Will agent-driven AI change how supplier discovery works for founders in the future?
I’ve been thinking about how supplier discovery is evolving for early-stage entrepreneurs and small ecommerce operators. Most people still rely on platforms like Amazon, Alibaba or similar marketplaces as an initial starting point. But the reality is the actual sourcing process quickly moves outside those platforms into messaging, vetting, and coordination with suppliers. I’ve recently been testing Accio Work to understand whether parts of that fragmented workflow can be streamlined. Especially things like supplier research, outreach, follow-ups n keeping track of multiple conversations across different time zones. What stood out is that it doesn’t really feel like 'searching for suppliers' in the traditional sense anymore. But more like delegating the execution of the process itself. Its made me curious whether marketplaces will continue to be the main entry point. Or whether they gradually become just one input source that agent systems operate on top of. At the same time, I still think there are clear limitations. Trust is still a major factor, pricing context is easy to misread and supplier relationships still depend heavily on human judgment that automation can’t fully replace. Where I do see improvement is speed and coordination, especially when managing multiple suppliers at once. Curious how other founders here see this. Are agent-based systems going to replace supplier discovery workflows or just sit on top of them as a support layer?