BOURNE / A GUIDE FOR COMMERCIAL LEADERS
The Manufacturing
AI Roadmap.
Grow your margins with AI in commercial operations.
Co-Founder & CEO of Bourne · Published
Grow sales without growing the back office at the same rate.
You want more profitable growth. Yet your commercial team spends much of the week preparing quotations and chasing internal answers. When you take on more business, you often need more people just to keep up.
You cannot fix that by automating quotation preparation alone. Your sales team makes commitments that your planners must deliver. Your finance team measures the result. You need to connect the work across those departments.
Use this roadmap to decide what to delegate to AI next. Assess one business unit at a time. You may already use AI for quotations while your claims team still gathers evidence by hand.
THE SIX LEVELS
Where are you today?
Contents and maturity levels
Assess each work area separately. You do not need to put the whole business at one level.
LEVEL 1 OF 6
Individual know-how
You depend on a few experienced people.
Your sales coordinators know who to call at each plant. Your account directors remember the exceptions in customer agreements. When they take leave, their colleagues spend hours finding answers. You can grow sales, but you keep adding people to handle the work.
Quotations
How your team worksEstimators rely on past experience and personal files.
What to do nextDocument the recurring technical checks and quotation rules.
Pricing and contracts
How your team worksAccount directors remember discounts and customer exceptions.
What to do nextRecord current terms and assign an owner for pricing exceptions.
Order management
How your team worksSales coordinators interpret purchase orders and chase missing details.
What to do nextAgree the checks for order entry and the route for exceptions.
Delivery commitments
How your team worksAccount managers call planners for delivery updates.
What to do nextRecord commitments and agree who confirms delivery dates.
Claims and deductions
How your team worksAccount managers chase evidence from quality and logistics.
What to do nextAssign a case owner and agree the required evidence.
Account development
How your team worksAccount directors rely on their own knowledge of each customer.
What to do nextRecord account plans and outstanding customer commitments.
YOUR PRIORITY
Make routine work repeatable.
Ask your team to document the decisions they make most often. Agree who owns each exception. Remove duplicate checks before you automate anything.
Measure: Time spent chasing internal answers
BEFORE YOU MOVE ON
- A colleague can handle routine enquiries without calling the usual expert.
- Your team can find the current customer agreement and name the person who approves exceptions.
LEVEL 2 OF 6
Standard work
You have agreed procedures. Your team still joins everything up.
Your commercial team records customer terms in the CRM and enters orders in the ERP. To answer a delivery question, a coordinator still checks with planning. To review an account, a director still asks finance for the actual costs. You have records, but your people do the reconciliation.
A consistent RFQ response names the request, its owner and the next step. If a specification is missing, ask for that detail rather than making each rep invent a different way to request “more information.”
Quotations
How your team worksEstimators use agreed templates but gather information by hand.
What to do nextConnect the current specification and approved pricing sources.
Pricing and contracts
How your team worksSales staff check contracts and price lists manually.
What to do nextAgree the current source for prices, rebates, and surcharges.
Order management
How your team worksCoordinators enter orders in the ERP using standard procedures.
What to do nextLink accepted quotations and customer requirements to order entry.
Delivery commitments
How your team worksCoordinators compare customer promises with planning records.
What to do nextGive the team access to current allocation and production status.
Claims and deductions
How your team worksClaims coordinators use standard files but assemble each case by hand.
What to do nextLink inspection records and delivery evidence to the customer claim.
Account development
How your team worksAccount directors assemble reviews from sales and finance reports.
What to do nextAgree how to measure account margin and changes in buying patterns.
YOUR PRIORITY
Give your team a reliable basis for decisions.
Agree with finance and operations which records your team should use. Link customer agreements to the relevant transactions. Resolve conflicting versions before you introduce AI.
Measure: Time to prepare a reliable customer or account update
BEFORE YOU MOVE ON
- Your team can trace a customer commitment to the current agreement.
- Your commercial and operations teams agree how to resolve missing or conflicting information.
LEVEL 3 OF 6
AI assistance
Your people use AI to prepare the work.
Your estimators use AI to review RFQs and prepare quotations. Your account directors use it to prepare customer reviews. They spend less time assembling information, but they still start every task and check each result before taking the next step.
An assistant can read a parts list without resolving what to quote. Tools such as Microsoft’s Document Intelligence layout model extract text and tables. Your workflow still needs to identify the current item and establish which terms apply.
Quotations
How your team worksEstimators prompt AI to prepare quotations and review every draft.
What to do nextMeasure review effort, then agree which RFQs qualify for automatic preparation.
Pricing and contracts
How your team worksPricing analysts use AI to compare terms and prepare margin reviews.
