Complete Story
09/27/2025
018. Balancing Innovation and Trust: How Distributors Win with AI
Instructor: Benjamin Cohen
Level of Complexity: Intermediate
1:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Distributors are sitting on mountains of data—from transactions, product catalogs, supplier feeds, and customer interactions—but very few know how to turn that data into a strategic advantage. This session will show how distributors can move beyond surface-level digital tools and use AI to transform messy, underutilized data into actionable insights that drive revenue, margin, and customer loyalty. Benj Cohen will share real-world examples of distributors who are using AI responsibly to grow margins and strengthen customer relationships. And while AI opens doors to growth, it also raises new questions: How do we protect customer trust? How do we balance innovation with risk? Benj will show leaders how to seize the AI opportunity while putting data security at the center of their strategy. Listed below are examples of activities Benj can incorporate into a workshop: Small groups map out their current data landscape (where data lives today) and highlight opportunities where AI could drive quick wins. Distributors rank AI opportunities for their own businesses based on impact, feasibility, and trust. Attendees practice asking “must-know” questions of an AI vendor to separate real value from hype.
Bookstore
Achieving Effective Inventory Management – 6th Edition
Jon Schreibfeder
Achieving Effective Inventory Management, 6th Edition, based on our most recent research and up-to-date “best practices”, provides a complete guide for managing a large and often troublesome asset: inventory.
The economic challenges facing distributors today have resulted in EIM conducting a thorough review and update of the entire 5th edition. This update, coupled with discussions regarding the impact and adjustments that the current economic challenges have produced in all areas of inventory management, has produced our new 6th edition.
This book helps you achieve the goal of effective inventory management — to meet or exceed customers’ expectations of product availability with the amount of each item that will maximize your organization’s net profits or minimize its total inventory investment.
