AI for Exporters: buyer replies, pro-formas and order checklists

A buyer in Manchester emails at night and asks for prices. A purchase order arrives with twenty small requests in it. A payment is two weeks late and you need to write, politely.

This is the everyday work of a small export business. Most of it is writing. AI can help with that writing. But it can also invent a price, promise a sample you never offered, or get a sum wrong.

AI for Exporters is a set of five workflows built around those risks. Each one uses only the prices, terms and dates you give it.

The five workflows

1. Reply to a new buyer. Answers a first email with your products, prices, minimum order, lead time and payment terms.
2. Pro-forma invoice. Turns your order lines into a pro-forma. Every line total, the grand total and the valid-until date are worked out for you.
3. Product descriptions. Writes short descriptions for your catalogue or website from your notes on size, material, finish and packing.
4. Order checklist. Reads a buyer's purchase order and lists every request in it, in the buyer's own words, with the days left to the ship-by date.
5. Buyer update. Writes a delay notice, a sample update or a payment reminder, as an email and a short WhatsApp message.

What it never does

Some questions need an expert, not an AI. So the workflows never give:

• an HS code
• a duty, tax or incentive rate
• a rule of origin
• a statement that your goods or documents meet a country's rules

If a buyer asks about any of these, the reply says [CHECK]. You then ask your freight forwarder or customs broker, and fill in the answer yourself.

The same goes for anything else you didn't give it. If a buyer asks about samples and you didn't say, the reply says [CHECK]. It doesn't guess.

The sums are done first

On a pro-forma invoice, one wrong total can cost you a week of emails. So the AI doesn't do the maths.

Each line total, the grand total and the valid-until date are worked out before the AI sees your order. The AI only copies them into the invoice. The same is true for the days to a ship-by date, and for how late a payment is.

The course comes with it

The edition includes the Working With AI course. It teaches the habits behind these workflows: give the AI the facts, tell it what not to do, and check what comes back. You can use the same habits for any other task in your business.

See it first

The edition page shows an example of each workflow, so you can see what it writes. Once you buy, you run them on your own prices and terms.