What to do nextCheck recommendations against actual costs and approved commercial policy.
Order management
How your team worksCoordinators use AI to read purchase orders and prepare entries.
What to do nextVerify the entries and measure correction effort across order types.
Delivery commitments
How your team worksAccount managers ask AI to prepare delivery updates.
What to do nextAgree when to escalate a likely delay and who owns the response.
Claims and deductions
How your team worksClaims handlers use AI to gather evidence and draft responses.
What to do nextCheck completeness and agree the limits for routine follow-up.
Account development
How your team worksAccount directors use AI to prepare customer reviews.
What to do nextVerify the account history and distinguish opportunities from assumptions.
YOUR PRIORITY
Reduce the total effort, including review.
Choose a frequent task with a clear acceptance standard. Give the reviewer access to the source documents. Compare preparation and correction time across routine cases and difficult exceptions.
Measure: Preparation plus review time; quotation turnaround
BEFORE YOU MOVE ON
- Your reviewers can verify recommendations against the source records.
- Your team spends less time preparing and correcting the work, with no increase in material errors.
LEVEL 4 OF 6
Task delegation
You delegate routine work within clear limits.
Your quotation team no longer prompts AI for every RFQ. You delegate preparation when an enquiry arrives and assign a reviewer for the result. Your coordinators handle exceptions instead of copying information between systems. You can increase throughput without adding the same amount of administration.
In a delegation pilot, test requests the agent has not seen during setup. Record a correct escalation separately from a wrong answer: asking the technical owner to resolve a missing specification can be the right result.
Quotations
How your team worksEstimators review prepared quotations and handle technical exceptions.
What to do nextConnect technical approval and capacity checks to the quotation process.
Pricing and contracts
How your team worksPricing managers delegate routine checks against contract terms.
What to do nextInclude changes in freight, product mix, and service costs in account reviews.
Order management
How your team worksCoordinators supervise routine order entry and resolve exceptions.
What to do nextConnect amendments to planning and commercial approvals.
Delivery commitments
How your team worksAccount managers review flagged delivery risks and contact planning.
What to do nextAssess recovery options across affected customers and plants.
Claims and deductions
How your team worksClaims handlers delegate evidence collection and review complete cases.
What to do nextConnect quality decisions to credits and customer communication.
Account development
How your team worksAccount directors review regular briefings and changes in customer demand.
What to do nextInclude service performance and actual cost to serve in account plans.
YOUR PRIORITY
Delegate a complete task, including follow-up.
Define when to start and what counts as complete. Set approval limits. Assign a person to resolve failed cases, and check for duplicate transactions before allowing updates to your systems.
Measure: Cases completed per coordinator; exception backlog
BEFORE YOU MOVE ON
- Your team can supervise a routine queue without directing each step.
- Your process owner can see unfinished work and resolve failures without creating duplicate transactions.
LEVEL 5 OF 6
Connected execution
You manage the consequences across departments.
Your commercial team cannot change delivery commitments in isolation. You need planners to check capacity and finance to confirm the cost. At this level, you delegate those checks and the follow-through together. You review the trade-off before making a customer commitment.
Quotations
How your team worksCommercial owners approve quotations after the relevant teams confirm feasibility.
What to do nextUse win/loss reasons and actual account costs in future quotation decisions.
Pricing and contracts
How your team worksCommercial and finance teams review the cost of proposed changes together.
What to do nextAgree how to initiate a review when account performance falls below plan.
Order management
How your team worksCommercial owners coordinate approved changes across affected departments.
What to do nextDelegate follow-up until the relevant teams confirm completion.
Delivery commitments
How your team worksCommercial owners approve recovery plans with planning and logistics.
What to do nextDelegate follow-through within agreed cost and commitment limits.
Claims and deductions
How your team worksAccount owners coordinate resolution with quality and finance.
What to do nextFollow disputes through settlement and feed recurring causes into reviews.
Account development
How your team worksAccount directors plan growth with current capacity and account economics.
What to do nextDelegate agreed follow-up and review the results before the next decision.
YOUR PRIORITY
Connect commercial decisions to operational consequences.
Map who needs to act when you change a commitment. Include the effects on other customers. After approval, follow through with the relevant teams until they confirm the changes.
Measure: On-time delivery; premium freight; account contribution margin
BEFORE YOU MOVE ON
- Your team considers capacity and account margin before approving a change.
- Your commercial owner can confirm that every affected team has acted on the agreed decision.
LEVEL 6 OF 6
Autonomous operations
You set the direction. You approve the exceptions.
Your account directors start the day with decisions that need their judgment. They no longer chase every update or prompt every task. You delegate routine commercial work to agents with access to customer history. You retain control of pricing policy and customer commitments while your team focuses on the relationship.
