Building an AI-Powered Order System

December 16, 2025


The problem: A century-old pet food manufacturer was drowning in manual order processing. Customers sent orders via email. Staff read PDFs. Data was typed into two separate ERP systems. Every. Single. Order.

This didn't scale.

What We Built

We built an order management system on Medusa that automated the entire flow:

  1. Email arrives with a PDF or spreadsheet
  2. AI parses the unstructured data
  3. System creates a draft order
  4. Staff reviews and confirms
  5. Order syncs to the correct ERP

Result: 9x faster order processing. 80% cost reduction. Most orders now flow through automatically.

Why It Worked

Medusa's modular architecture let us build exactly what was needed. We extended it with custom modules for each ERP (IFS and Tropos), added AI parsing workflows, and built a tailored Admin UI.

No framework limitations. No rebuilding core commerce logic. Just focus on the custom parts.

The tech stack:

We deployed everything on AWS using infrastructure-as-code. The whole system runs on Fargate containers with Lambda handling async workflows. No custom frontend needed—Medusa's admin panel handled everything.

What I Learned

Start with workflows, not screens. We mapped the entire order flow before writing code. This made technical decisions obvious.

Modular wins. Each ERP got its own module. When one ERP changes (like Tropos switching from VPN to direct API), we update one module. The rest keeps working.

AI is a tool, not magic. It parses emails well, but humans still review orders. The system suggests, staff confirms. This balance is why it works in production.

Good docs matter. Medusa's documentation made the build faster. Clear examples, searchable, up to date. This is how developer tools should work.

The Details

INSPIRED Pet Nutrition is now scaling the system to a third ERP after another acquisition.

For us at rb2, this became more than a client project. The architecture evolved into a reusable B2B automation product we're offering to other manufacturers.

Read the full case study on Medusa's blog.

I led this project as Delivery Director at rb2, with some solution architecture and hands-on coding mixed in. We help companies build custom commerce systems that actually work.