Skip to main content

​
AI Sourcing Assistant

Supplier quotes arrive by email — often as PDFs, sometimes buried in the body of the message, occasionally with inconsistent formatting. Someone has to open each one, find the price, check the lead time, figure out which request it’s for, and enter it into the system. Multiply that by dozens of suppliers and hundreds of requests a year. ChemCloud’s Sourcing Assistant agent handles this for you.

​
What the Sourcing Assistant Does

The Sourcing Assistant is an AI agent that reads quote emails, extracts the key details, and files them against the correct sourcing request. It works in the background so your team can focus on the decision, not the data entry. When a quote email arrives, the agent:
  1. Reads the email and attachments — PDF quotes, inline pricing, or both
  2. Extracts key data — price, quantity, lead time, payment terms, currency, pack sizes
  3. Matches it to the right request — using the supplier, product, and request details
  4. Files the quote — adds it to the request so it appears in your comparison view
  5. Notifies you — confirms the quote was processed, or flags if it needs review

​
How It Saves Time

Without the Sourcing Assistant, your team is manually:
  • Opening quote emails and reading PDFs
  • Copying pricing into ChemCloud or a spreadsheet
  • Matching quotes to the right request
  • Chasing missing information from suppliers
  • Re-entering data when quotes are updated
The Sourcing Assistant does all of this automatically. Your team reviews what the AI has extracted rather than doing the data entry themselves.

​
How to Use It

​
Forward quote emails

When you receive a quote from a supplier, forward the email to your ChemCloud AI email address. Find your address in ChemCloud AI → Email Inbox. The agent will:
  • Read the email body and any PDF attachments
  • Extract pricing, quantities, lead times, and terms
  • Match the quote to the relevant open request
  • Add the quote to your comparison view
This works for:
  • PDF quotes attached to emails
  • Pricing included in the email body
  • Updated quotes replacing earlier versions
  • Multi-product quotes covering several requests

​
Review the results

After the agent processes a quote, check the extracted data in ChemCloud. You can edit any field if the AI got something wrong or if you want to add detail it didn’t capture.

​
Proactive Capabilities

The Sourcing Assistant doesn’t just process incoming quotes — it can also help you stay on top of your sourcing:
  • Unanswered requests — flags requests where suppliers haven’t responded
  • Price changes — alerts you when a new quote is significantly different from previous pricing
  • Missing information — identifies quotes that are incomplete (e.g., no lead time provided)

​
Configure Your Settings

You control how the Sourcing Assistant behaves. Go to ChemCloud AI → Agent Settings → Sourcing Assistant to configure:
  • How the agent handles quotes it can’t confidently match to a request
  • What notifications you want when new quotes are processed
  • Whether it should auto-file or wait for confirmation on ambiguous matches
For more on all ChemCloud AI agents, see AI Agents.