Will AI Agents Eliminate Manual Work With 100,000 Automated Order Confirmations?

Lemvigh-Müller is using AI agents to automate 100,000 manual order confirmations, improving efficiency and reshaping the future of business operations.

Lemvigh-Müller, a Danish wholesaler, has used artificial intelligence to automate processing supplier order confirmations, one of the most time-consuming activities in procurement. The solution is made up of several AI agents that are coordinated into a single automated process based on SAP Business AI, each of which is in charge of a distinct task. Faster processing, better data quality, and more precise delivery information for clients are the results.

Even little differences in pricing, quantity, or delivery dates might result in substantial human labor in procurement when suppliers transmit order confirmations as PDF files. This has long been a recurrent problem for Lemvigh-Müller, one of Denmark's biggest suppliers of steel, plumbing, heating, and electrical supplies, requiring significant time and resources.

The corporation has now addressed the same area where previous automation projects frequently came to a standstill. Supplier PDF order confirmations can now be automatically read, understood, compared, and processed directly against SAP systems, thanks to a novel solution based on many specialized AI agents that was developed on SAP technology and implemented in close cooperation with NTT DATA Business Solutions.

“We have previously tried both RPA and traditional automation approaches without really achieving the desired effect. The key difference this time is that we broke the task down into multiple independent AI agents, each responsible for a specific part of the process.” - Frederik Aakerlund, IT director, Lemvigh‑Müller.

Over 100,000 Automated Order Confirmations

Lemvigh-Müller sends about 2,000 vendors about 175,000 purchase orders annually. Approximately 60% of supplier order confirmations are still received as unstructured documents, even if a portion of this volume is handled in an organized manner via EDI. The corporation can now automatically detect delays, quantity fluctuations, and price discrepancies—and react much more quickly—thanks to the coordinated AI bots.

According to the CIO Bulletin experts, Lemvigh-Müller’s introduction of AI agents demonstrates how automation is expanding beyond trivial activities into essential company operations. AI may increase productivity, lower error rates, and free up staff time for higher-value tasks by managing massive amounts of manual order confirmations. However, as AI gets more deeply ingrained in workflows, businesses need to make sure that sufficient supervision, data protection, and human control are in place.