How to Compare Quotes with AI: Step-by-Step Guide

To compare quotes with AI, start with the mess on the desk, not the software. Three suppliers have answered your request for the same steel brackets. One quotes per piece ex works, one quotes a delivered price for a full pallet, one quotes in US dollars with a tooling charge buried on page two. Thomas in purchasing opens a fresh Excel sheet, types each line out of each email, converts the currency, guesses the freight for the ex-works offer and still is not sure he is comparing the same thing. By the time the sheet is ready, two of the quotes are about to expire. This guide shows you how to hand exactly that work to an AI employee, step by step, while you keep the decision and the approval before any order goes out.

What does it mean to compare quotes with AI?

Comparing quotes with AI means an AI reads every incoming supplier quote, normalises the offers to the same basis (same specification, quantity, delivery term, currency and payment terms), adds the costs the headline price hides, and builds a side-by-side comparison, while a person approves the decision before any order goes out. The AI does the reading, converting and comparing. The award stays with your team.

The difference to a plain spreadsheet: an AI employee does not just copy numbers into cells. It knows that an ex-works price needs freight added before it can sit next to a delivered price, that a tooling charge has to be spread over your real volume, and that a quote missing the packaging line is not actually cheaper.

How it works with Superkind

Superkind is the AI employee for your team: you write to Superkind by email (Outlook or Gmail), in Microsoft Teams, in Slack or in the Superkind web app, like you would write to a colleague. It is hosted in Europe, GDPR compliant, and works in the programs you already use through 1,500+ integrations, including Microsoft Excel, SAP Business One and Outlook.

1. 1

   You send the quotes

   Forward the supplier emails to Superkind or write in Teams or Slack: “Compare these three quotes for the steel brackets.”

2. 2

   Superkind normalises and compares

   It reads each quote, converts currency, restates every offer on the same spec, quantity and delivery terms, adds the hidden costs and builds a side-by-side comparison in Excel or SAP Business One.

3. 3

   Superkind asks for approval

   Before any order or award email goes out, you get the comparison and recommendation with Approve / Reject, in the channel where you work.

4. 4

   Done, and next time it is a routine

   Superkind remembers your rules. The next batch of quotes follows the same comparison, and new quotes can be picked up from the inbox automatically.

Everything Superkind learns along the way (your suppliers, your usual specs, who approves which amount) goes into your company knowledge, the Company Brain. It stays when people change roles or leave.

From the first task to your own app

Quote comparison is a good first task because it repeats. Here is how it grows with Superkind.

1. 1

   Start: ready in minutes

   Sign up for free, forward three quotes and ask Superkind to compare them. You watch the first comparison get built in Excel.

2. 2

   Relief: tasks become routines

   What you explain once keeps running. “Every incoming quote: normalise and compare.” Before an order goes out, Superkind asks for approval.

3. 3

   Knowledge: learns from day one

   Every comparison makes Superkind smarter: your part specs, your suppliers, your freight assumptions. This knowledge is never lost.

4. 4

   Growth: your own app

   When it gets more complex, you do not start over. Build your own award-tracking app on the Superkind platform, on top of what it already knows. Built yourself or with us. It all belongs to you.

What you need

Check these points before you start. Most of them are already in place in any company that asks for more than one quote.

Step by step with Superkind

Six steps from a pile of incoming quotes to a decision you can defend. Each step is something you can do today.

Step 1: Connect your inbox, Excel and your ERP

Sign up at app.superkind.ai and connect the systems quotes pass through: Outlook or Gmail for the inbox, Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets for the comparison, and SAP Business One or DATEV for prices and purchase orders. An admin connects them in one click and confirms which areas Superkind may work in. No API keys to copy. Also connect Teams or Slack if that is where your approvers work, because that is where the approval request will appear.

• Check - Superkind only sees the mailboxes, sheets and ERP areas you allowed.
• Tip - start with one material group you buy regularly, add more later.

Step 2: Send the quotes

Take the quotes for one request you are deciding this week. Forward the supplier emails with their attachments to Superkind and write one sentence. You can also write in Teams or Slack and attach the PDFs.

What Superkind does: it reads each quote and pulls out part, specification, unit price, quantity, delivery term, lead time, payment terms and any one-time charges. It flags where a quote is missing a line or quotes a different spec, instead of silently comparing the wrong things.

