I’ve sat across enough conference tables in the last two years to find out how this conversation goes. A distributor CEO leans forward and tells me AI is at the top of their agenda this year. Strategic priority. Board-level commitment. Full stop. Then I ask one question: “Tell me about your deployed use cases.”
The room gets quiet. There’s usually a pilot somewhere. A chatbot on the website. Sometimes a pricing tool that’s technically AI-powered but nobody’s touched the configuration in six months.
That’s not an AI strategy. That’s a press release.
93% of wholesale distributors tell us AI is a priority. 16% have moved past exploration. I’ve been staring at that gap for 18 months, and it’s not closing fast enough. The companies inside that 16% aren’t just ahead on a capability. They’re building a compounding advantage that it gets harder to close every quarter. Grainger, WESCO, Sysco, and a handful of others are deploying AI across pricing, inventory, sales, and warehouse operations at the same time. The rest of the industry is still drafting the roadmap.
That gap is the story. And DSG is going to name it.
Introducing the AI Top 50
Starting June 23, we’re publishing the most rigorous ranking of AI maturity in wholesale distribution that’s ever been produced. The AI Top 50 evaluates 55 companies across 34 data points per organization: deployed use cases by function, technology stack depth, executive commitment signals, measurable outcomes, and evidence quality. No surveys. No self-reporting. Every data point sourced and verified from public evidence, executive statements, company announcements, and direct research.
The result is a four-tier ranking that tells you, with specificity, where every major wholesale distributor sits on the AI maturity curve. And exactly what separates a Tier 1 company from a Tier 4.
The methodology is defensible. Ian Heller and I built it to hold up under scrutiny from a CFO, a technology analyst, or a skeptical board member. We scored what companies have deployed, not what they’ve announced. We measured outcomes, not intentions. We cited every claim.
Two Phases. Six Months. One Franchise.
We’re releasing the AI Top 50 in two phases.
Phase 1, the AI Top 25, drops June 23 at the Applied AI for Distribution Conference in Chicago. The Top 25 covers Tier 1 and Tier 2 companies: the distributors who’ve moved from exploration to execution, deployed multiple AI applications, and can point to measurable results. This is the prestige release. Conference attendees get the full 30 to 40-page report, an interactive dashboard filterable by tier, vertical, and company size, and a Google NotebookLM knowledge base they can query in natural language during the conference itself.
Phase 2, the full AI Top 50, expands to Tier 3 and Tier 4 companies in October, timed to the UK AI Forum. That’s where the picture gets complete. Who’s leading. Who’s gaining ground? Who’s still on the sideline with a stated commitment and no deployment evidence.
The two-phase structure is deliberate. It extends the content lifecycle from a single event into a six-month franchise. It creates a second news cycle in the fall. And it gives the companies sitting on the bubble between positions 20 and 30 a specific reason to have a conversation with us about what would move them up.
A Ranking Creates Accountability. That’s the Point.
The distribution industry has been remarkably tolerant of the gap between what leaders say about AI and what they’ve done. Part of that is cultural. Distribution is a relationship business and public comparisons feel uncomfortable. Part of it is that until now, there hasn’t been a rigorous, public benchmark that named names.
The AI Top 50 changes that. It gives distribution executives a clear external reference point for their board conversations, their technology investment decisions, and their competitive positioning. A CEO who reads that her company is Tier 3 while two of her primary competitors are Tier 1 doesn’t need a consultant to tell her what to do next. The data makes the case.
That accountability is a feature, not a side effect.
The Research Behind the Ranking
The 55 companies we evaluated represent the full spectrum of AI maturity in wholesale distribution. The Tier 1 cohort, the 13 companies at the top, includes large-cap distributors with dedicated AI teams, measurable ROI across multiple functions, and technology stacks built around platforms like Proton.ai, Blue Yonder, GAINS, and Zilliant. These are the companies setting the pace.
Tier 2 covers 14 active adopters who have deployed two or more AI applications and are expanding. Tier 3, 22 companies, are in early-stage adoption, running pilots or single-function deployments. Tier 4, six companies, have expressed clear AI intent with limited deployment evidence to back it up.
One thing I want to be clear about. Being in Tier 3 or Tier 4 right now isn’t a permanent condition. It’s a snapshot of where a company stands in May 2026. The distributors who move between Phase 1 and Phase 2, who close the gap between where they are and where the leaders are, will have done the real work. That’s who we want to track.
June 23. Chicago. Be in the Room.
The AI Top 25 goes live June 23 at the Applied AI for Distribution Conference. If you’re a distribution executive trying to understand where your organization stands against the industry’s AI leaders, that’s where you want to be. Not to hear about it secondhand. Not to read the summary three weeks later. To be in the room when the rankings drop and ask the questions that matter to your operation.
Registration is open at appliedaifordistributors.com. The report will all be available live for conference attendees.
Ninety-three percent committed. Sixteen percent executing.
Which number does your company belong to?
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