The Future of Promotional Products: commonsku's AI & Innovation Update

If you missed commonsku's first ever LinkedIn Live mid-year update, you missed something big.

Bobby Lehew (Chief Content Officer) and Charlie Moscoe (VP of Product Development) pulled back the curtain on 2025's most significant product releases—including a sneak peek at AI features that could fundamentally change how promotional product distributors source product.

Charlie stepped away from his usual habitat (behind the code) to share what the team has been building, and the results are impressive. With over 60 features and enhancements shipped so far this year, here's what's actually moving the needle for distributors.

The Big Reveal: 60+ Features in Just 6 Months

Out of 60+ features shipped in just six months (yeah, you read that right), three are absolutely crushing it in terms of adoption and real-world impact. And when we say impact, we're talking cold, hard cash and hours saved.

Approve & Pay + Client-Facing Credit Card Fees

"We've already collected many tens of thousands of dollars in fees, and we've seen that acceleration coming from that approval flow, which is really incredible." - Charlie Moscoe

The Real Talk:

• Approve & Pay lets clients approve AND pay in one click (goodbye, payment ping-pong)
• commonsku automatically generates the invoice (you literally do nothing)
• Client-Facing Credit Card Fees means you control who pays what
• Available to ALL commonsku distributors (no enterprise-only gatekeeping here)
• Launched just a month ago and already seeing massive adoption

What This Means for You:

• Turn on "Require Upfront Payment" on your Sales Order
• Choose full payment or deposit
• Client clicks one button: "Approve & Pay"
• Money hits your account, project starts immediately
  
  

Advanced Comparative Reports Suite

"We've seen amazing adoption and really frequent use of those reports, and also a lot of people using the new report save and scheduling feature." - Charlie Moscoe

Three game-changing reports are seeing heavy daily usage:

• Client Comparative Report: Track account growth over time and identify trends
• Rep Comparative Report: Compare team performance across different timeframes
• Supplier Spend Reports: Optimize cost-side negotiations and vendor relationships

Bobby's Pro Tip:

"We're heading into Q4. You should be comparing those top 10 clients from what they purchased last year in Q4 or get a head start, get in there in August and start digging into it now."

Product Sold Report: The Unexpected MVP

This one caught even Charlie off guard:

"That report is getting hundreds of hits a day... people are saving and coming back to it on a weekly, monthly basis." - Charlie

Plot Twist: We thought business owners would check it quarterly. Instead, sales reps are living in it daily. Why? Because knowing what actually sells beats guessing every single time.

Who's Loving It:

• Sales reps building product expertise
• Fair trade companies showing supply chain transparency
• Anyone tired of pushing products that don't move

Advanced Features for Distributors Ready to Scale

For distributors handling complex workflows, commonsku is tackling automation challenges that seemed impossible:

Split Ship & Drop Ship Tax Calculation

"Split ship and drop ship tax calculation, I'd say is the biggest, hairiest, ugliest nut that we're cracking on that front this year." - Charlie Moscoe

The Challenge: Orders shipping to thousands of different customers requiring accurate tax calculation per jurisdiction.

The Solution: New partnership with Avalara to automate complex tax calculations within commonsku orders, including support through the existing pop-up shops workflow.

Who Benefits: Distributors managing large corporate programs with complex shipping requirements.

AI-Powered Opportunity Discovery Report

This is where it gets spicy. The opportunity discovery report is evolving from "here's what you should do" to "let me tell you exactly what you're missing."

Structured Reporting Identifies:

• Customers due for new orders based on purchase cadence
• Strong upsell opportunities within existing accounts
• Cross-sell possibilities based on purchase history

Coming Soon: Chat with an AI that actually knows YOUR business. Not generic advice. YOUR data. YOUR opportunities.

"85% of a distributor's business comes from existing clients and by referral. So building on that client experience... the more we can use our own data to augment that is fantastic." - Bobby Lehew

Enterprise Mode: API-First Integration Power

The enterprise product is officially leaving beta next week (cue the confetti), and it's bringing ALL the APIs.