Keep an owner for changes in authority and ongoing evaluation. NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework treats evaluation and monitoring as ongoing work. Continue checking results as your sources and permitted actions change.
Quotations
How your team worksCommercial owners set quotation policy and review exceptions.
What to do nextReview conversion and turnaround together before extending approval limits.
Pricing and contracts
How your team worksAccount directors review proposed actions against margin targets.
What to do nextCheck realized account margin after rebates, claims, and cost to serve.
Order management
How your team worksCommercial managers supervise the order book through exceptions.
What to do nextReview throughput and correction rates before extending delegation.
Delivery commitments
How your team worksCommercial owners review exceptions to the delivery plan.
What to do nextTrack on-time delivery alongside premium freight and customer retention.
Claims and deductions
How your team worksAccount owners review material disputes and recurring quality issues.
What to do nextMonitor resolution time and overdue disputed balances.
Account development
How your team worksAccount directors focus on relationships and approve commercial actions.
What to do nextTrack profitable growth and retention across the account portfolio.
YOUR PRIORITY
Run commercial operations with less manual coordination.
Set objectives and approval limits for each work area. Retain the customer history and reasons behind past decisions. Review actual commercial performance before you expand delegated authority.
Measure: Account contribution margin; cost to serve; retention
KEEP CONTROL
- You can inspect the work, change the limits, and intervene at any point.
- You can show better account economics or service performance after including review effort and AI running costs.
YOUR ASSESSMENT
Find your starting point.
For each work area, choose the highest level you can demonstrate in day-to-day operations. If you rely on a pilot or one expert, assess the normal process instead. Do not average the scores: choose one work area to improve first.
How does your team turn RFQs into firm quotations?
How do you protect account profitability?
How much administration do you need to handle the order book?
How do you keep customer promises across plants?
How quickly do you resolve disputes and recover cash?
How do you grow profitable customer relationships?
Keep this tab open while you work. We do not save your answers. Print your notes to keep a copy.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Choose your first improvement.
Start with a recurring constraint in one business unit. Agree the baseline with finance and the team who will do the work.
Where do you need to improve performance?
What can your team delegate next?
Who needs to contribute, and which records will you use?
Who will supervise the work and approve exceptions?
How will you judge whether you improved performance?
THE COMMERCIAL REVIEW
Measure the business result.
Choose the measures for your priority. Agree definitions and a review period before you start.
- Account contribution margin
- Agree the calculation with finance. Review account profitability after rebates and claims. Include freight and the relevant cost to serve.
- Quotation turnaround
- Measure elapsed time from a complete RFQ to a firm quotation. Include the time your team waits for internal approvals.
- First-time-right rate
- Track the share of quotations or order entries your team completes without material corrections. Count the time reviewers spend checking AI output.
- Commercial capacity
- Measure completed work per coordinator or estimator. Include exception handling and AI running costs in your cost comparison.
- Delivery performance
- Agree the promise date with operations. Review on-time delivery and premium freight together, so you can see the cost of recovery.
Frequently asked questions
Where should a manufacturer start with AI in commercial operations?
Choose recurring work with a named owner, usable source data and a result the team can check. Quoting can be a good candidate, but technical clarification or order changes may be a better first project in your operation.
Does every department need to reach the same maturity level?
No. Assess work areas separately. A team may delegate routine order updates while keeping technical decisions under direct human control. Advance only where the evidence supports it.
Can we use AI without replacing our ERP?
Yes. When evaluating AI quoting software, test the records it must read and the actions it may take in your existing ERP. Your team can keep its transaction system while delegating preparation and exception handling.
How do we measure whether the project improves margins?
Use the quoting calculator for an initial capacity estimate. Confirm the business case with measured review time, correction costs and the intended use of those hours. Track commercial outcomes separately; a faster draft does not establish that the team won more business or improved its margins.
What do I get from a custom AI audit?
We review your commercial workflows and recommend where to use AI first. You get a prioritized roadmap and a brief for the first deployment. The audit is free for qualified companies; start with a call so we can confirm fit and scope.
CUSTOM AI AUDIT
Find where AI can help your team.
We’ll review your commercial workflows with your team and identify where AI could make a measurable difference. You’ll get a prioritized roadmap and a brief for your first deployment.
Explore the free AI auditThe audit is free for qualified companies. We’ll confirm fit and scope on the first call. Implementation is a separate engagement.
Buğra Gündüz
Buğra Gündüz is the co-founder and CEO of Bourne and co-founder of HockeyStack. He built HockeyStack into an eight-figure AI business. At Bourne, he works with entrepreneurs and established companies to create AI products and services.