Industry Wholesale

AI in wholesale that knows your items and customers.

AI in wholesale: orders from email and PDF into the ERP, quotes from price requests, delivery status straight from the ERP.

Free intro callDiscuss your project
A warehouse from above: two workers load canisters onto a pallet jack beside racks of boxesA warehouse worker with a pallet jack between pallet racksA warehouse worker scans stock on the rack with a hand scanner and tablet
  • wstnd
  • klassy
  • selectry.io
  • Gastro Möbel Bölme
  • ai-think
  • Revotion

Sound familiar?

Your back office retypes what customers and suppliers have already written down. Orders, price requests, invoices and data sheets arrive as email, PDF and fax. They reach the ERP by hand, line by line.

  • Back office

    Orders are retyped.

    The order inbox overflows on Monday morning, and every line has to be looked up by the customer's item number.

  • Sales

    Price requests sit and wait.

    A spreadsheet with 40 lines arrives, and the quote goes out the day after tomorrow, because terms and stock are checked one by one.

  • Customer service

    The phone asks for delivery dates.

    One call after another asks "Where is my delivery?", and the answer sits in three systems.

  • Accounting

    Invoices do not match the order.

    A partial delivery, a changed price or a freight charge turns invoice checking into detective work.

The cost of waitingCustomers compare on the same day, and from 2027 many suppliers have to issue e-invoices. Anyone still transferring orders, requests and documents by hand by then gets slower while the volume stays.

The situation in figures

Where the industry stands today.

What associations and studies say about AI in the industry. Every figure with its source.

Where AI takes work off

What changes at your desks.

Not experiments, but processes that cost you time every day. Each one works in the systems you already have.

The order has been written. Just not in the ERP.

Today

OrdersInbox
  • Haustechnik Krämer07:52Purchase order BE-77412PDF, 14 lines
  • Fax 0711 4471-2008:05Reorder for the sitehandwritten, 6 lines
  • Elektro Brandt08:19same as last week, but 20 not 10free text in the email
  • Orders arrive as email, PDF and fax.
  • Every line is typed into the ERP by hand.
  • Customer item numbers are looked up in lists.

With AI

Purchase order BE-77412Haustechnik Krämer
  1. Lines14 recognisedcomplete
  2. Customer item PF-22-90Item 310-2290mapped
  3. Price line 7Order €4.10, contract €4.35check

Sales order AU-26-10418 ready as draft

  • The AI reads lines, quantities and dates.
  • It maps customer item numbers to the item master.
  • The order waits as a draft in the ERP, the back office approves.

The back office checks orders instead of typing them.

Discuss this caseSee the use case

The request has 40 lines. The customer wants an answer today.

Today

Request Schulstrasse site.xlsx38 lines

Price request plumbing, phase 2

Please send your best offer by Thursday, delivered free to site.

Line 1: ball valve DN 25, 60 pieces

Line 2: press fitting elbow 22 mm, 400 pieces

Line 3: WC pre-wall element, 24 pieces, equivalent accepted

Partial deliveries as the build progresses, called off per floor.

  • Requests arrive as spreadsheets, bills of quantities or emails.
  • Every line is searched and priced on its own.
  • Terms, stock and project prices sit in different places.

With AI

Quote AG-26-3317Bauunternehmung Lenz
  1. Mapping36 of 38 linesmapped
  2. Line 3 pre-wall elementAlternative item 512-0240equivalent
  3. Total margin14.2% at project priceapproval

Quote ready as draft

  • The AI maps the requested items and suggests alternatives.
  • It pulls customer terms, stock and lead time.
  • It flags margin outliers, sales decides.

Quotes sooner, priced by your rules.

Discuss this caseSee the use case

The answer is in the ERP. The customer calls anyway.

Today

Team chatBack office
  1. J. Weber, switchboard

    Krämer is on the line, where is AU-26-10418? Line 7 is missing on site.

  2. S. Yilmaz, back office

    Hang on, I will check the warehouse and then ask the carrier.

  • Status questions come by phone, email and chat.
  • Every answer means opening order, warehouse and carrier.
  • Backorders surface when the customer asks.

With AI

Customer chatAU-26-10418
  1. Haustechnik Krämer

    Where is line 7 of our order BE-77412?

  2. Line 7 is on backorder, goods receipt on Thursday. The other 13 lines are on their way with delivery note LS-26-55210, delivery tomorrow.

    ERP order AU-26-10418, shipment tracking
  • The AI answers status, date and stock questions straight from the ERP.
  • Every answer names the order, delivery note and shipment.
  • Backorders and special cases go to the team with all the data.

The team handles the cases that really need someone.

Discuss this caseSee the use case

The invoice is almost right. The almost takes the most time.

Today

Invoice RE-2026-88123Kessler Armaturen

Invoice for your purchase order EK-26-0815

For the delivery of 29 September 2026 we invoice the following lines.

Line 1: ball valve DN 25, 120 pieces at €11.80

Line 2: ball valve DN 32, 40 pieces at €17.20

Flat freight charge €45.00

Payable within 30 days, 2% discount for payment within 10 days.

