Solving the Distribution Labor Shortage with AI and Quoting Automation
Wholesale distributors across HVAC/R, plumbing, electrical, and nearly every other sector all face the same challenge: there simply aren’t enough skilled people to meet growing demand. Attracting talent is hard. Training that talent takes too long. And retaining experienced staff is getting harder as veteran counter reps and salespeople retire.
The result? Labor shortages are straining distributors of every size. Orders pile up, quoting slows down, and margins erode when customer service slips.
But there’s good news: Distro is helping forward-thinking distributors do more with fewer people. Purpose-built for wholesale distribution, Distro brings quoting automation, takeoffs automation, and AI-driven sales enablement directly into existing workflows. The result isn’t replacing people, it’s empowering smaller teams to perform like much larger ones.
The Labor Shortage Problem in Distribution
Across verticals, the workforce challenge is clear:
Attracting talent: Younger workers often overlook wholesale distribution as a career path, leaving hiring pipelines thin.
Training new hires: Getting new counter staff or sales reps up to speed can take months. Most ERPs are clunky, and product knowledge runs thousands of SKUs deep.
Retaining expertise: Many of the best employees are nearing retirement. Their product knowledge, pricing instincts, and customer relationships aren’t easily replaced.
This talent gap impacts daily operations: quoting slows down, mistakes increase, and valuable upsell opportunities slip away.
Industry surveys confirm this picture. According to Descartes Systems Group, 76% of supply chain leaders report workforce shortages, with 37% describing them as high to extreme. More than half (55%) say knowledge workers are hardest to hire, and 58% report negative impacts on service levels.
A Hexagon/ETQ poll of U.S. manufacturers echoes the same strain: 70% say labor shortages are impacting operations, and 88% report product or service quality is suffering. Nearly half (49%) plan to implement AI within the next two years, while one-third (33%) are already using it to automate workflows.
The broader labor market underscores the challenge. U.S. labor force participation sits at 62.7% as of April 2025, with about 1.4 million workers leaving the workforce since February 2020 (U.S. BLS data via Exploding Topics).
How Distro Fills the Gap
Instead of struggling to replace decades of experience overnight, distributors are turning to Distro to fill the gap. Unlike generic AI tools, Distro is built specifically for distribution: automating quoting, simplifying takeoffs, and equipping every rep with the knowledge they need to perform at their best.
By eliminating repetitive manual work, Distro ensures that people spend their time where they add the most value: serving customers, solving problems, and building relationships.
The need for such tools is only growing. The Associated Equipment Distributors estimates that a skills gap in heavy-equipment distribution costs U.S. companies $2.4 billion annually—about 9% of earnings lost because of difficulty recruiting and retaining skilled labor.
Meanwhile, leading companies are already demonstrating how automation closes this gap. As Time reports, firms like Amazon and Schneider Electric are deploying AI and robotics to boost productivity and retrain staff, showing that technology is being used to augment people rather than replace them.
Real-World Impact of Distro
Distributors already using Distro’s AI platform are seeing measurable results despite labor shortages:
Reduced Manual Workflows: One distributor eliminated hundreds of hours per month by automating RFQ intake with quoting automation. What used to take hours now takes minutes.
Accelerated Takeoffs: A distributor cut takeoff processing from hours or days into minutes by letting Distro scan contractor documents and generate structured quotes automatically.
Knowledge Transfer at Scale: A customer used Distro’s AI product lookup to help new reps quote independently within weeks. Training cycles that once took months are now dramatically compressed.
These aren’t minor efficiencies, they’re critical solutions to the industry’s biggest workforce challenge.
Is Your Team Prepared for the Labor Shortage?
Ask yourself:
Can your team process RFQs quickly without overloading senior staff?
Can new hires contribute meaningfully in their first month?
Are you at risk if a veteran counter rep retires tomorrow?
Do you have the tools to handle more work without adding headcount?
If not, it’s time to explore Distro’s AI-powered quoting automation and takeoffs.
Why Distro Is the Only AI Platform Built for Distributors
Distro isn’t just another tool - it’s the only AI-powered revenue platform built specifically for wholesale distributors.
Other vendors offer point solutions that address one slice of the problem - quoting tools here, takeoff software there, and separate search platforms elsewhere. The result is more logins, fragmented workflows, and higher costs.
Distro is different. It delivers a holistic platform that unifies quoting automation, takeoffs, product lookup, and sales enablement in a single system. That means your team doesn’t have to jump between tools, and your business doesn’t have to piece together a patchwork of point solutions.
With Distro, distributors can:
Overcome labor shortages without lowering service standards.
Empower every rep to act like a seasoned expert from day one.
Capture more margin with faster quotes and smarter upsells.
Retain staff by eliminating repetitive work and enabling customer-facing time.
Closing Thought
The labor shortage isn’t going away. Attracting, training, and retaining skilled talent will remain a challenge across HVAC/R, plumbing, electrical, and every other distribution vertical for years to come.
But with Distro, the companies that adapt will thrive. Distro’s quoting automation and takeoffs automation empower distributors to unlock efficiency, empower smaller teams, and ensure consistent customer service even in a tight labor market.
The future of distribution isn’t about having more people. It’s about giving your people more power. And Distro makes that possible.