The Future Unlocked: 7 AI Takeaways from commonsku’s CEO Summit

What do you get when you bring together 20 top executives from our enterprise distributor customers, put them in one room to share best practices and create a vision for the future? A mind-blowing AI-forward experience. 

Don't want to read? Listen to the NotebookLM summary:

Our mission at CEO Summit was simple: To create a dynamic space where the industry's most successful leaders could share game-changing best practices and shape our high-level roadmap together.

 
Joining us were: Sandy Gonzalez of MadeToOrder, Inc.; Joseph Sommer of Whitestone; Mitch Freed of Genumark; Tom Rector of Thumbprint; Brett Boake of Score Promotions; Caleb Gilbertson of Imprint Engine; Leo Friedman of iPromo; Nicholas Green of The Callard Company; Will Blejwas of The Icebox; Mod Deckelman of Lahlouh, Inc.; Michael Armstrong of Good Things Limited; Corey Zirlin of Blue Sky Marketing Group; Matthew Grossman of idegy; T. John Mehl of Vanguard; Joel Antymniuk of MOTIF; Stacy Shapiro of Zagwear; Joe Rezabek of Leader Promotions; Allison McLain of Brand Fuel, Inc.; Chris Sinclair of Brand Blvd; and Stephen Holden of Holden.

Led by commonsku co-founders Catherine Graham and Mark Graham, along with other commonsku team members (Charlie Moscoe, VP of Product Management; Aaron Kucherawy, VP of Customer Success; Erin Burley, Customer Success Manager; Bobby Lehew, Chief Content Officer; and Nathan Poch, Technical Account Manager), the summit featured a mix of peer-led open panel discussions and commonsku roadmap discussions for enterprise.

We tackled key challenges distributors are facing, including how to boost operational efficiency, talent management, creating killer sales and client strategies, scaling like a pro, and navigate the ever-changing economic landscape.

Biggest challenges facing progressive distributors today?

• Talent Management: Attracting, growing, and retaining top talent remains a most pressing challenge. Discussions covered adapting management structures for scaling teams, cultivating company culture, and improving onboarding processes for new hires.
• Client Experience and Operational Efficiency: The complexity of modern client work, including kitting, fulfillment, and in-house production, requires operational efficiency to keep pace. Managing international logistics and solutions for global clients presents one of the most important challenges and opportunities ahead.
• Monetizing Creative Services: A significant discussion revolved around the historical practice of giving away creative services for free in the promo industry, contrasting it with the more mature print industry, where charging for creative is standard. Customers shared strategies for charging hourly rates for creative work, presenting the value of these services to clients, and even creating dedicated internal creative divisions.
• Scaling vs. Growth: The distinction between simply growing a business and truly scaling efficiently, particularly from an operational standpoint, was a vital topic.
• Digital Channels and Customer Portals: The rise of digital channels in B2B sales and the increasing number of digital-native professionals entering the workforce underscore the importance of using customer portals and shops to enhance client experience. While commonsku’s Client Portals are utilized by many, discussions included how to drive more internal and external adoption.
• Integrations & API: Integrations were one of the most important topics for enterprise distributors. Seamless connectivity between ERPs, CRMs, and other platforms is no longer a luxury but a necessity, and in our roadmap session, we shared commonsku’s API use cases which included CRM, marketing tools, eCommerce, client systems, order tracking/order management, WMS/3PL, finance, reporting, in-house production, and record keeping.
• Remote and Hybrid Work: We talked about everyone's unique team structures, including 100% remote setups and hybrids. The key to success, regardless of structure (remote, hybrid, or in-office), was intentionality and clear company culture/rules that the team holds each other accountable to.

But the biggest conversation point at CEO Summit?

No, not tariffs, nor economy, nor supply chain, the biggest conversation was around AI.

 

AI Adoption Takes Center Stage

One of the most critical takeaways was the widespread adoption and exploration of AI tools by execs and their teams. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, distributors are embracing it as a powerful collaborator and thought partner to enhance efficiency and drive innovation. The sentiment was that AI adoption is no longer optional; those who choose not to use it risk falling behind.

