BUSINESS MATTERS
HAS AI KILLED THE APPROVED SUPPLIER LIST?
T
here was a time when getting onto a main contractor’s or specifier’s approved supplier
list was critical, and once you were on it, you tended to stay there. However, Paul Houston, co-founder of Catalyst Marketing Agency, argues that’s no longer guaranteed. Here, he explains why AI-assisted research is rebuilding
construction and manufacturing procurement shortlists from scratch, and what that means for the businesses that supply the sector. I’ve spent more than two decades
working within, or with manufacturers and contractors across the UK, and a good chunk of that has been spent inside the construction supply chain. So, it’s no
surprise I’ve talked to a lot of building product manufacturers, fabricators, and specialist subcontractors in that time, all bidding for a place on a main contractor’s or housebuilder’s approved list. The holy grail would be to get yourself
onto that approved suppliers’ list, build a relationship with the buyer or specifier, and then get specified by name on project after project. And by doing so, you massively improved your chances of many years’ repeat business. It wasn’t the only way to win business, but it was the goal of every supplier.
The changing model Fast forward to today, and the model is changing. Not gradually over the past 10, 15 or 20 years, but rapidly during the past five. And it’s still changing, faster than most of the sector has clocked, and because it’s largely driven by AI, it’s evolving on the job. The reason is that quantity surveyors,
procurement managers, and specifiers are increasingly opening ChatGPT before they open Google, rather than picking up the phone or visiting a website. And the approved supplier lists that companies spent decades building their way onto are being completely rebuilt by AI- assisted research. ChatGPT alone now gets around 5.6 billion visits a month, and over 71% of people now use the available suite of AI tools to search. This is happening across pretty much
every sector we work with, but there seems to be added pressure on buyers in construction and manufacturing, which impacts this further, most probably because sourcing decisions in this sector carry a heavy weight. Whether it’s structural steel, cladding systems, MEP components or a specialist groundworks contractor, buyers can be weighed down by compliance, programme pressure and, naturally, budgets. This makes them a prime candidate
for AI, given its quick and easy to simply ask: “Suggest five UK manufacturers of fire-rated cladding who are UKCA marked and have experience on
34 / WELDING WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 04 - AUGUST 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
