64% of distributors report using AI, compared to 78% of suppliers and 76% of small businesses overall, according to ASI’s 2026 State of the Industry report. Distributors are the industry’s laggard on AI adoption right now. That gap is a problem for anyone standing still. It’s an advantage for anyone closing it first.
Most of the AI use that does exist among distributors today is narrow. The same report found the most common use cases are one-off tasks: creative copy, art, or video generation. Full automation of research and account prep is still the exception, not the rule.
Industry-wide, adoption is staying gradual on purpose. Tools are still fragmented and bolt-on rather than integrated, and 85% of distributors say they have some level of concern about cybersecurity as more AI tools plug into order and client data. The leaders pulling ahead aren’t waiting for a perfect, sweeping AI strategy. They’re starting with one practical task and building from there, and account research is exactly where that starting point sits for a lot of them.
That gap between distributors and the rest of the industry isn’t about willingness. It’s about where the practical entry point sits. Suppliers and small businesses have found narrow, low-effort tasks to hand off first. Distributors, whose day-to-day work is relationship-heavy and split across dozens of supplier catalogs, need that same kind of narrow starting point, one input, one clear output, before a bigger shift makes sense. Account research fits that description almost exactly.
Distributors Are Mostly Using AI for Creative Copy, Not Full Workflows
When distributors who’ve adopted AI were asked what they actually use it for, the answers skewed toward single tasks rather than full workflows
USE CASE
SHARE OF AI-USING DISTRIBUTORS
Creative copy
45%
Proposals and RFPs
25%
Video creation
19%
Product recommendations
13%
That breakdown matters because it shows most AI use in promo today is still task-level, not process-level. Nobody’s handing an entire workflow to a machine. They’re handing off the parts that used to eat the most time with the least judgment required.
How much time does automated business research actually save?
Field sales reps spend roughly 11% of their working time on prospecting research for B2B accounts, all before they’ve made a single contact, according to SPOTIO’s 2026 State of Field Sales survey.
That’s company name, address, website, maybe a scroll through their social feed to get a feel for the brand, done by hand before the call even starts. It’s real time, and it’s time that doesn’t touch the client directly.
What does an automated business profile actually build?
AI tools built for the promotional products industry can now take three inputs, a business name, an address, and a website, and return a complete business profile: what the company actually sells, who it sells to, and what its brand looks like.
Some go further, generating a brand kit and audience targeting alongside it. What used to be manual research is now a starting point handed to the rep before they say hello. The distributors already using tools like this aren’t just cutting research time. They’re showing up to the first call already knowing what the client’s brand looks like, while two-thirds of the industry is still doing that research by hand.
Automating Profile-Building Changes Speed, Relevance, and Rep Time
Three things shift at once, and none of them involve replacing the rep.
Speed
A prospect goes from a name on a lead list to a full picture, brand identity included, in the time it takes to open a browser tab.
Relevance
The first conversation starts with the client's actual products, audience, and brand, not a generic pitch.
Rep time
The working hours that used to go into manual prospect research now go into preparing what to actually say.
None of that replaces the rep. It changes what they walk into the room already knowing, and it means the first five minutes of a call go toward the client’s actual business instead of basic facts a rep could have looked up beforehand.
What does a day of prospecting actually cost a rep in hours?
About half a work day a week, based on the 11% figure alone.
Run the math on a standard 40-hour week: 11% works out to roughly 4.4 hours spent on prospecting research, before a single conversation with a lead happens. Across a month, that’s close to two full working days spent on name, address, website, and a scroll through social media, done by hand, for leads that haven’t said a word back yet. Automating the input side, name and website in, a full profile out, doesn’t eliminate that research. It moves the time somewhere else: into what the rep actually says once they’re talking to someone, instead of what they had to look up beforehand.
Adopting AI Faster Can Mean Taking On More Cybersecurity Risk
It can, if a tool isn’t chosen carefully, and that concern is already widespread across the industry.
85% of distributors say they have some level of concern about cybersecurity and ransomware, according to ASI’s 2026 report on the industry’s tech advantage. As more AI tools plug into order and client data, that concern doesn’t disappear, it becomes part of the adoption decision. A tool that only touches public information, a business name, address, and a website that’s already public, sits in a lower-risk category than one that ingests client order history or payment details. That distinction is worth making explicitly before rolling out any new tool, not after.
Why does starting simple matter in a fragmented tool landscape?
Because most of the industry’s AI tools don’t talk to each other yet.
Tools are still fragmented and bolt-on rather than integrated across the promo industry, which is part of why adoption is staying gradual on purpose industry-wide. Adding one narrow, low-risk tool, automated account research, is easier to evaluate and easier to unwind if it doesn’t work than committing to a sweeping platform change up front. It also means the decision doesn’t have to wait on a full technology review. A single practical task can move forward this quarter, independent of whatever bigger conversation is happening about the rest of the stack.
Fun fact: Suppliers moved faster than distributors on this. Nearly 80% of suppliers now use AI in some capacity, a 12-percentage-point jump in a single year, according to ASI’s July 2026 labor report. The most common driver: workflow automation used as a retention tool, not just a productivity one.
This Still Needs a Human Where Judgment Matters Most
Everywhere the client’s actual needs diverge from what their website says about them.
A generated business profile is a starting point, not a finished read on the client. Understanding what a business actually needs, versus what its website says about it, still takes a person who knows how to ask the right question. The tools working right now aren’t replacing that judgment. They’re clearing the research off a rep’s plate so there’s more time left for it.
What should a distributor actually do with this?
Everywhere the client’s actual needs diverge from what their website says about them.
Start with one task, not a full AI strategy
Industry leaders adopting AI well this year describe the same approach: start with one practical, everyday task, not a sweeping overhaul. Automated account research is a reasonable place to start, because the input, a name and a website, is minimal, and the output saves real time on every single new lead.
- Pick one recurring task, not a platform overhaul. Account research before a first call is a low-risk place to begin.
- Confirm what data a tool actually touches. Public business information carries a different risk profile than order or payment data.
- Measure the time saved on the first ten leads. A concrete before-and-after number makes the case for the next step internally.
The distributors who wait for a perfect AI strategy will still be waiting while the other 64% pull further ahead.
What percentage of distributors use AI?
64%, compared to 78% of suppliers and 76% of small businesses overall, according to ASI’s 2026 State of the Industry report. That gap has been narrowing, but distributors are still the industry’s laggard on adoption.
What does an automated business profile include?
64%, compared to 78% of suppliers and 76% of small businesses overall, according to ASI’s 2026 State of the Industry report. That gap has been narrowing, but distributors are still the industry’s laggard on adoption.
Does AI replace a rep's account research?
64%, compared to 78% of suppliers and 76% of small businesses overall, according to ASI’s 2026 State of the Industry report. That gap has been narrowing, but distributors are still the industry’s laggard on adoption.