There is no getting away from AI at the moment. It is appearing in almost every conversation about the future of business, and with good reason. The technology is developing quickly and there is a much clearer sense of how it could change the way businesses operate.
For food and drink wholesalers there is an appetite to explore how to make the most of it and where it can make a genuine difference. However, AI shouldn’t be viewed as a new technology layer that suddenly makes everything else less important. In fact, its arrival puts more emphasis on the systems you already rely on. The question is where it fits and what it can add.
AI needs the right foundations: ERP
An ERP solution might not generate the same excitement as AI, but it is still doing much of the heavy lifting for your business. Products, customers, orders, purchasing, stock, pricing and finance all depend on this core system. AI might identify a potential sales opportunity, for example, but the underlying product and customer information still has to be there to turn that insight into something useful. The growing focus on AI also gives wholesalers another reason to think about what they expect from their core business software and what becomes possible when it adds something new.
AI can enhance the customer experience
There is plenty of discussion around AI chatbots, intelligent search and personalised recommendations. These all have a place in wholesale ecommerce. However, before getting carried away with the possibilities AI offers, the fundamental customer experience still has to work seamlessly. Customers need to find products, see the information relevant to them and place or repeat an order without unnecessary friction. Once that experience is working well, AI can take it further through more intuitive product discovery, improved search and relevant recommendations. The opportunity is to use it where it genuinely makes buying from you easier.
Taking automation further with AI
AI and automation are often talked about together, but the distinction between them matters. Where a process follows the same steps each time, straightforward automation can often do the job without the need for AI.
AI becomes more interesting when a task isn’t quite so predictable. It can work with information that doesn’t always follow the same format or pattern, creating opportunities to automate areas that have traditionally needed more human input. Understanding that distinction will help wholesalers apply AI where its capabilities offer something genuinely different.
Give AI the right information to work with
Food and drink wholesalers generate a huge amount of information through everyday trading. Where AI changes things is how easily people can get something useful from it. It can make it easier to ask questions about what is happening in the business, find patterns across large volumes of information or bring something unusual to someone’s attention. What you get back will depend on the information available. If it is out of date or sitting across systems that don’t communicate, you are only going to get part of the picture. Getting your systems up to date and better connected is therefore just as important – if not more important – than implementing the AI tools themselves.
Getting more from AI: bring your systems together
Investing in AI without looking at the systems already supporting your business risks limiting what you can get from it. Your ERP, ecommerce platform, warehouse systems, automation and analytics all have a role to play, and getting them working effectively together gives AI far more to work with.
This is an area BCP is exploring through a UK government-backed Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, bringing together wholesale expertise and academic research to explore AI, advanced data insights and emerging technologies for food and drink wholesale.
AI is an exciting opportunity for wholesale, but getting the most from it starts with making sure the systems across your business are ready to support it.
If you’d like to discuss anything relating to AI further please contact sales@bcpsoftware.com
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