US Foods Holding Corp. went into detail about its plans for digital and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities as the company reported net sales growth for its fiscal Q2 ended June 27.

The distributor reported that Q2 net sales increased by 4.5% year over year to $10.5 billion. Over the same period, gross profit expanded by 8.0% to $1.9 billion.

David Flitman, CEO at US Foods, told investors that his company was “the industry leader in digital innovation with an ecosystem increasingly enhanced by AI that makes it easier for customers to do business.” Moreover, he said AI was helping to “improve seller productivity and strengthens our supply chain.”

In the meantime, he elaborated on what he sees working at US Foods. The company maintained its 2026 full-year outlook of net sales growing within a range of 4% to 6%.

US Foods sales growth in Q2

“By leveraging our continuous improvement and self-help culture, we are enhancing service, improving productivity and delivering sustainable, profitable growth,” Flitman said.

In that context, he said he remained “confident” in US Foods’ “ability to continue to gain share with our target customer types.”

The CEO called Q2 results “in line with our long-range plan.” Meanwhile, the total case volume that it handled grew by 1.9% year over year. Its independent restaurant case volume increased by 5.1%.

“Our second quarter results reflect consistent execution of our key initiatives, supported by strong operating performance,” said Dirk Locascio, chief financial officer at US Foods. “We expanded margins again this quarter through a combination of volume growth, gross profit gains and cost productivity improvements.”

Locascio noted that US Foods had invested $174 million in capital expenditures year to date. As it looks to build on its successes, technology appears prominently in those plans. Flitman addressed those expectations during the distributor’s Aug. 6 earnings call.

How US Foods is using AI

Specifically, Flitman stated that US Foods was “leveraging AI to further widen [its] competitive moat.” He elaborated on key examples.

“AI is embedded in the way we serve our customers, enable our sales force, optimize our supply chain and manage core enterprise functions,” he said. “Our approach remains focused on deploying AI against the highest return opportunities and tying those initiatives to measurable business outcomes.”

Among those outcomes is increased productivity for US Foods’ sales team.

“Visit Assistant Insights is an internally developed AI-enabled tool that provides sellers with customer-specific insights to identify priority opportunities, improve sales call preparation and make those visits more productive,” Flitman explained.

In turn, those time savings can translate to more time spent engaging with customers, he shared.

He added that within the assistant’s first six weeks of use, “the tool delivered more than 700,000 actionable insights.” In turn, US Foods sellers working on its independent restaurant accounts used those insights.

Future AI use at US Foods

“As the AI model continues to learn and scale, we expect these insights to become increasingly valuable, supporting stronger sales execution, deeper customer engagement and sustained growth over time,” Flitman stated.

He provided details about an internal AI sales assistant the company is currently piloting. Ultimately, he said, the generative AI-powered chatbot would enable sellers to be more effective. He cited the assistant’s ability to provide what he called “real-time answers, insights and recommendations directly within their daily workflow.”

In addition, he explained how AI was being used in US Foods’ supply chain.

“AI-driven product demand forecasting, labor planning and Descartes routing [software] are helping improve service and productivity while reducing working capital,” he assessed.

US Foods sees improved forecasting supporting “stronger in-stock performance and less waste,” he said. Meanwhile, he noted that “more efficient routing enables better delivery execution and fewer miles driven.”

As the company looks forward, he expects employees to make greater use of these AI tools and more.

“When we talk about AI, we are talking about practical capabilities embedded in our core business processes that are already improving how we operate,” he said. “While we are still in the early innings, we see meaningful opportunities to deepen our differentiation, accelerate volume growth and improve our supply chain productivity.”

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