There are as many different business workflows as there are businesses. So why have most businesses been viewing AI as something monolithic?
Most businesses, at least, outside of wholesale distribution. New PYMNTS Intelligence data in “Wholesale Writes the AI Playbook: How Goods Firms Are Scaling Intelligence Across the Enterprise,” the latest edition of the Enterprise AI Benchmark Report, found wholesale enterprises deploy artificial intelligence across more business processes than peers in retail and construction.
The typical wholesale enterprise uses AI across 35 of the 75 tasks tracked by PYMNTS Intelligence. At least half of wholesale firms use AI for the same 35 tasks, compared with only 20 tasks in retail and 22 in construction.
But the real story is not AI adoption volume across one of the least glamorous corners of the economy. It is how the technology is beginning to connect procurement, contracting, finance, security and distribution into a more coordinated B2B operating system.
Wholesale’s AI Lead Is a Supply Chain Story
Wholesalers sit at the pressure point of the supply chain. They must absorb changes in supplier costs, customer demand, inventory availability, freight expenses and payment timing, often while protecting narrow margins.
AI is starting to give them a way to manage those variables together. Three-quarters use AI for contract and proposal generation. The same share use it for cybersecurity monitoring, while 70% apply it to revenue recognition and financial-close support.
Connecting those processes creates more than productivity. It creates visibility into how commercial decisions affect the entire enterprise. And wholesale firms are also deploying AI across their supply chains.
Before goods move, companies must decide what to buy, how much to hold, which supplier terms to accept and how to price products for customers. Those decisions shape inventory costs, margins and cash requirements long before a shipment leaves a distribution center.
The AI supply chain story is often framed around route optimization, warehouse automation and demand forecasting. Wholesale adoption points to a larger opportunity upstream. A system that reads supplier contracts, identifies cost changes and compares them with inventory levels and customer pricing can expose margin pressure earlier. It can also show how a purchasing decision may affect working capital, warehouse capacity and future payment obligations.
Read the report: Wholesale Writes the AI Playbook: How Goods Firms Are Scaling Intelligence Across the Enterprise
That helps explain why 85% of wholesale executives say future AI investments will prioritize margins and profitability.
Despite their adoption lead, wholesale firms remain cautious about agentic AI. Every wholesale executive surveyed said AI agents currently receive look-up access only. Systems may retrieve data, analyze documents and produce recommendations, but they cannot independently execute commercial actions.
Allowing artificial intelligence to change an order, approve a payment or adjust supplier terms introduces consequences for inventory, cash and commercial relationships. Companies first need clear permissions, audit trails and escalation rules.
They are also taking the long view. Seventy percent expect meaningful AI returns to take at least five years, suggesting they see the technology as infrastructure rather than a short-term software upgrade.
That may be the most important lesson for the broader B2B economy. The next phase of enterprise AI will not be won by the company with the most copilots or the most autonomous agents. It will be won by the companies that use AI to coordinate the movement of goods, contracts and cash as one connected system.
