Annual conference will convene procurement, supply chain and business leaders in Houston to explore how predictive intelligence is reshaping enterprise decision-making

HOUSTON, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Arkestro, the only predictive procurement platform accelerating enterprise scale, today announced Optimal ’26, its annual customer conference taking place Oct. 13-15, 2026, in Houston, Texas. The event will bring together procurement, supply chain and business leaders from across industries to explore how enterprises are applying AI-powered predictive procurement to “Unlock the Predictive Advantage.”

Optimal ’26 will gather Arkestro customers, partners and industry leaders, including executives from Chevron, Nissan, CenterPoint Energy, JLL, Phillips 66, W.R. Grace, BMI, and Zurich North America with more to be announced.

The Predictive Advantage in Action

Programming at Optimal ’26 will focus on the practical questions facing procurement and supply chain leaders as AI becomes more deeply embedded across enterprise operations. Sessions will explore how organizations are using AI’s predictive capabilities to navigate volatility, increase procurement capacity, improve supplier engagement and strengthen procurement’s connection to the C-suite. Featured sessions and speakers include:

• From Reactive to Predictive: Inside CenterPoint’s Procurement Shift — Christopher Foster, Executive Vice President and CFO of CenterPoint Energy, will share a C-suite perspective on the company’s procurement evolution.
• Making It Stick: How Leading Enterprises Drive Predictive Procurement Change — Leaders from JLL, W.R. Grace and BMI will join Arkestro’s Chief Customer Officer Greg Cruz to discuss what it takes to drive adoption and lasting change across the enterprise.
• Executive Panel: The C-Suite View of Predictive Procurement — Procurement and finance leaders from JLL, Zurich North America and Nissan Americas will explore how predictive procurement is driving value beyond the procurement function and across the broader enterprise.
• One Year Later: Chevron on Scaling Predictive Procurement Enterprise-Wide — Joshua Flowers, senior manager of SCM IT category management at Chevron, will discuss the company’s continued journey to predictive procurement at scale.
• Always on, Arkestro in Action — Arkestro Chief Product Officer Ben Leiken and VP of Product Management Bob van Leeuwen will showcase the next evolution of Arkestro’s predictive procurement platform.

Optimal ’26 will also feature a dedicated space for supplier perspectives through an invite-only Supplier Summit, where participants will work with Arkestro’s Supplier Consulting Group and product team to share feedback, explore the platform and shape the future of supplier enablement.

“Supply chain and procurement leaders are navigating unprecedented complexity while being asked to deliver more for the business than ever before,” said Rob DeSantis, CEO and co-founder of Arkestro. “Predictive procurement is no longer an experiment. Some of the world’s largest enterprises are using it to operate at greater speed and scale, influence more spend and make decisions that have a meaningful impact on margins. Optimal brings leaders together to share how they’re putting predictive approaches into practice across procurement and supply chain, and to shape what comes next.”

To learn more about Optimal ’26 and register, visit arkestro-optimal.com.

About Arkestro

Arkestro is the leading predictive procurement platform, accelerating enterprise spend transformation and supply chain agility. By combining AI and game theory with Arkestro’s patented three science technologies—Negotiation Science, Supplier Science, and Process Science—Arkestro shifts traditional procurement to become a proactive, results-driven function. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies across industries, Arkestro unlocks trapped savings, optimizes negotiations, and enhances supplier collaboration. Learn more about Arkestro at www.arkestro.com and register for Optimal ’26 Houston, the premier AI event for procurement professionals, taking place October 13-15, 2026.

Arkestro Media Contact
Cailey Henderson
LaunchSquad
Arkestro@launchsquad.com 

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SOURCE Arkestro