Customers today can reach distributors in more ways than ever — by phone, email, text, web chat, mobile apps and increasingly platforms such as WhatsApp.

That flexibility is good for the customer. But behind the scenes, every additional communication channel can create another inbox, another system and another source of customer information that employees have to monitor.

In the latest episode of the MDM Amplify Podcast, MDM Executive Editor Mike Hockett talks with Founder and Moblico CEO Pierre Barbeau about why distributors increasingly need a unified messaging strategy — one that preserves customer choice without creating internal communication chaos.

Kansas City, MO-based Moblico is a mobile engagement platform for wholesale distributors that drives growth through AI-powered automation and customer engagement.

Barbeau describes the central problem not as distributors having too many communication channels, but that those channels often don’t work together. The result can be customer conversations stored on individual employees’ phones, teams checking multiple systems, incomplete conversation histories and customers having to repeat information as they move between channels.

“The customer again has the freedom to choose the channels they want,” Barbeau explains during the episode. Internally, however, the goal should be the opposite: giving distributor employees a simpler environment from which they can manage those interactions.

The conversation also explores how artificial intelligence changes the equation. Barbeau outlines Moblico’s approach of initially using AI as an assistant to distributor employees rather than putting it directly in front of customers. Current applications can include sentiment monitoring, translation, faster responses and order automation, while integrations with ERP and CRM systems can give those tools additional context.

For distributors just beginning to address fragmented communications, Barbeau recommends a “crawl, walk, run” approach rather than trying to overhaul everything at once. That can mean starting with a single branch or communication channel, progressively unifying conversations and later connecting ERP, CRM and other data sources. His broader advice: identify the areas of the business where communication creates the most friction and start there.

The episode also touches on what Barbeau heard from distributors at NAW’s 2026 Innovators Summit, the industry’s rapidly changing expectations around AI and why he believes distribution is moving toward what he calls “conversational commerce.”