Why This Matters to Distributors: Sonepar is moving artificial intelligence beyond individual projects and into a common global technology platform. The electrical distributor says predictive models now support businesses representing 95% of their revenue, with applications spanning demand forecasting, inventory management, product recommendations, and sales operations.
Sonepar is using artificial intelligence to forecast demand, manage inventory and improve product availability across businesses representing 95% of the electrical distributor’s global revenue, marking a significant expansion of AI across its operations.
The Paris-based distributor said that the predictive models run on a new global data and AI platform developed with Onepoint, a France-based technology and consulting firm. The system continuously analyzes sales, customer purchasing histories and logistics data to support decisions across Sonepar’s international operations.
The rollout brings AI models to most of a company that generated €33.6 billion, or about $38.2 billion, in 2025 sales. Sonepar said €11 billion, or about $12.5 billion, of its revenue came through digital channels.
Sonepar operates in 40 countries through 90 brands, with 180 distribution centers and 46,000 employees, according to the company.
The new platform serves as a common technology foundation for Sonepar subsidiaries around the world. Sonepar said predictive models running on the platform can be used to adjust inventory levels, improve forecast reliability, and increase product availability.
The company identified three initial applications for the technology: personalized product recommendations, automatic email categorization, and carbon-data calculations.
Sonepar said it is using customers’ purchasing habits and histories to generate product recommendations. The company also is using AI to automatically categorize emails, allowing sales teams to prioritize customer requests and reduce the risk of errors.
A third application uses product characteristics to estimate carbon data, expanding the amount of carbon dioxide information Sonepar can provide as it works to incorporate sustainability data into business decisions.
“AI is a truly strategic lever for Sonepar, enabling us to combine commercial performance, operational excellence, and sustainability,” said Jérémie Profeta, Sonepar’s chief transformation officer and a member of its executive committee.
Sonepar described the system as the first global data and AI platform of its kind in its industry and said few competitors have deployed AI at a comparable scale. The company did not provide comparative industry data to independently establish those claims.
Onepoint helped design and deploy the platform, according to Sonepar. Its work included modernizing Sonepar’s existing data infrastructure, securing production environments, establishing the target architecture, and managing the migration toward a unified platform based on Microsoft Fabric and Azure AI Foundry.
Onepoint also worked with Sonepar on data governance and moving the initial AI applications into production internationally.
Sonepar said it plans to expand the platform’s applications, particularly in personalized product recommendations, advanced inventory optimization, and sales support. The company also plans to gradually incorporate environmental, social and governance criteria into additional decision-making processes.
The rollout represents a move by Sonepar from individual AI applications toward shared infrastructure capable of supporting the technology across its international operations. With predictive models now supporting businesses representing 95% of revenue, Sonepar is putting AI into core distribution functions including demand planning, inventory management, product availability, and sales operations.
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