Amid the industry fervor for AI-powered technology, Proton.ai is leaning in with the launch of a new tool geared to help distributors use generative AI in their day-to-day CRM activities.

On Jan. 30, Proton — an AI-powered growth platform catering to distributors — has launched Pronto, which the the company describes as the first conversational AI chatbot designed specifically for distributors and exclusively for Proton CRM customers.

Proton detailed to MDM that Pronto’s marquee features include the ability for users to get analyst-grade answers about their customers, sales, team performance, products and prospects in seconds. The chatbot can also draft customer emails and product explainers — which cuts down on distributors’ cost of routine work without compromising quality.

Distributor Benefits

Proton emphasizes that amid a sea of data, distributors are challenged to wrestle with complex tools to make sense of it to enable change management. Compounding that challenge is sales reps’ limited skillset in this area, the firm noted, though they are the staff who need quick answers the most.

“Even CEOs of billion-dollar distribution businesses, with full analytics teams at their disposal, often find themselves waiting days for answers to seemingly simple questions:

• ‘How’s the new vendor we onboarded last month performing?’ Should we continue investing in them?’
• ‘Which customers are likely to buy the product on promotion?’ ‘
• ‘Which products are our bestsellers this month and which customers haven’t purchased them?

That’s where Pronto changes the game. Using Pronto, any user can ask a straightforward question in plain English and get an answer right away. Whether it’s a written response, a chart, or a graph, they get it in seconds. No more waiting. And no deep knowledge of data analytics required.”

— Benj Cohen, Proton.ai Founder and CEO

As a result of Pronto’s features, Proton said, distributors can work smarter and strengthen customer relationships.

Proton added that Pronto forms the third pillar of the company’s AI-based offerings for distributors:

• Recommendations AI – wallet share opportunities, re-order reminders, churn predictions, etc
• Item AI – substitutes, add on items, etc
• Gen AI – Pronto chat to interact with Proton data

Find much more information about Pronto’s features — including insights on customers, sales, performance, product and research — at www.proton.ai/pronto, including a video demo.