The 19th annual ASI Power Summit kicked off Sunday, Oct. 12, at the Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia in Arizona with a welcome networking reception and dinner. The next day, Monday, Oct. 13, featured a full schedule of impactful presentations and panel discussions – including technology-focused sessions like a keynote Q&A between ASI President & CEO Tim Andrews and Sophia, the AI-powered humanoid robot, and insights on the near future of AI with Sam Maule of Moov. Economist Mary Kelly, Ph.D., returned to the event this year with insights on the state of the economy in areas like inflation, GDP, the job market and taxes, and a panel of Counselor Top 40 suppliers and distributors shared their thoughts on a constantly changing global sourcing landscape. On Monday evening, ASI unveiled the 2025 Counselor Power 50 list during the annual Power 50 dinner.

Day 3, the final day of the event, continues with several sessions and panels, including a Q&A with Justin Zavadil, president of Counselor Top 40 distributor American Solutions for Business (asi/120075) and Counselor’s 2025 Person of the Year, and a Q&A with Jim Hilt, the recently installed CEO of Top 40 distributor HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000).

Here’s an overview of the sessions on Day 2.

Sourcing Strategies & Global Supply Chains

Most people didn’t know what a supply chain was until 2020. That’s how Simon Croom, Ph.D., professor of supply chain management at the University of San Diego, found himself that year talking most often to the media about … toilet paper. Still, Croom, who had a distinguished career working for Jaguar Cars and founded several successful retail businesses before entering academia, examined in his session why supply chains have gone global and what attendees need to be aware of. For example, he stated companies should be employing risk matrices to identify which sourcing countries and situations they’re most vulnerable in. Also, companies should try to mitigate reputational risk by eliminating as much labor exploitation as possible from their supply chain, even though, he acknowledged, “Supply chains always have some form of labor exploitation.”

Croom discussed the practice of “tariff engineering,” where “it’s never straightforward what the tariff is on an individual product,” he said. He pointed to a couple examples, including Ford importing vans with a second row of passenger seats that they subsequently removed because the tariff on passenger vehicles was much less than the tariff on commercial vehicles. “Tariff engineering,” he concluded, “is an increasingly important tool.”

Agentic AI, New Features & Compelling Use Cases

AI was a dominant theme in the morning sessions at the ASI Power Summit. Beyond the keynote with Sophia and talk by Maule of Moov, ASI Chief Technology Officer Ryan Hutchison and ASI Director of Software Engineering John Young showcased the latest AI features in ASI’s ESP+ and what’s coming next for ASI’s technology platform. “What we started with today is showing some generative AI use cases,” said Hutchison, “and now ASI is making a shift into the agentic AI space.”

ASI’s Ryan Hutchison (left) and John Young discuss new AI-powered features in ESP+.

Hutchison and Young showed a recent actual social media post where a distributor was looking for 500 logoed shirts to outfit Labubus, the current popular plush craze. In ESP+, they demonstrated how distributors could search for the size of Labubus (6.7 inches) and then bring back search results of plush toy T-shirts sized 7-9 inches that would fit. “The AI is not just able to respond to the questions,” said Young, “but it’s also ready to suggest what you might want to ask next.” It can then craft a gift basket with additional products, and even calculate the gift per product, what the margins should be and ultimately the net profit.

Those features are a game changer, said Young, because “it takes someone that’s new to promo and makes them as effective as if they had a senior, experienced person sitting right with them.”

In the following session, ASI Senior Vice President Andy Cohen moderated a panel featuring Adell Means, owner/president of Resource & Supply (asi/559051), Hutchison and a reappearance by Sophia. The panelists championed the use of AI, but said you need to have guardrails on what it should and should not do, and you have to vet it thoroughly.

From left: ASI’s Andy Cohen, distributor Adell Means, ASI’s Ryan Hutchison and Sophia the robot offer their insights on the future of AI and how companies can start leveraging the technology immediately.

“Although AI is going to save you time,” said Means, “you have to test it.” Means discussed how his Indianapolis-based company is using AI in the sales process, including converting prospects into clients by introducing more touchpoints that busy distributors might normally delay or don’t have time for. “It can save 30 minutes in actual time,” added Means, “but it can also save a week’s worth of headache.”

The panelists stressed the importance of AI uses that can scale when successful, using vendors that are going to be around for the long haul (with so many upstarts infiltrating the space) and making sure the technology offerings you use are being upgraded often, or else they run the risk of becoming obsolete quickly. Still, no matter what you do, the importance is to jump in. “If you haven’t had a chance to play with AI, start doing it,” advised Hutchison. “You just have to start. AI, it feels overwhelming, but honestly it’s quite easy once you get into it.”

The Current State of the Promo Industry

Buyers are optimistic but still cautious with spending – that was the main takeaway from a panel entitled “Hot Topics Facing the Promo Industry,” moderated by Jo-an Lantz, CEO of Counselor Top 40 distributor Geiger (asi/202900) and a member of the Counselor Power 50 list. Panelists Jeremy Lott, president/CEO of Counselor Top 40 supplier SanMar (asi/84863) and the highest-ranked executive on this year’s Power 50 list; Lori Bauer, CEO of Top 40 distributor iPROMOTEu (asi/232119) and a member of the Power 50 list; Craig Nadel, president/CEO of Top 40 distributor Nadel (asi/279600) and a member of the Power 50; and Amy Wolf, owner/CEO of Evo3 Marketing & Events (asi/190628), discussed a slew of topics, from the state of sales to cybersecurity, to healthcare costs and trade uncertainty.

From left: Geiger’s (asi/202900) Jo-an Lantz, Nadel’s (asi/279600) Craig Nadel, iPROMOTEu’s (asi/232119) Lori Bauer, SanMar’s (asi/84863) Jeremy Lott and Evo3 Marketing & Events’ (asi/190628) Amy Wolf discuss opportunities and concerns among promo executives.

“Tariffs put a chill on this year,” said Lott. “The challenge has been the uncertainty around them. The rules keep changing and clients want to wait and see.”

ASI’s Nate Kucsma, senior executive director of research, and Sara Lavenduski, executive director of client education & content, also presented data based on a recent survey of Power Summit attendees. Among the significant findings: 76% expect 2025 sales to be above 2024 numbers; 67% of distributors view M&A as a growth opportunity versus 24% of suppliers; both suppliers and distributors see print on demand as a potential opportunity and a threat over the next three to five years; and 40% of attendees only use AI “sparingly” while 46% of distributors and 34% of suppliers don’t measure the impact of their AI initiatives.

“That number will have to go up over the next few years,” said Kucsma, referring to the percentage of attendees who still don’t measure the benefits of their AI use. “Companies will have to use data to justify their spend on these tools.”