Avnet Is Building AI to Automate at Scale
The Most Expensive Decisions You Make Are Triggered by Data You Don’t Control
You’ve rebuilt the architecture from scratch and the platform investments are working. The next step is building automations that don’t just run on internal data but fire on the external variables that drive your most expensive decisions today. The supply chain is where they originate. And it’s the best place to start building.
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Three Places Where External Variables Are Already Costing Avnet Time, Money, and Manual Effort
100,000+ Customers Need to Know Where Their Supply Is. Someone Is Still Looking It Up Manually.
When a customer needs to know whether the components they ordered will arrive in time to keep production running, someone at Avnet checks a carrier portal, reads a forwarder email, and relays the answer. It works, but it doesn’t scale. The data that would automate those answers is scattered across thousands of external partners, each with their own formats and update cadences. That’s not an internal integration project. It requires a partner built to capture and structure that data at global scale.
Avnet’s AI Models Are Getting Sharper. The External Inputs They Depend On Are Stale.
The models powering quoting, forecasting, and demand prediction all depend on supplier lead times, partner confirmations, and delivery timelines that originate outside Avnet. Thousands of independent partners across 140 countries generate that data on their own systems and their own schedules, and most of it reaches Avnet estimated rather than confirmed. A fast quote built on a stale lead time doesn’t stay accurate for long.
Thousands of Employees Across 48 Countries Manually Tracking Information Your Systems Should Already Have.
It shows up in procurement as someone confirming whether a supplier shipped. In customer service as someone piecing together a delivery timeline from a forwarder email. In trade compliance as someone reconciling a document from an overseas partner. Different teams, same root cause. Data that originates outside Avnet, in formats Avnet didn’t choose, through channels Avnet doesn’t control. At $1.76 billion in annual operating costs, that’s not something a better internal system alone can solve.
The Automations Avnet Can’t Build Alone
Customer Visibility
Your Customers See Where Their Supply Is the Moment They Log In
When the external data behind every order is captured and structured automatically, a customer opens Avnet’s platform and sees exactly where their order is, if it’s on track, and when it will arrive. It doesn’t matter if a component is on a vessel from Shenzhen, clearing customs, or on a truck two hours from their facility. The answer is already there, updating in real time as conditions change. Delays surface before the customer has to ask, so they adjust their production schedule early. When everything is on track, they plan around it with confidence. And when they do reach out with a question, an AI agent handles it instantly with a verified answer, 24/7, without pulling a person off another task.
That’s not a future state. First Solar runs this way today across 100,000 annual shipments and seven facilities. Their first AI agent deployed in under a month and ran at 99.7% accuracy from day one. The customer experience Avnet is building toward is already operating at scale at companies with similar complexity.
Verified Data, Better Models
Your AI Models Stop Guessing and Start Running on Verified Data
The quoting engine returns delivery commitments customers can plan against because the lead times in it are verified, not estimated. Forecasting models allocate inventory based on where it is right now, whether it’s on the water, in a warehouse overseas, or in transit to a DC, not where a batch update said it was three days ago. Demand prediction gets sharper without anyone rebuilding the models, because the inputs feeding them finally reflect what’s happening in the real world. And because every model pulls from one shared picture of what’s moving across Avnet’s network, the answers are consistent whether it’s quoting, forecasting, or a customer asking about their order.
A comparable global electronics distributor made this shift and freed hundreds of millions in working capital while reducing inventory by 1%. The models were the same ones they had been running. The only difference was the accuracy of what went into them.
Automation at Scale
Every Team Stops Chasing Information and Starts Acting on It
Procurement gets a confirmed shipment update without picking up the phone. Customer service sees a delivery timeline without checking a carrier portal. Trade compliance receives a structured document without opening an email and retyping it into a system. The work that currently sits between external partners and internal systems starts running on its own. And as new processes, partners, or regions come online, the automations scale with them without starting over each time.
A comparable global electronics distributor built 170 automated workflows this way. Procurement manual work dropped 70%. Onboarding new partners went from weeks to days. The people who had been chasing information started spending their time on work that requires judgment.
Why Partner With Us
Why This Requires a Partner
The data behind every automation on this page originates across thousands of carriers, freight forwarders, customs brokers, and suppliers, each operating their own systems in hundreds of formats across 140 countries on timelines Avnet doesn’t set. No internal team can build and maintain a global network that captures and structures all of that in real time. It’s not a system integration. It’s an infrastructure that has to exist before any of these automations can run.
Avnet brings the AI architecture, the digital platform, and the customer relationships. FourKites brings verified external data from across your partner ecosystem, structured and delivered in real time, so those investments do what they were built to do.
What This Looks Like at Companies Operating at Avnet’s Scale
A Global Electronics Distributor. 170 Automated Workflows Built on External Data.
This distributor moves semiconductors and electronic components to manufacturers worldwide, sourcing from thousands of partners across every major market. Teams were rebuilding information from emails, PDFs, and partner portals, then entering it into internal systems by hand. The data existed. It just wasn’t structured or connected.
FourKites built the external data layer that captures every partner document in real time, matches it to the right internal record, and feeds their enterprise systems directly. 170 workflows now run on data that previously arrived too late to act on.
- 5,000 people shifted from chasing information to acting on it
- Document processing time reduced from 5-to-8 days to 2-to-3 days
- 170 automated workflows across procurement, customer service, import, export, and operations
“If you think about working capital, landed cost, cost to serve, the commercial invoice provides you anything. If you make use of that information, you help the customer, but you already understand every single bit of what they’re doing.”
Director of Global Transportation and Trade Operations
First Solar. Automation That Scaled With 12x Growth.
When First Solar’s manufacturing output grew 12x, they needed automations that scaled without adding new platforms or new teams. Verified external data feeding financial planning, workflows replacing manual operations, and one platform scaling across every site globally.
FourKites provided that infrastructure across 100,000 annual shipments and seven facilities covering more than seven million square feet. The first AI agent deployed in under a month.
- First AI agent deployed and operational in under a month
- Seven facilities on a single platform
- 99.7% accuracy across all automated interactions
“FourKites grew with us as we continue to scale. I have a partner that I fully believe in that can help me bring the value that we need for the company.”
Bart Verkeci, VP Global Logistics, First Solar
Orvis. Automated Order Intelligence Across a Global Partner Base.
Orvis manages inbound inventory across a global partner base spanning every major shipping mode. Order status was assembled manually, and when disruptions happened there was no way to identify which customer orders were affected before it became a problem downstream. FourKites connected external partner data at the order level, giving the team a live view across every mode so they manage by exception instead of tracking every shipment by hand. Three people who previously spent their days on manual tracking now focus on the exceptions that need human judgment.
- Partner performance measured and managed for the first time
- Order-level disruption impact identified in real time across every mode
“FourKites empowers our cross-functional teams with critical supply chain data at the order level, streamlining processes such as responding to customer inquiries, monitoring the status and lifecycle of orders, and quickly assessing the impact of exceptions to facilitate faster, more informed decision-making.”
Wendy Ripley, Global Trade Manager, Orvis
Built for the Scale Avnet Operates At
Avnet Has the Architecture. FourKites Has the External Data Network. Let's Build the Automations Together.
Avnet has built the AI models, the digital platform, and the customer relationships. The constraint on the next wave of automation is external data that originates across thousands of partners in 140 countries. No internal team can capture all of that alone. That's why FourKites exists. Together, we build the automations that make those investments do what they were built to do.