Ingram Book Group is actively testing artificial intelligence across multiple business areas while maintaining strict safeguards to protect publisher intellectual property. The distributor has organized its AI initiatives into three categories: productivity enhancements, existing product improvements, and new AI-based product development. “We continue to explore AI and we’re monitoring all the feedback,” said chief information officer Steve Marshall. “We know it’s going to continue to evolve and be used, and so we’re trying to make sure that we move forward in a way that’s beneficial to Ingram yet is in line with the use and partnerships we have across the industry.” The key, Amy Cox Williams, v-p of marketing, said, is ensuring there are people overseeing the entire process. “It’s a human first, human last approach.”
Creating optimized ads
The most successful implementation to date involves Ingram iD, the company’s consumer marketing services platform, which now allows users to generate advertisements by entering an ISBN. The tool creates optimized ads for Facebook, Instagram, Google Display, and Google Search using publicly available title data and publisher-provided ONIX feeds. “The AI ads for click-through rates are performing about 7.6% better than manually generated ads, and the cost per click is lower,” Cox Williams said. The platform targets Ingram’s database of five million verified readers collected through its consumer-facing sites including Bookfinity, LittleInfinite, Shelf Savvy, and Page & Pairing.
The AI-generated ads utilize title data and metadata to create targeted campaigns, though users retain full editorial control throughout the process. “We spent a lot of time making sure that humans had control at any stage of the process of creating those ads,” Marshall said. “You can click the button and let it run if that’s what you want to do, or you can edit every single step along the way.”
Deploying AI internally
Beyond customer-facing tools, Ingram deploys AI internally. “We’re using some internal tools as well as publicly available AI tools around coding and writing documentation for our applications,” Marshall said. “Our expectation is it will free up time for the IT resources to work on the important stuff that moves the needle for both them and our customers.” The company also applies machine learning to data analysis and has integrated AI modules into its existing applications.
In one example, AI is assisting Ingram’s catalog integrity team, which uses automated rule sets to identify potential problems with incoming titles, though the company stops short of using AI to read actual book content. “We’ve made a commitment to anyone that puts their content into the Ingram ecosystem that we will not allow AI to read the actual content, and their private IP,” Marshall said. The company uses other AI-powered tools to screen for financial irregularities and identify potential bad actors, all while protecting publisher intellectual property.
Maintaining trust
Marshall emphasized the company’s approach to maintaining trust. “We want Ingram to remain a safe place for them to bring that intellectual property to get it out to the market,” he said. This philosophy extends to the company’s technology infrastructure, as Ingram operates its AI tools within its own data centers rather than relying on third- party cloud services or re-licensing publicly available APIs.
Looking ahead, Ingram expects AI to play a role in warehouse and labor management, as well as inventory forecasting for its wholesale operations. Cox Williams noted that improved forecasting could reduce returns. “The better our forecasting can be, the better we can manage just-in-time inventory,” Cox Williams said.
The company is also exploring AI applications for title setup assistance, potentially pre-filling catalog data to streamline the onboarding process for publishers. This is particularly useful for smaller and independent publishers who may need additional support navigating the technical requirements. “The goal is to be more efficient so that we can help our customers, publishers, retailers and libraries, sell more books,” Cox Williams said.
