Rebuilding Food Distribution for the AI Age
In today’s fast-paced digital world, the food and beverage distribution industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. One such game-changer is Chocolate(opens in a new window), an AI-powered platform that has modernized food and beverage distribution. Serving over 21,000 merchants and 100,000 buyers across the US, UK, Europe, and the GCC, Choco connects restaurants, suppliers, and retailers within a unified system, streamlining ordering, sales, and customer management across the entire food supply chain.
Addressing Operational Bottlenecks
As Choco’s order volume surged, the company encountered a major bottleneck: orders were arriving through various channels such as email, SMS, voicemail, images, and even handwritten notes. Teams had to manually translate these inputs into structured ERP orders, a process that was slow, error-prone, and limited in scope. This created constant operational friction and hindered the efficiency of the supply chain.
“Processing these inputs was the first hurdle, but not the most difficult. The real problem was the implicit context: customer-specific SKU assignments, unit preferences, delivery patterns. This knowledge was in the minds of the order counter employees, and we had to encode it into layers of inference that remove ambiguity at the time of order entry.” —Narbeh Mirzaei, VP Engineering
Leveraging AI for Intelligent Automation
With the advent of production-ready large language models (LLMs), Choco seized the opportunity to move beyond traditional workflow software and develop AI systems capable of executing work directly. OpenAI APIs became central to this transformation, enabling Choco to embed AI capabilities into the core of its platform and introduce a new generation of AI-native products.
The company launched OrderAgent(opens in a new window), a solution that processes multimodal input—including emails, SMS, images, and documents—and converts it into structured, ERP-ready orders. This automation not only streamlined operations but also reduced error rates and improved order accuracy.
“The transcription and extraction capabilities gave us a strong foundation. The real technical challenge was building a dynamic, contextual learning infrastructure so that the system resolves ambiguity around each customer’s order history and catalog. That’s what separates automation from intelligence.” —Narbeh Mirzaei, VP Engineering
Enhancing Customer Interactions with Voice Technology
Choco also introduced VoiceAgent(opens in a new window), powered by OpenAI’s real-time API, allowing customers to place orders naturally over the phone with sub-second latency, even during off-hours. This innovation enables seamless interaction, providing customers with the flexibility to place orders at their convenience.
Unifying Workflows with OpenAI
OpenAI was selected for its model performance, multimodal capabilities, structured outputs, and large-scale production reliability. The ability to process text, images, and audio within a single ecosystem allowed Choco to unify previously separate workflows into one intelligent system. The implementation was quick and scalable, with Choco utilizing OpenAI’s SDKs and APIs to integrate features such as speech-to-text, embeds, and function calls into its infrastructure. The team also created a rigorous evaluation framework with robust data sets, continuous monitoring, and A/B testing to ensure accuracy and performance in production.
Adoption was driven by seamless integration of the entire ordering process. Customers didn’t have to change the way they ordered—whether by phone, text, or email, the system adapted to them, enhancing user experience and satisfaction.
Impact and Future Prospects
Choco’s AI-driven approach has yielded remarkable results:
- Processes over 8.8 million orders annually and eliminates millions of manual workflows
- Achieves up to 50% reduction in manual order entry, freeing up teams for higher value work
- Enables a 2x increase in productivity, allowing teams to scale without adding headcount
- Keeps error rates below 1-5% with configurable automation thresholds
- Supports 24/7 order entry and eliminates night and weekend delays
Choco continues to expand its AI capabilities across the food distribution ecosystem, strengthening the role of agents in executing complex operations. As AI systems take on more responsibility, the company is enabling a new class of users—non-engineers who act as “agent-orchestrators,” designing and managing intelligent systems that drive business outcomes.
Looking ahead, Choco plans to further expand its use of OpenAI APIs to power more autonomous, context-aware systems across sales, commerce, and supply chain, continuing its transformation from workflow software to an AI-powered execution infrastructure.
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