AI in Distribution

The pace of legislative activity continues to accelerate. By March, lawmakers in 45 states had introduced more than 1,500 AI-related bills, exceeding the total number introduced during all of 2024.

For distributors, the development represents more than another AI product launch. It signals that technology once available only to the largest ecommerce companies is becoming increasingly accessible to businesses throughout the supply chain.

Even under the broader definition, wholesale trade, manufacturing, and retail all reported AI adoption rates below the national average.

The announcement reflects broader adoption of AI-driven analytics tools across distribution and home services industries as companies seek more precise ways to identify demand, improve sales productivity, and anticipate repair and replacement activity.

CEO D.G. Macpherson said Grainger’s AI deployments now fall into two primary categories: internal productivity and customer-facing digital capabilities.

Among Schneider Electric’s pilot users, 100% said they would recommend the new generative AI tools to colleagues. But only 55% said they were personally ready to use the tools themselves.

Distribution Strategy Group’s Best Practice Series is built around one principle: distribution executives do not need more content. They need a structured forum to pressure-test strategy against what peers and the data are actually showing.

The larger significance for distributors is that Amazon is combining AI-driven procurement automation with physical logistics infrastructure.

AI has given criminal organizations the ability to impersonate executives using their own voices, construct vendor identities from scratch, personalize phishing emails with details no generic scam would know and deploy ransomware with a precision that disables backup systems first.

Distribution Strategy Group is expanding its Applied AI for Distributors event series with two new events: a regional one-day forum in Atlanta on Aug. 12 and an international edition of the event in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 15.