The federal government just launched America.gov, and it starts with a conversation instead of a menu. Built by the General Services Administration, it lets people ask a question in their own words and get an answer drawn from official government websites, with links back to the original sources.

There are no menus to learn and no forms to hunt down. It draws on roughly 29,000 federal websites, and about 40 million people visit government websites every day, according to Nextgov/FCW. GSA points to the billions of hours Americans spend searching those sites as the problem it set out to solve.

It is new, and it is not smooth yet. But the idea behind it is worth the attention of every distributor who has ever watched a customer call in to ask something that is already on the website.

Your customers shouldn’t need your org chart

The most interesting thing about America.gov is not the AI. It is the decision behind it.

The federal government is made up of hundreds of agencies, each with its own websites, forms, rules and vocabulary. For decades, the burden of figuring out which agency handles what has fallen on the citizen. America.gov flips that. The person asks the question, and the system does the work of finding the right source.

In other words, an organization with one of the most complicated structures in the world decided that the people it serves should not have to understand that structure to get help.

That decision comes with a mandate. An executive order signed at the launch requires agencies to integrate their public-facing online services used by more than 100,000 people a year with America.gov. The front door only works if what sits behind it is connected.

The distributor version of the same problem

Most distributors are not the federal government, but many have a smaller version of the same maze.

Product data lives in one system and pricing in another. Spec sheets and safety data sheets sit in PDFs. Order status and invoices are behind a portal login. Branch hours, return policies and lead times are scattered across pages, emails and binders. And often the most reliable answers live in the heads of a few long-tenured inside sales reps.

The customer experiences all of that as one company. When they can’t find what they need, they pick up the phone, send an email, or call a competitor who makes it easier. Every one of those calls costs your team time that could go to the questions that actually need a person.

Where distributors stand today

Many distributors are already working on this. In NAW’s newly released 2026 AI Adoption Index, sponsored by Infor Distribution, customer service is tied with inventory forecasting as the most advanced AI function in the industry. It also has the highest share of companies scaling or fully deploying AI, at 16.3%.

But “most advanced” is relative. Customer service averages 1.36 on a 0 to 4 adoption scale, which puts the typical distributor between evaluating and piloting. Across the 302 leaders surveyed, 78.5% are developing or piloting AI, and only 10.7% are scaling it. The industry is past curiosity, but most companies have not yet built the front door.

Five ideas worth borrowing

Show your sources. Every America.gov answer links back to the official page it came from. For a distributor, that means an answer about a product’s rating or compatibility should point to the spec sheet or manufacturer data behind it. Customers trust answers they can verify, and so do your own reps. It is also a practical form of governance, which only 32.2% of distributors in the Index have formally in place.

Help people make sense of documents. America.gov lets people upload a government form or letter and get help understanding it, with personal information removed automatically. Think about the documents your customers struggle with: submittals, spec sheets, invoices, credit applications, compliance paperwork. Document-heavy work is already where distributors see the clearest AI value: 47.4% in the Index report a moderate or significant effect on back-office efficiency. The next step is extending that capability to customers.

Lower the barrier to a first answer. No account is required to ask a question on america.gov. Many distributor sites put basic information behind a login. It is worth asking which answers truly need to be gated and which ones just add friction.

Meet customers in their language and their channel. America.gov works in English, Spanish and French, and accepts voice questions. Your customers and the people doing the work on job sites may prefer a different language, or may be asking from a truck with their hands full.

Build feedback into every answer. Each America.gov response asks what worked and what didn’t. That turns every question into data about where your information is missing, outdated or confusing.

Start with answers, then add transactions

America.gov did not launch with everything. Today it answers questions and gives step-by-step guidance. The next phase, planned for early 2027, is meant to let people apply for, enroll in and track benefits directly in the conversation.

That sequencing is a useful model. Answers are the lowest-risk place to start, and they teach you what customers actually ask. Transactions like order entry, returns and account changes can follow once the foundation is trusted.

Early reviewers have already spotted the gap. Civic technologists quoted by Nextgov/FCW who tested the site found that some requests, like a VA disability claim, still send people to the agency’s own website, and noted that connecting to agency systems is a much heavier lift than putting a chatbot on top of existing pages.

Distributors will recognize that. The conversational layer is the easy part. The hard part is the ERP, the pricing logic, the inventory data and the order history underneath it. That is where the real investment is, and where the real advantage will be.

The AI Adoption Index shows how real that gap is. Data quality and integration is the most common barrier to AI, ranked in the top three by 68.1% of respondents, and 36.5% have not connected AI tools to any core system. Budget ranks only sixth. The advice from respondents was direct: “Start with the process, then add AI.”

It also launched before it was perfect, and said so. For a lot of distributors, the instinct is to wait until the data is clean and the system is complete. The federal government is showing another path: start with something useful, be clear about what is coming, and let customer feedback show you where to go next.

Questions to take back to your team

If the federal government can put one front door on every agency, it is worth asking what that would look like for your catalog and your customers.

• What are the ten questions your inside sales and customer service teams answer most often?
• How many of those could a customer answer on their own today, and how long would it take them?
• Where does the answer actually live, and is it written down anywhere a system could use it?
• Which information sits behind a login that doesn’t need to?
• If you started with answers only, what would you learn in the first 90 days?

Self-service does not replace your people. Done well, it gives them back the time to handle the questions that need their judgment and relationships.

If you want to know where your company stands before you build, start with the data. The 2026 AI Adoption Index — NAW’s first annual benchmark of AI in wholesale distribution, sponsored by Infor — compares 302 distribution leaders on adoption, impact and readiness by function, company size and sector. It closes with five moves executives can make now.

Download the 2026 AI Adoption Index

I’d like to hear from distributors already working on this. What has worked, and what surprised you?