Welcome to the on‑demand replay of PRGXplore Live: Accelerate Cash Recovery and Error Prevention in Retail with AI, a deep dive into how leading retailers are transforming audit cycles, reducing leakage, and strengthening supplier relationships by combining purpose‑built AI with decades of retail audit expertise. 

What To Expect

In this session, PRGX Senior Leaders Brad Royer and Jeff Fischel explore the challenges retailers face with traditional recovery audit timelines. Many teams still operate on 18–24‑month cycles, meaning issues are discovered long after the fact — long after budgets have closed, roles have changed, and root causes are difficult to trace. As Brad put it, “actionable insights 24 months later don’t really do anybody any good,” emphasizing why old models no longer meet the needs of modern retail. 

The conversation then moves into how retailers are shifting to accelerated audit models, where reviews begin within 35 to 120 days of the transaction. By moving closer to real time, retailers are capturing recoveries faster, acting on insights while they still matter, and dramatically reducing vendor friction. Case studies shared during the session show retailers moving 75–80% of recoveries into the current fiscal year, with some achieving up to 90% of recovered profit within that same year — a result that was nearly impossible under traditional timelines. 

The AI Impact

A major focus of the event is how AI is reshaping the audit workflow. Brad explains how PRGX manages millions of emails across its retail clients — far more than any human team could read. Historically, analysts relied on manual search or keyword filtering. Today, PRGX applies AI to automatically identify relevant emails, classify the type of issue (pricing, scan, movement, advertising, promotional funding, and more), and extract attachments and metadata. This shift enables teams to analyze massive volumes of unstructured data quickly, spot opportunities that weren’t visible before, and get findings in front of merchants and suppliers while they are still actionable. 

The session also highlights how AI supports faster and more effective supplier communication. Instead of manually building claim packages, the system now assembles and distributes all documentation automatically, making it easier for suppliers to validate findings. This reduces back‑and‑forth, eliminates confusion, and significantly cuts down resolution time. Many retailers are seeing fewer disputes, fewer aged deductions, and smoother interactions with suppliers because issues are being identified when the right people are still involved. 

What Is Preventive Auditing

A particularly forward‑looking part of the session focuses on preventive auditing — shifting the audit process upstream to identify errors before performance periods begin or while they are still active. Brad describes this as one of the most exciting evolutions in the field.

In preventive models, PRGX continuously compares contracts, negotiated terms, promotional calendars, and rate structures against performance data in near real time. This surfaces discrepancies like missing item numbers, incorrect rebate rates, misaligned allowances, performance shifts that weren’t updated in contracts, and other issues that traditionally lead to deductions months later. By correcting these upstream, retailers avoid recovery work entirely. As Brad said, “There are no errors, so there are no disputes… and no cost to reconcile old deductions.” 

The Waitrose example illustrates how powerful this approach can be. With preventive monitoring, PRGX helped move 40–50% of recoveries upstream before payments, eliminating those deductions entirely. The team there also saw a 15% increase in projected recoveries simply due to earlier identification and clearer visibility into upcoming deals. Their Profit Protection leader described how real‑time insights now allow teams to prevent margin erosion before it occurs, reflecting a major shift in how retailers can manage profitability. 

The PRGX Scale 

The session concludes by highlighting the scale at which PRGX operates: more than 7 petabytes of data processed each year, supporting over $2 trillion in retail spend across 70% of the world’s largest retailers. This scale enables the combination of AI, audit expertise, and global process knowledge that ultimately drives results for clients. 

This on‑demand session offers a comprehensive look at how retailers are accelerating recoveries, reducing vendor abrasion, improving margins, and even eliminating certain categories of errors before they occur. Whether your focus is cash flow, supplier relationships, operational efficiency, or modernizing your audit model, this replay provides both the strategy and the real-world examples to support that journey. 

Want to learn more about PRGX and how AI can accelerate your cash recovery and error prevention? Speak with one of our experts here!