New AI-Powered Product Recommendation Engine Empowers Distributor Owners with Smarter, Faster Proposal Building

September 25, 2025 // Franchising.com // TAMPA, Fla. – Proforma has launched a new tool that will redefine how branded merchandise proposals are created. Proforma’s AI-powered Product Recommendation Engine (PRE) is an advanced tool built to support Distributor Owners by turning customer needs into relevant, high-quality product suggestions. Whether it’s for a charity golf outing, employee onboarding kit, or holiday campaign, the PRE streamlines the brainstorming and planning process with intelligent, data-driven insights.

“For years, Distributor Owners have spent hours scouring catalogs or relying on intuition to develop proposals. PRE changes that,” said Brian Carothers, Chief Information Officer at Proforma. “By combining multiple AI models with our deep historical sales data and inventory access, we can now suggest better, faster, and smarter recommendations—all within minutes.”

At the heart of PRE is a multi-phase cognitive architecture, which is a computer system designed to mimic how humans think, plan, and evaluate.

PRE follows a structured three-phase process:

• Intent Extraction – Understand what the user is trying to achieve.
• Product Ideation – Discover baskets of product options that best align with intent.
• Catalog Alignment – Match identified products currently available through Proforma’s robust Supplier Network, ensuring relevance and availability.

Unlike other AI recommendation engines that rely solely on generic large language models (LLMs), PRE is grounded in real-world sales data, prioritizing products that have sold well in similar scenarios. The engine considers quantitative parameters, such as available inventory levels, to generate good, better, and best options within a given budget range.

Each product recommendation is paired with a “Why this product?” pop-up, offering context for the suggestion and increasing confidence in the selection. From there, Distributor Owners can add items directly to their proposals, check stock levels, and generate quotes, all in one seamless experience.

PRE reflects Proforma’s commitment to moving the printing and promotional products industry from individual intuition to efficient, data-backed processes. It’s not about replacing a Distributor Owner’s creative thinking, it’s about supercharging it with technology.

“There’s a myth that AI is magic,” said Michael Dobozy, Chief Technology Officer at Proforma. “The reality is the real power comes when you combine AI with the data, infrastructure, and insight you’ve already built over time. That’s exactly what we’ve done.”

By leveraging years of successful order history and enriching it with cutting-edge AI, PRE enables Distributor Owners to stay ahead in an increasingly fast-paced and competitive market. This tool is not just about speed—it’s about ensuring quality, creativity, and confidence in every proposal.

The Product Recommendation Engine is part of Proforma’s broader mission to empower Distributor Owner success. Distributor Owners no longer need to start from scratch or second-guess their ideas. Instead, they can draw on the collective success of the Network and benefit from AI-identified solutions that have proven to work.

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