Industry Insights
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Grainger Expands AI Inventory Services as Zoro and Data Center Demand Fuel Growth
Grainger plans to integrate newly acquired artificial intelligence technology into its inventory management services over the next year, allowing customers’ employees to collect supplies without a conventional checkout process.
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Moblico Adds AI Tool to Research and Draft Distributor Responses
Response Assist AI can search for customer-specific pricing, product availability, order information, and internal policies, Moblico said
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Distributors Expand Internal AI Use in Quoting, Purchasing and Order Processing
Distributors are using artificial intelligence to prepare quotes, process orders, manage inventory and support purchasing. Earnings disclosures offer examples of faster work and early savings, although most companies have not separately quantified AI’s contribution to earnings.
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Proton.ai Launches Job Board for Distribution Hiring
Candidates can filter positions by location and seniority, limit results to openings that disclose compensation and sort listings with the highest advertised pay. The board also groups published base pay by job function and seniority, with hourly and salaried positions displayed separately.
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Henry Schein Expands AI Tools For Dental Practices, Pursues Internal Efficiencies
CEO Fred Lowery identified AI capabilities and supply chain tools among initiatives being prioritized to “improve efficiency, reduce inventory, and simplify processes.” The discussion did not quantify AI-specific savings or investment.
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The Storefront Moved: Ingram Micro Opens a New Sales Channel for AI Agents
The move to agentic ordering is an organizational project before it is a technical one. The companies that will do well treat their veterans as the source of the context that makes the data worth connecting, and they capture it in account notes, substitution rules, and standard work before the agent shows up.
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Amazon Business Reshape Recap: What Its AI Purchasing Push Means for Distributors
The announcements during the Oct. 27-28 event at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center covered product selection, approvals, payments, purchasing oversight, and delivery requirements. Together, they outlined a strategy to make Amazon Business more deeply involved in how organizations manage purchasing, beyond placing and fulfilling orders.
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Watsco Expands AI And Digital Services as Sales Rise, Earnings Fall
The heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration distributor said that its internal AI platform, Ask.Watsco, supports more than 2,700 employees.
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Anthropic IPO Filing Signals Changes Ahead for Wholesale Distributors
Anthropic’s expansion into AI agents and services for midsize companies could change how wholesale distributors serve customers and run their businesses.
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Standard Work for AI: What a Proton Install at Hisco and Uber’s 30,000 Seat Rollout Have in Common
In 2019, Hisco installed Proton, an order recommendation and reorder engine that put AI-driven suggestions in front of our customer service reps. I’ve written about that implementation before. Here’s the part I haven’t.
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Amazon Business Expands AI Assistant, Adds Procurement Reporting Tool
The additions extend Amazon Business’s services beyond placing and fulfilling orders, helping procurement teams oversee spending and document the results of their purchasing decisions.
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Walmart Builds AI Shopping Gateway with Spending Limits and Purchase Approvals
For distributors, the initiative raises practical questions about how automated purchasing would work within established business accounts. A customer could authorize an agent to replenish routine supplies while requiring a purchasing manager’s approval for larger orders or unfamiliar products.
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Helping Every Rep Sell Strategically with Analytics and CRM | Tech Talk Featuring Phocas
A conversation between Ian Heller, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Distribution Strategy Group, and Ashley Bass, senior director of product marketing at Phocas Software. Ian Heller, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Distribution Strategy Group, talks with Ashley Bass, senior director of product marketing at Phocas Software, about how analytics and CRM can help…
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Workforce Readiness Slows Supply Chain AI Adoption
The findings reveal a substantial gap between interest and everyday use. Across 13 supply chain functions, the average adoption score was 1.94 on a five-point scale, ranging from no use to fully autonomous operation.
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Sonepar Plans $560 Million Investment to Expand AI Across Its Distribution Business
The investment will support efforts to improve product availability, automate sales and administrative tasks, and give employees more time to advise customers
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Fastenal Uses AI To Speed Quotes and Expand Large Accounts
President and CEO Jeff Watts said newer tools combining AI with internal technology can reduce a sourcing and quoting process from five or six days to about 15 minutes.
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GPC Sees AI Investment Supporting Industrial Demand as NAPA Adds Robotics
Genuine Parts Co. says spending on data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure is helping support industrial demand as its Motion business records stronger sales of maintenance supplies and equipment for larger customer projects.
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Visa, BILL, And Billtrust Test AI Payments Through Supplier Portals
The pilot is designed to operate within suppliers’ existing payment acceptance policies. It also provides visibility into payment authorization and completion and retains information needed to match payments to invoices.
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Anthropic’s Cheaper, Faster Claude Models Target Routine Distributor Work
For distributors, the immediate opportunity lies in work that surrounds a transaction: sorting a customer’s email, locating product information, assembling account records, or preparing an answer for an employee to review.
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Wesco Opens Texas Center to Speed AI Data Center Installation
The opening comes as data centers generate substantial growth for Wesco.