  • Invoices arrive as PDF, paper and e-invoice.
  • Purchase order and goods receipt are laid beside them one by one.
  • Deviations are caught when someone looks closely.

With AI

Match RE-2026-88123EK-26-0815
  1. Line 1 quantityInvoice 120, receipt 110deviation
  2. Line 2 price€17.20 as orderedmatches
  3. Freightfree delivery agreednot agreed

Query to supplier prepared

  • The AI matches invoice, purchase order and goods receipt line by line.
  • If everything fits, the posting proposal is ready.
  • It flags deviations with the evidence, accounting decides.

The deviation is checked, not every invoice.

Discuss this caseSee the use case

How we work

From AI strategy to everyday work.

Clarify first, then build, then run. Each phase has a fixed price, and after each one you decide again.

  1. Free intro call

    In 30 minutes we get a first impression of your business and work out whether an AI strategy is worth it.

  2. AI strategy

    Over one working day we go through your processes with you and your people, using real cases. The result is your prioritised roadmap: what comes first, what can wait, and what you are better off leaving alone.

  3. Pilot & implementation

    The first use case runs in your real operations within weeks, at a fixed price and with acceptance criteria agreed in writing up front. Built directly inside your systems.

  4. Operation & improvement

    We take on monitoring, model upkeep and keeping up with new rules such as the EU AI Act, and build the next case on the same base.

What it costs

Fixed prices, clear steps.

You know up front what each step costs and what it delivers.

  • Recommended start

    First call

    Free

    30 minutes by video

    • We look at where you stand
    • You find out whether an AI strategy is worth it
    • No obligation, with a concrete next step
    Free intro call

  • AI strategy

    €1,990plus VAT

    Fixed price

    • One workshop day on real cases
    • A calculation with your figures for the best use cases
    • A paper for management and shareholders

    Money-back guarantee: three use cases that pay back within 12 months on paper, with your figures, or your money back.

    Request the AI strategy

  • Pilot with one use case

    from €5,000plus VAT

    Fixed price

    • On your data, in your process
    • Acceptance criteria agreed in writing
    Request a pilot

All prices net. Operation afterwards is from 20% of the project price a year, cancellable monthly. The code and the data are yours.

Use cases for your industry

Where we start in your industry.

Use cases we selected for this industry, each in the systems you already use.

Compliance from day one

AI that does not become a compliance problem.

Processing in German data centres, a data processing agreement from day one, and an EU AI Act risk class for every use case, documented before anything goes live.

Free intro callDiscuss your project

  • Germany

    Hosting and processing

    Run in German data centres under a data processing agreement, or directly inside your own infrastructure.

  • GDPR

    DPA under Art. 28

    The data processing agreement, the deletion policy and the technical and organisational measures are in place before the first line of code.

  • EU AI Act

    Transparent and documented

    We assign every AI system its risk class and document its purpose, data sources and limits in an auditable form.

  • Sign-off

    Human in the loop

    An agent proposes, your team decides. Anything binding that leaves the company, a quote for instance, is checked by a person first.

Further reading

All posts
MCP explained: how AI assistants reach your systems and what that means for your ITAI toolsTiemo Timtschenko
AI on the phone: what it costs, what it must say and what it may recordPhoneArian Jusufi
Claude Code mods: what the new feature brings and why AI tools are becoming customisableAI toolsTiemo Timtschenko

Frequent questions

What we are often asked.

The questions that come up in almost every first call, with our honest answers.

Where should a wholesaler start with AI?

Where most retyping happens today. Usually that is order entry from email and PDF, closely followed by price requests and status questions. The AI strategy shows which case pays off first at your volume.

Does this work with our ERP?

As a rule, yes. We connect SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, proALPHA, abas and the merchandise management systems common in the trade through their interfaces. Anything that cannot be connected is settled in the AI strategy, before costs arise.

We already have EDI and a web shop. Why AI?

EDI and the shop cover the customers who use them. Everyone else keeps ordering by email, PDF, fax or phone. Those are the orders and requests the AI prepares, without your customers having to change anything.

Does the AI post orders or invoices on its own?

Only if you decide so for clear-cut cases. The default is a draft: the AI prepares, your team checks and approves. How far automation goes is your call, per customer, supplier or amount.

What does e-invoicing change for invoice matching?

Structured data instead of paper, which makes reading easier. It does not replace matching against purchase order and goods receipt. That is where the AI comes in, whether the invoice arrives as XRechnung, ZUGFeRD or PDF.

How do you prevent wrong prices or items?

The AI takes prices and items from your ERP, not from memory. It flags uncertain mappings and price deviations instead of accepting them. Before go-live we test with real orders from your inbox and measure how often the mapping is right.

Does customer and price data leave the company?

Only if you want it to. We run the solution in German data centres or in your own environment and document every data flow up front.

Can everyone see terms and purchase prices through the AI?

No. The AI takes over the permissions from your systems. Anyone who may not see terms or purchase prices today will not see them through the AI either.

Other industries

The next step

Let us find out where AI pays off for you.

30 minutes, free and without obligation.

Free intro call