Justin Racine, Principal of Unified Commerce Strategy at Perficient, was recently featured on the Wholesale Change podcast hosted by Jonathan Bein and Brian Hopkins of the Distribution Strategy Group. In the episode, Justin shared how AI is reshaping the B2B customer experience and what distributors need to do to stay competitive.
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Changing Expectations in B2B
In this interview, Justin opened with a powerful reminder: “You’re only as good as your last best experience.” Today’s B2B buyers expect the same ease and personalization they experience as consumers. Many distribution portals still feel outdated, making it difficult for buyers to complete large, complex orders efficiently. With platforms like Amazon and AI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot changing how people discover and purchase products, distributors must modernize their digital experiences or risk falling behind.
How AI Is Transforming Commerce
Justin outlined three major ways AI is changing the order experience:
- Generative Commerce: AI can create personalized shopping experiences based on a user’s behavior, purchase history, and preferences. Instead of browsing static product pages, buyers interact with intelligent systems that curate content and recommendations in real time.
- Autonomous Agents: Tools like ChatGPT can send agents to brand websites to gather product information and return it to the user. This shifts the focus from traditional SEO to AI discoverability. If a site isn’t optimized for these agents, it will be skipped.
- AI-Driven Marketplaces: Buyers may soon place orders directly within AI interfaces, bypassing traditional e-commerce sites. To stay competitive, distributors must adopt flexible, API-first architectures and ensure their product data is clean, complete, and accessible.
Human Connection Still Matters
Despite AI’s growing capabilities, human relationships remain essential. Justin emphasized that customer service and sales roles are evolving, not disappearing. For example, salespeople didn’t go away because of digital commerce, their role just changed. The same holds true with customer service and generative commerce: As much as you can make an autonomous agent or agentic agent feel like a human, oftentimes people still want to talk to a real person, maybe a customer service rep that they’ve known and worked with before. It’s not just pricing or a good experience but rather because of a personal relationship built over time that drives the psychology of B2B brand loyalty.
AI can handle routine inquiries, allowing reps to focus on high-value interactions and relationship-building. The key is blending AI efficiency with human empathy.
What Distributors Can Do Now
Justin offered practical advice for distributors looking to modernize:
- Start with customer feedback. Use surveys and direct conversations to identify pain points and opportunities.
- Invest in AI tools. Implement chatbots and product information management systems to improve service and personalization.
- Think like a software company. Embrace composable, API-first solutions that can adapt to new channels and technologies.
The future of B2B commerce is dynamic, data-driven, and increasingly powered by AI. Success depends on understanding your customers and building systems that serve them both digitally and personally.
Watch the full interview to learn how Perficient is helping businesses lead in the age of generative commerce.
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