At commonsku we’re an AI-first company, it’s a core strategic objective of ours (with soon-to-be announcements just about ready for launch!), and we are aiming to integrate AI deeply into the platform and leverage data to solve distributor (and supplier!) problems more effectively, so we were leaning into this conversation.

How are distributors using AI? In an open panel, we went around the room and each attendee shared how they are using AI today. The examples covered a wide range of applications, both professional and personal. Here’s just a glimpse of how leaders in the industry are exploring AI in their business today:

1. Business Analysis and Strategy: Uploading internal documents for training purposes, financial data, and company information to use AI as a business analyst. Querying data for insights or analyzing company performance. Using AI for SWOT analysis and to analyze customer buying habits and identify opportunities, especially through the RFP process.
2. Content Creation and Communication: Drafting and refining emails, marketing campaigns, and blog posts. Softening email responses. Helping to clearly communicate concepts and directions. Using AI to format documents like SOPs according to specific templates.
3. Prospecting and Sales: Using AI for prospect research, potential questions, and outreach strategies. Generating product ideas based on company websites or past buying habits. Creating targeted presentations. Using AI as a lead generation mechanism on company websites to qualify leads and provide initial ideas to sales teams.
4. Operational Efficiency & Automation: Automating tasks and processes. Using AI agents for support tickets to reduce human touch conversations. Building internal AI agents that are fed company documents and SOPs to answer questions and provide information, reducing the time sales reps spend chasing information. Generating training modules and knowledge assessments for teams.
5. Creative Assistance: Helping formally state design principles and critiquing designs based on those principles. Using AI for image generation, such as seeing what a house would look like with different fences. Replacing logos on product mockups while maintaining visual consistency.
6. Talent Acquisition and Development: Creating screening interview questions based on job descriptions and resumes. Benchmarking roles and structuring departments. Analyzing candidate profiles (like DISC assessments) to inform communication strategies.
7. Utilizing Platform Data: Discussing the potential of leveraging the large data set within commonsku in conjunction with AI to rethink product discovery, ideation, and automate workflows.

Specific tools mentioned include ChatGPT (used for itineraries, business analysis, content, research, legal support, personal tasks), Claude (used for legal support), Fireflies (transcription), Gong (sales call analysis), Fathom (meeting summarization integrated with HubSpot), Crystal (LinkedIn profile analysis for communication styles and DISC personality profiles), Grok and Gemini (for research and fact-checking), and HubSpot agents (for support tickets).

Bridging the gap between future visions and present-day realities

In the afternoon, in between table talks, Charlie Moscoe, commonsku’s VP of Product Management, led attendees through a moonshot exercise where, in groups, everyone received a large sheet of paper divided into eight sections. For each section, we had 90 seconds to sketch out a revolutionary concept or idea for their business. Afterward, each idea was heard and voted on. The brainstorm led to some breakthrough ideas, including how to use AI-driven product discovery through proactive selling based on data, engaging with top retail brands, and with concepts like "merch as health," in a focus on sustainability, plus the pursuit of a single source of truth across software tools.

The CEO Summit provided a comprehensive exploration of the promo industry's current challenges and future opportunities. As AI continues to reshape the landscape, the focus now shifts to implementing practical applications that bridge the gap between today's operations and tomorrow's transformative visions.  

Mark Graham, commonsku President & Chief Brand Officer, stated, “To gather with some of the most forward-thinking distributor leaders in the industry was an honor as we all sought to tackle some of the most strategic challenges facing our industry today, not to mention the insight gleaned by everyone as we shared how we are exploring AI and its applications for our businesses. We’re excited to look forward with these customers as we anticipate the role of AI, plus our enterprise developments, to enhance the client experience and improve internal efficiency. The technological impact on the industry in the next 3-5 years cannot be understated, but when we look back at this CEO Summit, we will see it as a pivotal moment that raised the bar for all of us.”

Want to join us for a future event? Join us for skucamp in Scottsdale where we will feature a two-hour AI workshop!