team from day one. An experienced buyer spends less time on preparation and more time on the decisions that matter.
“You don’t have to be the best buyer in the room to work like one anymore. Your best buyer’s knowledge, in every buyer’s hands.”
– Philipp Eschenbach, VP Engineering, Mercanis
“With Skills, our buyers spend less time gathering information and more time on the decisions that need a person, and every step is transparent and auditable.”
– Uwe Krepelin, Head of Procurement, GASAG
See Skills in action
Want to see how your team’s knowledge becomes a Skill? Book a demo, or meet us at the BME Symposium, where we’ll show Mercu and the Agentic Skill Studio live.
