WEBINAR: Cut Through the AI Noise. What Really Matters for Distributors in 2026

AI Amid Tariff Turmoil

Early 2026 has crystallised a new trade reality: United States tariffs, escalated throughout 2025 and now viewed by 76% of professionals as a lasting policy shift lasting at least four years, have upended established supply routes and raised logistical costs across imported components and finished goods. For distributors—the intermediaries moving physical inventory between manufacturers and end users—the impact is immediate and asymmetric. They cannot easily pass on every cost increase without losing volume, nor absorb them indefinitely on margins that were already squeezed by post-pandemic normalisation and rising freight expenses.

Australian and New Zealand distributors operate in this global storm while contending with a national AI adoption lag documented in Deloitte’s February 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise report. Only 65% of local organisations intend to increase AI budgets, against 84% globally; just 12% say generative AI is already transforming their business or sector, half the global rate. Yet 69% of Australian entities are already experimenting with autonomous AI agents, signalling awareness without the scaled production that converts pilots into profit.

The stakes are concrete. Supply-chain concerns have doubled year-on-year; container shipping costs rose 40% in recent disruptions, and tariff mitigation tactics such as nearshoring or supplier switches add further expense and uncertainty. A single misforecast on seasonal stock can tie up millions in working capital or trigger stock-outs that damage customer relationships. Distributors steering roughly USD 180 billion in annual technology sales worldwide also sit at a rare intersection: they are both heavy users of AI tools for inventory, pricing and compliance, and influential shapers of how cloud and AI solutions reach smaller partners and end customers.

Non-obvious tensions abound. While hype suggests AI will solve everything, the real constraint is integration with decades-old ERP systems and fragmented data—challenges that cost enterprises millions annually in poor-quality inputs. Distributors that move fastest risk over-investment in unproven tools; those that hesitate risk being outmanoeuvred by rivals who use agentic systems to reconfigure routes or dynamically adjust prices in real time. The trade-off is no longer hype versus caution but speed of practical deployment versus the compounding cost of inaction in a world where 78% of supply-chain leaders already anticipate intensifying disruptions.