Bala Gautam

Hi, I'm Bala Gautam.

I've spent 16+ years helping some of the world's biggest companies spend smarter, faster, and within policy. Now I'm working out what that looks like in the age of AI and superintelligence, learning hands-on by building and deploying agents.

Director at GEP

Builds

Testing agentic AI on real buying problems.

What I built, what broke, and what it means for procurement and supply chain teams.

Agentic AI builds

Build 01Work in progress

Jev: your personal buyer

A personal buying agent that screens storefronts and compares options before I spend. Small scale, but it has to answer the same questions an enterprise guided-buy program does.

Shopping agentGuided buyingPython

Pet projects

Fun projects for friends, family, or just good karma.

Edge AIIn design

Garage-gym coach

An offline exercise coach that runs at the edge. A fixed camera counts reps and flags form. No cloud, no subscription.

Pose estimationEdge AI
Career

The path.

2006 → today
2015 – today

GEP

IndiaCzech RepublicUnited States

The GEP ride has been a rocket ship, in the best way. I've managed multi-million-dollar programs for technology, manufacturing, CPG, and pharmaceutical clients, and led large teams across geographies and cultures. Along the way I've gone deep on a wide range of problems: cost takeouts, procurement and digital transformation, org design, PMO, workflow automation, and agentic AI implementations.

2012 – 2015

American Express

India

Part of the early GBS procurement setup. Managed professional services spend, with a focus on savings and operational optimization.

2010 – 2012

Beroe

India

Learned procurement through research, expert calls, and a lot of cold calls to suppliers. Not all of them called back.

2006 – 2010

B.E., Electronics & Communication · Anna University

India

Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering.
Project: Landmine detection using a remote-controlled imaging system.

Clients
Technology, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, CPG
Expertise
Program management PMO Category management Cost takeouts Procurement transformation Digital transformation Tech implementations Guided buying Org design Change management Workflow automation Agentic AI
Tech stack
Google Cloud Anthropic Open source
Musings

Lessons from the field.

Beyond the day job

Three ways I'm glad to help. Pick the one that fits and say hello.

Compare notesBuilding AI for procurement or supply chain? Happy to talk use cases, share what I've learned the hard way, or join a panel.
Pro bono for small businesses & nonprofitsTristate-area small businesses and NGOs: I volunteer to help untangle supply chain and procurement challenges and put AI to work running operations.
MentorshipStudents and early-career professionals looking to break into procurement, supply chain, or AI in operations. Virtual or in person.
Say hello