Nearly every distributor is investing in AI. The question has shifted from “What can AI do?” to “Where should we double down?” In this whitepaper, the NAW MDM research team unpacks findings from one of the largest surveys on AI adoption ever conducted in distribution. This research explores what over 400 senior leaders in distribution are actually doing with AI, including where they’re investing, what returns they’re seeing, and how fast they expect to scale.
What You’ll Learn:
- Which AI use cases are becoming table stakes, and which remain wide-open opportunities for early movers
- The expectations-reality gap: what 73% of distributors say they’re expecting from AI, yet only 16% have achieved
- Why nearly 9-in-10 of distributors are actively pursuing AI, and how they’re balancing bets across different areas of the business
- Real timelines: how quickly distributors are expecting to move from pilot to scale
