A five day quoting process can now take around 15 minutes in some Fastenal workflows.
That is the example CEO Jeff Watts gave while discussing how the industrial distributor is combining AI with its internal technology.
The improvement applies to a specific sourcing and quoting process, not every Fastenal quote.
Still, the scale of the change is striking. Distribution Strategy Group's coverage says the older process could take five or six days.
The Opportunity Is Administrative Work
The story is relevant to HVAC because contractors and distributors both lose enormous amounts of time to administrative friction.
A quote may require someone to:
identify products,
check availability,
source alternatives,
calculate pricing,
communicate with suppliers,
and assemble the final proposal.
If AI can compress that workflow, the value is not simply lower labor cost.
It is speed.
The company that responds first may win the order.
Fastenal's Sales Are Growing Rapidly
Fastenal reported third quarter sales of $2.46 billion, up 15.5%.
Net income increased 19.7% to $401.6 million.
The company did not quantify how much of that growth came from AI.
Fastenal also said contract customers accounted for 76.5% of quarterly sales, reinforcing how important large recurring accounts have become.
The HVAC Lesson
Many HVAC distributors and contractors still have quoting systems that depend heavily on manual work.
Five days to 15 minutes is an extreme example.
But even reducing a quote from two hours to 20 minutes could materially change office productivity.
The Takeaway
The most valuable AI in contracting may not be a chatbot.
It may be the software that removes hours or days between a customer asking for a price and receiving one.