Charlie's promise:

"Allow users to plug in any shop they can dream of, along with tools around things like tracking updates and audit for companies who need that kind of enterprise grade control."

The Full API Buffet:

• CRM APIs - Your data, everywhere it needs to be
• Finance APIs - QuickBooks, Xero, you name it
• Workflow APIs - Track orders from anywhere
• Catalog API - All your products, one source of truth
• Third-party e-commerce API - Any shop. Literally any shop.

Plus: Automated bill matching with Connected+ suppliers (because manually matching bills in 2025 is just cruel).

The AI Revolution: From Suggestions to Intelligent Agents 

Here's where commonsku's vision gets truly exciting. We have been training AI systems for over a year with a dedicated development team, rolling out AI capabilities in three strategic phases:

Phase 1: AI Suggestions (Beta Available Now)

"We have a bunch of AI agents and systems that we've been training in the backend for well over a year now." - Charlie Moscoe

Current AI Capabilities:

• Product recommendations for specific clients based on purchase history
• Opportunity identification within existing accounts
• Task assignment suggestions for sales reps
• Workflow optimization recommendations

Phase 2: AI Assistance (Coming Soon)

"You'll see those suggestions evolving into what we're calling assistance... a chatbot style interface powered by a large language model." - Charlie Moscoe

Secure AI Chat Features:

• ChatGPT-style interface working exclusively with YOUR commonsku data
• Query customer information, order history, and supplier relationships
• Discover insights that traditional reports might miss
• Enterprise-grade security ensuring data privacy
  
  

Phase 3: Intelligent Agents (The Ultimate Vision)

"We have this super secret group of folks that are working on nothing but AI stuff... developing true intelligent agents that are a part of the commonsku platform." - Charlie Moscoe

AI Companions for Every Role:

• Client Reps: Relationship management and opportunity identification
• Order Reps: Process optimization and error prevention
• Production Reps: Workflow automation and quality assurance
• Finance Teams: Automated bill matching and reconciliation
  
  

Key Benefits:

• Automate time-consuming tasks like bill matching
• Provide AI oversight on every workflow step
• Free up team time for high-value relationship building

commonsku's AI Philosophy: "We think about AI as another hammer to help our customers tackle their biggest projects... the nails are the problems that our customers are focusing on." - Charlie Moscoe

Hot Off the Press: The AI Promo Brief Newsletter

We launched the AI Promo Brief newsletter launched last Tuesday, delivering industry-specific AI insights filtered specifically for distributors and suppliers:

"It's a newsletter for those that are fans of the Backpack... This is what's going on in AI and it's filtered specifically through the lens of distributors and suppliers."

What You're Getting Every Two Week:

• Sales AI - Tools that actually close deals (not just demos well)
• Operations AI - Automation that works in the real world
• Marketing AI - Campaigns that convert, not just create
• Everything Else - The weird stuff that might just change everything

The first issue already dropped, and based on the response, this is becoming essential reading for forward-thinking distributors who want to stay ahead of the AI curve.

Subscribe to AI Promo Brief → (Your competitors probably already have)

So What Does This Mean for You? (The TL;DR Version)

If You're Already on commonsku:

1. Today: Start using those comparative reports for Q4 planning
2. This Week: Join the AI beta 
3. This Month: Implement payment workflows and watch the cash flow
4. Ongoing: Subscribe to the AI Promo Brief

Log In and Explore →

If You're Shopping for Platforms:

Look, we could tell you about our 900+ happy distributors or our 60+ features shipped in 6 months, but here's what actually matters:

• We're building AI that works, not marketing fluff
• Our APIs mean you're never locked in
• We actually understand promo because we ARE promo

See It In Action →

The Bottom Line

Charlie summed up the distributor feedback perfectly:

"Thanks for this stuff, but more please."

And that's exactly what they're delivering. While others are talking about AI, commonsku's been training models for over a year. While others charge enterprise prices for basic features, commonsku's making power tools available to everyone.

The promo industry is changing. Fast. The question isn't whether you'll adapt—it's whether you'll lead or follow.