UiPath & Marshalls overhaul bidding with AI pricing

UiPath has partnered with Marshalls to overhaul the UK building materials group's bidding process with AI-based pricing software aimed at its project-led sales operations.

Marshalls sells landscaping, building and roofing products in a market where contractors often compete for the same jobs under tight deadlines. In that environment, pricing speed can influence whether a supplier wins work, while inconsistent discounting can erode margins.

Before the rollout, Marshalls relied largely on manual pricing processes and individual judgement, limiting the speed and consistency of bid responses. UiPath's Quote Pricing product now brings Marshalls' pricing data into a single platform and applies AI models within set controls, including regional pricing rules and margin thresholds.

The system is designed to let sales teams produce quotes in real time while staying within internal pricing limits. According to the companies, it has led to faster bid responses, more consistent pricing decisions, and higher net margin alongside increased revenue.

The move reflects a wider push by manufacturers to use software in commercial decision-making rather than only in back-office processes. Pricing has been one of the harder areas to standardise because sales teams often have to balance market conditions, local competition and internal profit targets in a short time.

For Marshalls, centralising pricing intelligence appears to be as much about governance as speed. The guardrails built into the software are intended to preserve regional pricing structures and prevent sales teams from moving outside agreed margin limits when responding to competitive tenders.

Market pressure

Manufacturers serving construction and infrastructure markets have faced growing pressure to respond faster to tenders as project pipelines fluctuate and competition for available work intensifies. Manual systems can slow that process, particularly when pricing decisions depend on a small number of experienced staff.

Shifting those decisions onto a shared platform can reduce reliance on individual expertise and create a clearer record of how quotes are generated. It also gives management more visibility over pricing decisions across regions and product groups.

UiPath is better known for automation software, but it has been expanding into tools that influence operational and commercial decisions. In this case, it is applying AI to a task tied closely to revenue generation rather than purely administrative work.

A factual update on the rollout came from Marshalls' sales leadership.

"Our continuing investments in digital and operational efficiency programs allow our business to outperform the competition, regardless of market conditions," said Phil Sykes, Head of Internal Sales & Customer Service at Marshalls.

The comment reflects a broader strategy at Marshalls to use digital systems to support performance in cyclical, highly competitive markets. The group's businesses span several parts of the construction supply chain, making pricing discipline important both for winning orders and protecting profitability.

Pricing controls

The pricing setup keeps Marshalls' data in one place while maintaining rules around local pricing and acceptable margins. That structure is intended to give sales teams more autonomy in producing bids without removing management oversight.

Real-time pricing tools have become more common in sectors where bid turnaround times are critical, but adoption has varied depending on the quality of underlying data and the complexity of product lines. Building materials suppliers often have to account for regional market conditions, transport costs and customer-specific arrangements, all of which can make standardisation difficult.

UiPath described Marshalls' deployment as an example of AI moving from a supporting role into commercial decisions that directly affect sales outcomes. It framed the partnership as a use of AI in pricing rather than a traditional automation project focused only on workflow efficiency.

"What Marshalls has achieved is great to see and it's where we are seeing real benefits from agentic AI adoption. AI is no longer just supporting operations, it's shaping the decisions that directly impact revenue and margin," said Will Dutton, Director, Supply Chain Solutions at UiPath.