5 Ways to Improve Your Order Entry System with AI Automation

Order entry might not be the flashiest function in your business, but it’s one of the most critical. For companies managing high volumes of orders across multiple channels, even a small inefficiency can lead to costly errors, missed SLAs and frustrated customers. In fact, nearly 80% of B2B buyers now expect real-time interaction and responsiveness throughout their purchase journey.¹  

With over 2.87 million orders automated monthly using Esker’s platform, it’s clear that AI-driven automation is more than a trend for today’s B2B Customer Service teams — it’s a digital transformation reality. 

This blog explores five impactful ways AI automation can improve your order entry system, helping you reduce manual entry, improve accuracy, meet service-level expectations and free up your team for more strategic work, and how Esker’s Order Management solution can help. 

5 ways AI automation improves order entry

1. Automate order data capture from any format

Let’s face it, manually entering order details from emails, PDFs, portals and EDI documents isn’t just time-consuming, it’s risky. Errors creep in. Staff gets overwhelmed. Customers are left waiting. Esker’s AI-powered solution captures and extracts critical data from any order format, including structured, semi-structured and even handwritten content — using a blend of OCR, NLP and machine learning. 

What does this mean for your team? 

• No more jumping between systems to manually verify fields 
• Touchless processing for recurring or template-based orders 
• 92.11% reduction in manual entry, on average 
• A system that learns from corrections to improve over time 

As one Esker customer put it: 

“We’ve been able to slash the processing time for repeat orders from five minutes to five seconds.” – Sr. Director of Business Operations, NVIDIA 

2. Eliminate errors with real-time validation & anomaly detection

A fast order process means nothing if the data is wrong. That’s where Esker’s Synergy AI goes a step further — verifying data against ERP master data and flagging discrepancies before they ever become a problem. Whether it’s mismatched SKUs, incorrect pricing or suspicious quantities, orders are automatically scanned for issues using ERP-integrated logic and intelligent rule sets. 

• Key benefits of Esker Synergy AI include:
• ERP-backed validation to ensure data accuracy 
• Anomaly alerts to detect unusual order behavior before errors escalate 
• Prioritization of flagged orders, so CSRs focus on what matters most 

This level of automated oversight minimizes risk, accelerates approvals and keeps fulfillment workflows running smoothly. 

3. Process orders seamlessly across every channel

Regardless of the platform (email, fax, web portals, EDI, mobile apps, etc.), your customers aren’t thinking about your backend challenges. They just want to place an order and get confirmation quickly. But juggling multiple input sources often results in siloed systems and slow turnaround times. 

Esker’s order management automation centralizes all incoming orders into one intelligent platform — no matter the format, no matter the channel. This means: 

• Unified workflows for EDI and non-EDI orders 
• Automatic classification of orders using AI-powered triage 
• Flexibility to scale with new customers, formats or business rules 

By removing the “channel chaos” you gain more control, speed and visibility from the moment an order hits your inbox. 

4. Increase visibility with intelligent dashboards & reporting

hen B2B Customer Service teams operate blindly, the negative impact is palpable — performance slips, missed SLAs, unnoticed bottlenecks, etc. Esker’s solution suite brings real-time visibility to the forefront of order entry management. 

With intuitive dashboards and built-in analytics, leaders can: 

• Track performance by order type, customer, channel or CSR 
• Monitor SLA compliance and identify issues early 
• Drill down into order history, approval cycles, and time-to-ERP-posting 

Having full transparency into the order entry process is essential for meeting today’s customer expectations. One study found that companies committed to customer service as a value center drive 3.5x more revenue growth.² 

5. Free your CS team for strategic, customer-facing work

When order entry teams are buried in low-value tasks, they can't focus on what truly matters — building customer relationships, solving problems and fostering loyalty. AI-powered automation lets your CSRs reclaim their time by eliminating the grind of data entry and manual tracking. 

For companies using Esker:

• Staff is empowered to act proactively, not reactively 
• Training time for new hires is dramatically reduced 
• Collaboration tools allow seamless internal and external communication 
• Teams can manage higher volumes with less stress 

Just ask the team at Viega: 

“We started out with people just entering orders all day. Now they have an opportunity to grow within the company, and we’re going to give them higher-level tasks as we move forward.” Chad Molen, Director of Customer Support.

The result? A happier, more strategic customer service team — and better customer experience to match. 

Why choose Esker for order management automation? 

Improving your order entry system doesn’t require starting from scratch. With the right AI automation in place, you can achieve faster processing, higher accuracy, and a better experience for your customers and your team. 

Esker’s Customer Service Automation Suite is built to scale with your business — not replace it. Whether you're managing thousands of EDI transactions, triaging free-text emails or centralizing communications between Sales, Finance and Supply Chain, Esker provides: 

• End-to-end visibility across all order types and customer interactions 
• ERP integration without the need for replacement or disruption 
• Global scalability to support multiple locations, languages and workflows 
• AI technology (OCR, NLP, ML and GenAI) to learn and improve over time 
• Proven results with 400+ customers automating millions of orders per month 

Ready to see how AI automation can reshape your order entry system? 

Watch an on-demand demo of Esker's Order Management automation solution now.