The Automation Digest
In most food and beverage businesses, someone knows which customer orders in their own product codes, and what each of those codes actually means. None of it is written down, because nobody ever needed it to be.
It works until that person is on holiday for a fortnight, or off sick, or leaves.
The cost rarely gets attributed to the real cause. A short delivery, a credit note, or an order sitting still while three people work out what a line on a PDF is meant to be.
Most food and beverage businesses control discounting with an approval threshold. Above a set level a deal needs sign-off, and on paper that is a clean control.
In practice a limit also works as a target. Deals land just underneath it, and the rest of the concession moves into split orders, credit notes, extended payment terms or free stock.
The approval report stays clean, because every deal it can see sits inside the limit. The variance turns up at account level months later, and cannot be traced back to a decision anyone remembers making.
In most food and beverage businesses, someone knows which customer orders in their own product codes, and what each of those codes actually means. None of it is written down, because nobody ever needed it to be.
It works until that person is on holiday for a fortnight, or off sick, or leaves.
The cost rarely gets attributed to the real cause. A short delivery, a credit note, or an order sitting still while three people work out what a line on a PDF is meant to be.
Over the next two years, AI in food and beverage will move from interesting pilots to part of the daily operation.
Managing perishable stock, routing chilled deliveries and protecting thin margins will increasingly be shaped by AI systems that read, match and check data faster than any team can.
The question is no longer “should we use AI?” It is “will our systems make AI genuinely productive for the business?”
Every customer order exists in four versions, and margin goes missing in the gaps between them.
The problem. In food and beverage businesses, what’s agreed, shipped, invoiced and finally settled rarely match line for line. When pricing, contracts and deductions live in separate systems, small differences repeat across thousands of orders and quietly become margin leakage no one can explain at quarter end.
Over the next two years, AI in the food and beverage markets will move from “interesting pilots” to essential day-to-day operations.
The capacity to manage perishable inventory, route chilled deliveries and protect razor-thin margins will soon be driven by AI systems.
The question is no longer “should we use AI?” but “will our systems AI be productive and beneficial for our business?”
Efficiency gains let distributors grow without overloading teams, real results for our clients.
The challenge. A national distributor’s order volumes were rising fast. Customer service was at capacity. The choice was stark: add headcount (and cost) or find a smarter way to handle orders.
Harvesting Efficiency: What’s the true cost of processing a single manual order?
When you factor in staff time, data entry, and the inevitable cost of fixing human errors, the numbers add up quickly. In the UK, the average manual order is reported to cost around £3.85 to process.
Now, what if you could reduce that cost to as little as 15p?
Sustainability Through AI: How Order Management Can Help You Go Green
Sustainability in the business world is no longer just an ideal; it’s business-critical. Our previous article explored how AI integration can strengthen your organisation’s resilience. Now, with 41% of supply chain leaders viewing environmental sustainability as a major strategy in 2025, going green goes hand in hand with business stability.
Turbulent Times: How Digital Transformation Can Make Your Business More Resilient
From U.S trade tariffs on global exports, to supply chain volatility, to unpredictable inflation rates in the UK & Ireland, the pressure is on distributors more than ever to swiftly adapt to the ever-changing global trading climate.
As of August 2025, UK grocery price inflation is sitting at 5% and with food prices still increasing, wholesalers’ margins are getting tighter.
In this context, we’ll explore how AI integration and digital transformation can act as a safety net for your business, and their advantages in protecting profit margins and saving time.
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