AI Supplier Matching
Give a category and a short description and VEXORS returns suppliers ranked by how well they fit, each with a fit score and a plain-language reason. Available on Discover and inside the request wizard.
What you'll learn
- Find suppliers that fit a category and brief, ranked by a fit score
- Run matching from Discover or from the request you are building
- Understand when matching helps and when to skip it
When you start sourcing in a new category, the hardest part is the blank page. You know what you need, but you do not yet know which suppliers can actually deliver it. So you fall back on the few names you already have, search the web, and hope you are not missing a better fit two clicks away. The suppliers you never find are the ones who never get to compete.
AI Supplier Matching closes that gap. You give it a category and a short description of what you need, and VEXORS returns a ranked shortlist of suppliers, each with a fit score and a one-line reason explaining why they surfaced. It reads the meaning of your request, not just keywords, so a supplier described in different words than you used can still match. It appears in two places: on Discover when you are searching for suppliers, and in the Review step of the request wizard for the request you are creating.
Why this matters
A keyword search only finds suppliers who happen to describe themselves the way you describe your need. Matching works on meaning, so it surfaces capable suppliers whose own wording is different from yours, and it ranks them, so you start with the strongest fits at the top instead of a flat list you have to read end to end. The result is a wider, more relevant pool, which is exactly what produces competitive bids.
When to use it
Matching is optional and skippable. You never have to run it, and your request publishes fine without it. Reach for it when:
- You are entering a category where your vendor list is thin or out of date.
- You have an open request but want to also invite a handful of strong-fit suppliers directly.
- You want a second opinion on who is out there before you commit to a shortlist.
Skip it when you already know exactly who you want to invite. Inviting named suppliers by hand is always available and costs nothing.
Plan and cost
Running a match is free on every plan and uses no AI credits. It is rate-limited to keep things fair, so rapid repeat runs may briefly pause. On the free Explore plan you can see that strong matches exist, but reading the full shortlist and inviting from it on Discover needs Grow or higher; the match inside the request wizard is available on all plans.
Matching is free. Other AI tools use credits — see AI credits for how the balance works.
Running a match from Discover
On Discover, matching appears as a panel above your supplier results once you have given it enough to work with: type something into the company search, then pick a category from the browser. With both in place, the AI panel offers to find suppliers that fit.
Set a search and a category
Open Discover from the sidebar and stay on the Companies tab. Type a short description of what you need into the search box, then choose a category from the category browser. The AI matching panel only appears once both are set, because it needs the category to scope the search and your words to understand the intent.
Find matching suppliers
Select Find suppliers in the panel header. VEXORS runs the match and returns the strongest-fit suppliers for that category and description.
Read the shortlist
Each result shows the supplier name, a fit score as a percentage, and a short reason explaining why it surfaced. Some results also list the specific catalog items that drove the match, as links you can open. From here you can open a supplier's profile with View, or use Invite to add them to a request.
The match reason is there so you can sanity-check the ranking, not take it on faith. A 90 percent fit with a reason that does not match your real need is a signal to refine your description and run again, or to open the profile and judge for yourself.
On the Explore plan, the matched results on Discover are shown blurred with an upgrade prompt over the full shortlist. The matching still runs and you can see that strong fits exist; reading the full list and inviting from it is a Grow and Scale capability. Running matching from inside the request wizard is available on all plans.
Running a match while you build a request
Matching is also built into the request wizard. On the final Review step, once your request has a title and a category, an AI Supplier Matching card offers to find suppliers that fit the request you are about to publish. This is the more natural place to use it, because the suppliers it surfaces are matched to your actual request, and you can invite them without leaving the flow.
Reach the Review step
Build your request as usual through Details, Scope, Bill of Quantities, and Questionnaire, then land on Review. The matching card appears near the top; select Match Suppliers to run it.
Match and invite in place
The matched suppliers appear in a collapsible list, each with a fit score, an optional verified badge, and an Invite button. Selecting Invite opens a short dialog where you can add a message, then adds that supplier to the request's invite list. View opens their profile in a new context so you do not lose your place in the wizard.
Regenerate when the request changes
The shortlist you generated is kept, so leaving and returning shows it again. If you have changed the request's title or category and want a fresh match against the new wording, use Regenerate. Matching is free, so regenerating costs nothing.
What good looks like
- You ran matching with a specific category and a description written the way you would describe the need to a colleague, not a one-word search. Specific input produces a more relevant shortlist.
- You read each match reason before acting on the score. The reason is your check on whether the ranking actually fits.
- You used matching to widen a thin pool, then combined it with suppliers you already know, rather than treating the shortlist as the whole answer.
- You invited the strong fits directly from the Review step, so they were on the invite list before you published, not discovered after bidding had already started.
A supplier never sees that they were surfaced by matching, and never sees a fit score or ranking about themselves. From their side, matching simply means a relevant buyer found them and either viewed their profile or sent an invitation to a request. Keeping a complete, well-categorized company profile and catalog is what makes a supplier easy to match in the first place.
Next steps
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