EDI (electronic data interchange)
Standard machine-to-machine exchange of business documents (orders, delivery notes, invoices) between trading partners.
Large retailers and manufacturers have exchanged orders this way for decades, in formats such as EDIFACT, often through an EDI provider that translates and routes messages. Smaller suppliers are often asked to “connect via EDI” to win a big customer. Most inquiries from smaller customers still arrive as emails and PDFs, which is where automation with AI fills the gap EDI never covered.
Related terms
- CPQ (configure, price, quote): Software that helps sales configure a product, apply the right prices and discounts, and produce a quote without errors.
- RFQ automation (quote automation): An agent that reads requests for quotation, asks suppliers for prices and drafts a quote for a person to approve.
- Webhook: An HTTP request one system sends to another when something happens, instead of the other system asking repeatedly.
