OrderAgent: The AI Order Processing Engine That’s Powering the Future of Food Distribution

Why Foodservice Distributors Are Turning to AI

A recent IFDA report, Delivering Efficiency: A Realistic Guide to Artificial Intelligence Use in Foodservice Distribution, found that AI adoption is accelerating across the industry. Executives cite AI’s ability to boost speed, improve accuracy, and generate insights that were previously impossible.

According to IFDA’s 2025 Foodservice Distribution Industry Technology Report:

• 56% of companies are adopting AI for e-commerce and ordering solutions
   
• 52% for office and workflow automation
   
• 48% for customer service and forecasting

The takeaway is clear: food distributors see AI as the fastest route to efficiency and growth, especially in customer-facing operations where precision and speed directly impact margins.

The Problem? Manual Ordering Is Slowing you down

Most distributors still rely on manual entry because their customers refuse or are unable to change how they order. Orders arrive in every format imaginable — emails, texts, PDFs, voicemails, WhatsApp messages, photos of handwritten notes, even faxed POs.

Entering a single 40-line order can take seven to eight minutes. Multiply that by hundreds of customers per week and you have teams spending hours each day acting as data-entry clerks instead of customer partners.

Beyond the time cost, manual entry creates hidden risks: missing product codes, incomplete details, and errors that can lead to costly picking mistakes or missed deliveries. Worse, when orders live in a salesperson’s inbox or phone, critical customer data gets lost if that person is out or leaves the company.

• Revenue leaks from data entry errors and refunds
• Staff burnout from repetitive admin tasks
• Lost sales because teams are too busy typing to upsell
   

OrderAgent fixes that. It gives you the ability to scale your order volume without scaling your headcount.

“We were dealing with 240 customers per week, all through email. Our team of four couldn’t cope anymore. Within four weeks of going live with Choco, we were processing over 1,000 customers a week with just two people. The other two are now in telesales, driving growth instead of keying orders.”
 — EJ - Lynas Foodservice

The Solution: AI That Learns How You Work

OrderAgent is the first AI built specifically for foodservice distributors, a solution that automates order entry without asking customers to change a thing.

The AI captures every type of order, including forwarded voicemails that it transcribes into text. It then extracts key details such as customer name, delivery date, PO number, and SKUs, even when written informally (“more steak” or “five of the usual”). OrderAgent matches those phrases to the correct products based on each customer’s past orders.

Every processed order appears side by side in a simple review interface, allowing staff to verify and approve within seconds before the order flows into the ERP. What once took eight minutes now takes less than 30 seconds.

Capture every order, everywhere

Instantly processes orders from any format (email, WhatsApp, voicemail, PDFs, or notes)  and delivers clean data directly into your ERP.

Process on autopilot

In Autopilot mode, verified orders flow straight into your ERP system while exceptions are flagged for review. Many distributors now automate more than 50% of orders with full confidence.

AI that learns your business

The more you use it, the smarter it gets. OrderAgent learns your product catalog, customer preferences, and buying patterns automatically, turning orders into actionable insights.

Know exactly what buyers want

OrderAgent does not just process data; it interprets it. Identify at-risk accounts, suggest the perfect upsells, and see which products drive your revenue.

The Results: Faster Orders, Happier Teams, Stronger Margins

Distributors report saving up to two to three hours per sales rep per day — time that can now be spent nurturing customer relationships instead of typing. Some teams have reduced manual entry by 90%, while achieving near-perfect accuracy in their order data.

• 97% accuracy in order processing
   
• Thousands in recovered revenue through faster, cleaner operations
   
• Reduced burnout and lower turnover in customer service teams
   
• Faster growth with sales teams focused on customers, not clerical work
   

"We’ve cut order processing time by 75%. But what’s more important is what we do with that time—building relationships, finding new accounts, and protecting our margins." - Joey Barbagallo, CEO, Colony Foods

How OrderAgent Learns Your Business

OrderAgent is a learning system, much like a new team member who gets smarter with every order.

Before going live, it trains on up to 12 months of historical data, learning your customers’ buying patterns, product codes, and preferences. The setup takes roughly two to four weeks, during which Choco’s implementation team feeds the AI real historical orders and corrects early outputs until it reaches 97% accuracy.

After launch, every correction your team makes helps the AI learn. If a customer orders “burger buns” but meant a specific brand, the system remembers. The next time, it gets it right automatically.

Built for Security, Designed for Scale

Behind the automation is a system built for trust.

OrderAgent uses enterprise-grade encryption, complies with GDPR, and keeps all data hosted in EU-based servers. Customer data never leaves your ERP environment.

And while the AI runs your order desk 24/7, you are always in control, choosing which customers and order types the system automates and which stay under manual review.

The Future of Ordering Is Intelligent

Across the industry, AI is no longer a distant promise; it is the competitive advantage. As one IFDA executive noted, “AI is like having a digital assistant that can do the work faster, better, and without mistakes.”

OrderAgent brings that future to life. It is how food distributors can scale without hiring, reduce errors without compromise, and grow relationships while AI takes care of the rest.

Stop Processing Orders. Start Growing Your Business.

Implementation is seamless. There is no disruption to how customers order. They can continue sending their usual emails, texts, or voicemails — OrderAgent simply captures and processes them in the background. It integrates smoothly with all major ERPs.