Assent Inc., an industry leader in supply chain sustainability management solutions worldwide, has launched Request Manager, the first artificial intelligence-native solution for suppliers that will change the face of customer-driven compliance and sustainability request processing. Request Manager has been created using the existing sustainability platform from Assent Inc. Essentially, this new solution from Assent Inc. helps solve an important issue related to manual processing of customer-driven sustainability requests that often cause hindrances for organizations involved in global supply chains.
The issue of supply chain compliance within the current environment means addressing an increasingly large set of requests for information related to regulations and sustainability that typically take hundreds of points of information that need to be checked and relayed to trading partners correctly. According to research conducted by Assent, currently 80% of businesses communicate and respond to these requests using email and spreadsheets, and manufacturers spend well over 1,000 hours per year manually addressing requests for compliance.
The Request Manager uses the power of artificial intelligence in an effort to centralize all the customer requests in a single intelligent process flow. With the use of artificial intelligence features such as parsing, matching, and the reuse of verified information, the software helps to reduce the time spent in the response process while improving the integrity of the compliance submissions. One of the functionalities of the software is the proactive declaration share. This function predicts the customers’ demands through the observation of patterns in the declarations that allow suppliers to send the information in advance.
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Why This Matters in the Supply Chain Industry
- A New Standard in Compliance Efficiency
Currently, many companies are finding it difficult to keep up with the demand for compliance, particularly in highly regulated industries such as electronics, autos, chemical, and consumer product sectors. The traditional approach to compliance is a challenge because companies are often dealing with multiple systems that are manually driven, leading to a bottleneck when dealing with suppliers. However, with a single platform that is AI-powered to manage all the compliance needs of a business, that has become the new norm, thanks to Assent.
- Improved Risk Management and Resilience
The disruptions in the supply chain have remained a challenge to businesses across the globe from geopolitical events to trade policy changes to ESG factors of Environmental, Social, and Governance compliance. The automated and accurate data analysis and response system offer a business better visibility into supplier performance and compliance. The system also enables risk managers and procurement executives to be informed of possible problems ahead of time and prevent delays or penalties. The proactive capabilities in Request Manager allow businesses to be in approved supplier status as a competitive advantage in supply agreements.
- Reduced Costs and Scalability
It’s not only slow – manual methods of achieving compliance are costly too. Time wasted on verifying and overlapping data entry by employees needs to be kept in mind too. Artificial intelligence makes these challenges easier to address and leaves room for more important work like strategic sourcing and supplier development for a company’s supply chain organization. Small- and medium-scale businesses with limited budgets will find such solutions from AI revolutionary and accessible to scale and process.
- Creating Competitive Advantage from Data Insights
Apart from compliance, data has a strategic use. AI-driven business processes and data matching for verified suppliers create a living body of knowledge that can be used by companies for market expansion and even ESG reports. As supply chain functions continue to be influenced by digital transformation and even logistics optimization, compliance data is yet another body of intelligence that can be leveraged by supply chain-related functions.
Business Impacts Across Industries
Manufacturing & Electronics
It is a reality that the current producers of goods that involve complex global sourcing face a complex web of regulations that range from dangerous materials (RoHS and REACH) to conflict minerals. Request Manager can automate the process in a manner that alleviates the paperwork obstacles and tracing that comes with the sourcing.
Retail & Consumer Goods
The retail sector has shown a focus on both sustainability and transparency. The use of artificial intelligence technology in ensuring compliance with supplier statements and sustainability data improves the timeliness and accuracy of data. This has a significant impact on improving consumer confidence and ensuring overall compliance with ESG standards.
Automotive & Aerospace
A compliance solution powered by AI is extremely valuable for industries in which safety and compliance are of utmost significance. This is because faster processes for compliance ensure fewer delays in production, thereby enabling faster time-to-market for components and/assemblies.
Looking Ahead
We The Request Manager, a product of Assent, will begin rollout in new clients beginning January 2026. This is a significant move in supply chain digital transformation. With regulatory environments escalating in complexity, it is likely that only AI-native solutions, such as this particular tool, will be boons in a cost of doing business in any industry. Early adopters of these solutions will benefit from improved compliance agility, reduced costs, and a comprehensive risk management strategy. Ultimately, technologies such as that of Assent mark an overall trend in supply chain management practices by moving away from reactive and manual processing and towards intelligent processing enabled by artificial intelligence. The impact of this technology also transcends compliance into forecasting and planning.