This webinar was a great opportunity for me to talk through why Pepper’s AI Order Desk is such a game-changer for inside sales teams and distributor sales reps. We lovingly refer to this feature as Intelligent Inbox, or i2 for short.

In this session, Nick Ziech-Lopez talks with me about the ways Pepper AI eliminates the busywork of order entry, which is time consuming and riddled with human error, while still giving distributors the flexibility to handle the exceptions and “last-mile” situations that pop up every day.

Here’s some highlights!

AI Enters Order 2.5x Faster Than Humans.

We’ve tested i2 against traditional ERP entry on-site with several customers. On average, reviewing an order in i2 is generally 2.5x faster than a human entering it from scratch, especially on larger orders. The reason is simple: in i2, order history, item details, and fulfillment info are all right there in one view. You don’t waste time digging through multiple ERP screens to confirm you’ve got the right lettuce or the correct case size.

Any format, any language

Orders come in every way imaginable: plain text emails, spreadsheets, photos of handwritten notes, scanned POs, and voicemails. i2 accepts all of them. It even handles multilingual orders with line-by-line translation, so if your customer sends their order in Spanish, French, or Serbian, you’ll see both the original language and the English translation side-by-side. That means reps and order desks don’t have to slow down or find a translator to get an order entered correctly.

Built for your workflow

The magic of i2 is that it connects directly with your ERP. It pulls in your delivery schedules, pricing, and customer order history so the order is ready to submit without re-keying a thing. Delivery dates populate automatically based on each customer’s schedule. PO numbers are detected and filled in. 

For order desk teams, that means no more flipping between screens to look up missing details, the system has them ready before you even start reviewing.

Small features with big impact

Some of the biggest time savers are the smallest touches. We added an “Assign to Me” button so teams can see exactly who’s working on which order. This is especially useful for desks with 10+ people in the system at once. Availability flags let you know when an item is out of stock or special order, and you can control whether customers see it while still letting your internal team place it if needed. These are the kinds of details that keep the work flowing without bottlenecks.

Smart substitutions

Substitutions are a constant in distribution, usually demanding that a human makes associations to substitute items within the ERP. Intelligent Inbox handles them in a smarter way. You can make a substitution permanent for a customer, or mark it as temporary by unchecking “remember selection for future orders.” That means you can make a quick swap for something that is out of stock today, but i2 will not assume it should always use that item going forward.

In short, you can configure i2 to make smarter decisions very quickly.

Customer-specific learning

Every customer has their own shorthand for ordering. “Gravy tray” might mean three different SKUs for three different restaurants. With i2’s customer-specific learning, those preferences are remembered, so the next time that customer says “gravy tray,” the system knows exactly what they mean. Over time, it builds a personalized understanding of each account’s language and buying habits.

Merge Orders and Add-Ons with zero effort. 

Many customers send orders in pieces. It may start with an email in the morning, followed by a text mid-day, then a voicemail in the afternoon. i2 lets you merge those orders into one with a couple of clicks. You keep the integrity of the original messages (voicemails, photos, texts), but the items are combined in a single cart, ready to submit. No more entering three separate orders into the ERP for one delivery.

Final Thought: It’s All In The Little Things.

For me, the real magic of i2 isn’t just in the automation, rather it’s in how it reshapes the realities of distributor work. The little things, such as automatic PO capture, quick assignment, customer-specific lingo… these are what make the big difference in speed, accuracy, and customer service. 

This is one of those tools that you really have to see in action to understand just how much time it can save.

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