Why This Matters to Distributors: Distribution Strategy Group’s Atlanta AI Forum on Aug. 12 will bring distributor executives and technology leaders together to examine how companies are putting artificial intelligence to work in sales, customer experience, supply chain planning and daily operations — and how they are measuring the results.
Distribution Strategy Group will bring distribution executives and technology leaders together Wednesday for a one-day AI Forum focused on one of the industry’s most pressing challenges: turning artificial intelligence from a promising experiment into a working part of the business.
The Aug. 12 event at the Georgia Tech Conference Center will feature distributor case studies, executive discussions and technology sessions covering AI adoption, data, sales, supply chain operations, digital commerce, and return on investment.
The agenda reflects a shift in the distribution industry’s AI conversation. The question is increasingly less about what AI might eventually do and more about what distributors are putting into production now, whether employees are using it and whether it is improving business performance.
DSG Managing Partner Jonathan Bein will open the program with an overview of the state of AI in distribution and the gap between widespread executive interest in technology and the smaller number of distributors that have moved beyond pilots.
Sessions throughout the morning will examine how distributors can identify high-value AI applications, increase adoption, and determine which business decisions should — and should not — be automated.
Jack Carrere, CEO and co-founder of Prokeep, will focus on using AI to strengthen customer relationships rather than simply reduce costs. Ben Dwyer, head of forward deployed engineering at Proton.ai, will examine how distributors can move from chatbots and isolated applications toward AI systems capable of handling more complex work.
Supply chain consultant Jeff Metersky will address the role of human judgment as AI takes on more planning and decision-making, including how distributors can weigh risk, monetary impact and reversibility when deciding what to automate.
BlueLinx CIO to Detail AI Playbook
A centerpiece of the forum will be a keynote fireside discussion with BlueLinx Chief Information Officer Praveen Gautam.
Gautam will discuss what BlueLinx has learned while building an AI-ready distribution operation, including the data, technology infrastructure and organizational work required to move AI beyond individual experiments.
The session will focus on a challenge that is becoming increasingly apparent across distribution: AI tools can be purchased quickly, but preparing the underlying data, systems and workflows needed to use them effectively can take much longer.
The discussion is expected to cover what BlueLinx has learned from its own technology transformation, where the distributor sees the greatest opportunities for AI and what executives should consider before attempting to scale deployments across the business.
Customer Experience, Search and Digital Commerce Take Center Stage
The afternoon program will turn increasingly toward customer-facing applications.
Sessions will examine AI-powered product search, digital commerce and how distributors can use customer and operating data to improve retention, sales opportunities, fill rates, and order accuracy.
The changing role of distributor websites will also be part of the discussion as customers increasingly use generative AI tools and AI-powered search engines during the buying process.
That shift has implications beyond website traffic. Distributors will need to rethink how product information is structured, how customers discover products and how digital investments are measured as AI changes the path buyers take before reaching a distributor.
Distributor Leaders to Discuss What Is Actually Working
A distributor leadership panel will bring the discussion back to implementation.
The panel will examine which AI applications distributors have moved into production, where they expect to invest next and what they have learned from early deployments.
Topics will include employee adoption, workflow integration, data governance, investment priorities and how executives are measuring AI’s effect on productivity, sales, and customer experience.
The discussion comes as distributors face growing pressure to move beyond experimentation.
Running a pilot is no longer the primary challenge. The harder work comes after a pilot succeeds: integrating the technology into existing systems, changing employee workflows, establishing accountability, and proving that the application produces a measurable business result.
DSG to Close with AI Beyond the Chatbot
DSG Chief Operating Officer Brian Hopkins will close the formal program with “The AI-Powered Distributor: Beyond the Chatbot.”
The session will examine the shift from employees using generative AI primarily for individual tasks — such as drafting emails or summarizing documents — toward shared AI applications that support broader business processes.
Hopkins will demonstrate distribution-focused use cases, including prospecting dashboards, sales commission modeling, and the use of AI notetakers to capture process documentation and institutional knowledge.
The session will also address a broader issue facing distributors like AI platforms rapidly expanding their capabilities: The value of the technology increasingly depends on the business context, data and operating knowledge companies can provide it.
That theme runs throughout the Atlanta program.
The next phase of AI in distribution will not be defined by how many tools a company tests. It will be defined by whether distributors can put AI into the flow of everyday work, get employees to use it and produce results that management can measure.
That is the challenge DSG’s Atlanta AI Forum will put at the center of the conversation Wednesday.
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