From AI-powered workflows to smarter e-commerce tools, technology is rapidly transforming how branded merchandise companies operate, serve customers and stay competitive. These innovations aren’t only improving efficiency but also opening new doors for creativity and growth. In the first edition of The Expert Panel, PPAI Media asked three of our Expert Voices this question:

What role is technology (AI, automation, e-commerce platforms, etc.) playing in reshaping your business?

Our shipment process took an average of roughly five minutes to complete in 2023 but can now be done in about two minutes.”

Dan Townes

President, SHEPENCO

Dan Townes, president of SHEPENCO, PPAI 100’s No. 71 supplier:

“Improvements in technology have helped SHEPENCO streamline internal processes to decrease our order-to-in-hands time. 

AI has assisted with SHEPENCO’s demand planning by checking ‘planned’ against actuals and notifying of over/under stockages. Automated workflows in our ERP assist the SHEPENCO team with repetitive tasks. For example, our shipment process took an average of roughly five minutes to complete in 2023 but can now be done in about two minutes. 

SHEPENCO’s PromoStandards ePO endpoint allows us to receive orders from accredited customers in e-commerce platforms, like commonsku, significantly cutting order entry time for configured orders.”

This marks the beginning of a new era for creative work in our industry.”

Bobby Lehew

Chief AI Officer, commonsku

Bobby Lehew, chief AI officer at commonsku:

“AI is a force multiplier and we’re seeing it in our work. Every past disruption in our industry (the dot-com crash, the recession, COVID) was a demand shock. Revenue dipped, but the work stayed the same. With AI, the work itself is changing.

I recently spent three days in San Francisco at HumanX, one of the largest AI conferences, listening to the top brands building AI. Two ideas kept surfacing: agents are worthless without context, and ‘AI as team, not AI as tool.’ In my own work over the past six months, this has been the case, AI as team shouldering the work.

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And at commonsku, we’ve traditionally cut distributor workflow by more than 80%. Our next evolution goes deeper – agentic workflows and AI assists that make distributors faster and sharper. This marks the beginning of a new era for creative work in our industry.”

[AI] helps scale ideas, accelerate design exploration and bring concepts to life more efficiently.”

Siva Kandaswamy

Founder/CEO, Sparkpolo

Siva Kandaswamy, founder and CEO of Sparkpolo:

“We see technology as more accessible than ever. It allows us to move faster and focus more on creativity and experience. Our new distributor portal, designed specifically for this industry, simplifies the journey from idea to delivery and gives distributors the creativity and confidence to present fully custom apparel to clients. This is a step forward to bringing fully custom apparel from niche to mainstream in the promotional industry.

AI is the next phase, and it’s coming soon. It helps scale ideas, accelerate design exploration and bring concepts to life more efficiently, moving us beyond product transactions toward meaningful brand experiences.”