Jan/San Distributors Explore Business Growth Using AI

Key takeaways:
• Jan/san distributors should first pinpoint operational pain points—such as receiving errors, slow throughput, or warehouse bottlenecks—before adopting AI or automation.
• AI order-entry tools can help jan/san distributors convert emailed customer orders into ERP records more accurately, freeing CSRs to provide higher-value customer support.
• Jan/san distributors can use generative AI to produce product descriptions, sales emails, and social content faster, while keeping human oversight to ensure messaging reflects their brand and customers.

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From AI-powered marketing to warehouse automation, jan/san distributors are finding new ways to streamline operations and drive growth. 

For today’s jan/san distributors, technology has evolved from a competitive advantage to a business imperative. Traditional tools such as warehouse management systems, route planning software, and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms remain essential, but emerging technologies—especially artificial intelligence (AI)—are helping companies work smarter in every area of business. 

The challenge for many distributors, however, is determining which technologies deliver meaningful business value, and how best to implement them. According to industry experts, distributors who focus on solving specific business problems are more likely to harness technologies that boost productivity and improve customer service, thereby positioning the company for long-term success. 

While AI dominates industry conversations, technology initiatives should begin with a clear understanding of operational challenges. 

“The first thing distributors should do doesn’t have anything to do with technology,” says Will Quinn, a distribution and warehouse operations executive known as The Distribution Guy. “It’s about getting your processes and procedures down. If you don’t have viable processes and procedures for receiving, put-away, and slotting, automation is just going to make a bad process faster.” 

Rather than searching for the latest innovation, Quinn recommends distributors identify the problem first. 

“We want AI, but why? You first must define the issue,” he advises. “Do I have too many errors? Is my throughput too low? Where are my bottlenecks? So, what’s the problem I’m trying to solve? You don’t want to find a solution and then look for a problem.” 

Dan Streeter, CEO of Mission Fuel AI, echoes this sentiment. He advises distributors to start small. 

“Find one problem to solve, and then go out to solve that one problem,” Streeter says. “Create a small working group and figure out how to make it happen.” 

For distributors who are unsure where to begin, Quinn suggests looking at existing technology partners first. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and warehouse management software providers usually offer capabilities that jan/san distributors may not be taking advantage of. 

AI’s Biggest Impacts 

One of the most practical and impactful uses of AI in distribution today is order processing. 

Approximately 60 to 70 percent of inbound order traffic still arrives via email, according to Jason Bader, Principal and Senior Consultant with The Distribution Team. Traditionally, customer service representatives (CSRs) manually review orders, interpret customer terminology, match products to inventory records, and enter information into an ERP system. 

“There’s a lot of labor associated with that, and a lot of work trying to figure out what customers want because their description might not perfectly match your catalog of items,” Bader explains. “A lot of what the CSR does is spend time translating, reviewing, and re-entering.” 

AI-powered order automation tools can dramatically reduce that workload. These systems analyze incoming emails, identify products, match them to ERP records, and generate orders automatically. 

“Before the system is trained well, it will do an 80 to 85 percent match,” Bader says. “The CSR intervenes on the items it’s unsure about, and the AI learns. In a few months, you have a 95 to 99 percent match.” 

There’s plenty of discussion about how AI use will put many people out of jobs. In this particular case, the result is not necessarily workforce reduction but workforce optimization. 

“What we’re really doing with that newfound time is reverting people back to what humans are good at,” Bader says. “Humans are good at forming relationships, asking probing questions, and spending quality time with customers.” 

He stresses that distributors can expect to see a return on their investment in a few months for these solutions, making AI one of the fastest technology paybacks available. 

While order automation delivers operational benefits, AI is also changing the way distributors approach marketing. For many organizations, the easiest starting point involves free generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot. 

“If I’m a Google person, I’m going to Gemini. If I’m using Microsoft, I’m going to Copilot,” says Streeter. “Find out what system you currently have access to because that’s the easiest way to ramp up your skills.” 

Using these AI tools, distributors can create social media posts, email campaigns, customer communications, and product descriptions in minutes rather than hours. AI can also help them test content variations more quickly. Instead of traditional A/B testing, distributors can evaluate multiple versions of content simultaneously to identify the most effective messaging. 

However, experts caution against fully automating marketing efforts. Streeter points to the growing emergence of agentic AI systems that can learn from engagement patterns and continuously optimize content. 

“This is where AI gets dangerous,” he says. “Without a human in the loop, now I just got 500,000 likes on something that was not really our brand. Or I get hate mail because AI posted something that wasn’t my intention.” 

Streeter’s advice is simple: Maintain human oversight. This is not the time to leave AI to its own devices. 

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