Step 3: Normalise to an apples-to-apples basis

This is the step a raw spreadsheet skips. Superkind restates every quote on the same basis so the prices are actually comparable. Tell it the basis once:

• Specification and quantity - confirm each unit price covers the same part, material and quality level, at the same volume. A lower price for a different spec is not a saving⁴.
• Incoterms - restate every quote on one delivery basis. Incoterms, published by the ICC, decide who pays transport, insurance and risk up to which point, so an ex-works and a delivered price are not comparable until freight is added¹².
• Currency - convert to one currency at one rate, so a dollar quote and a euro quote line up³.

Step 4: Add the hidden costs and the lead time

The headline price is rarely the whole price. Superkind adds the costs that live in the fine print so you compare total landed cost, not just the number on page one.

• Tooling and setup - spread one-time charges over your real volume. A tool that costs the same adds far more per piece over a small run than a large one³.
• Minimum order quantity - if the minimum exceeds your demand, the excess becomes stock you carry, a cost the quote does not show⁵.
• Freight, packaging, insurance, customs - under the agreed Incoterms, plus any import duty and fees².
• Lead time and payment terms - a longer lead time means more safety stock and expedited-freight risk; longer payment terms are worth real money. A total cost of ownership view captures the full lifecycle, not just the purchase price⁶⁸.

Step 5: Review the comparison and approve

Superkind answers in the same channel with the finished comparison: the three quotes side by side on one basis, total landed cost, lead time, and a short recommendation with the reason. Read it the way you would read a buyer’s summary. If a rule like “quotes over EUR 10,000 need management sign-off” applies, the approver gets a short card with Approve and Reject, in Teams, Slack, email or the web app. Nothing is awarded or ordered before someone approves.

Step 6: Award, record and keep the trail

After approval, Superkind continues in your systems: it drafts the award email to the chosen supplier and the short decline to the others in your name, writes the agreed price and terms into SAP Business One or your ERP, and saves the comparison next to the request so the decision is documented. Anyone on the team can ask later why a supplier was chosen:

Answer: “Lowest landed cost at 5,000 pieces once freight and tooling were added, and two weeks shorter lead time. Comparison saved on 14 October.” Nobody has to dig through the mailbox.

Set it up as a routine

Once a handful of comparisons have gone through cleanly, stop doing them one by one. Tell Superkind once what should happen for every incoming quote. It collects new quotes from the inbox, normalises and compares them, and asks only where approval is needed.

• Per request - new quotes read, normalised, compared and recommended, with a flag where a quote is missing or about to expire.
• Weekly - an overview of open requests still waiting on quotes, so nothing stalls because one supplier went quiet.
• Monthly - a short report on what you awarded and the saving against the next-best quote, ready for your cost review.

When the process grows, for example several plants, a weighted scoring matrix with quality and risk, or your own award overview, you do not start over. You can build a custom solution or an app with its own interface on the Superkind platform, on top of everything Superkind already knows. Built by your team or together with the Superkind team, and it belongs to you.

Data protection and EU hosting

Supplier prices and quotes are some of the most sensitive data in a company. Where they are processed and who can see them matters as much as the comparison. With Superkind, this is settled.

Safe by default

Your data stays in Europe, under a DPA, with no training on your data.

• Hosted and processed in Europe
• GDPR compliant
• Aligned with the EU AI Act
• No training on your data
• DPA through the Trust Center

For quote comparison this means your prices, margins and supplier terms stay in Europe and are never fed into model training. The AI models behind Superkind come from OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and Google, and are processed in Europe. For more on keeping procurement data in Europe, see our overview of EU-hosted AI tools.

Other ways to compare quotes

Superkind is not the only way. Here is an honest comparison of the common options.

For a full overview of dedicated tools, see our comparison of AI tools for procurement and supplier management and our guide to AI tools for CPQ and quote-to-cash.

Common mistakes

These five mistakes cost the most money when teams compare quotes.

• Comparing different delivery terms - an ex-works price and a delivered price are not the same number. Restate every quote on one Incoterms basis before you rank them¹².
• Ignoring one-time and hidden costs - tooling, minimum order surcharges, packaging and customs can flip the ranking. Spread and add them before you decide³⁵.
• Only looking at unit price - a longer lead time or worse payment terms can cost more than the few cents you saved. Compare total cost of ownership⁶⁸.
• Sending suppliers different requests - if each supplier quoted a slightly different spec or quantity, the quotes were never comparable. Send one identical request to all.
• No record of the decision - if nobody can say later why a supplier won, the next audit or price review starts from zero. Keep the comparison with the request.

6 tips for comparing quotes with AI

1. Send one identical request to every supplier

Same spec, same quantity, same delivery point, same deadline. Comparable quotes start with a comparable request. Let Superkind draft the request once and reuse it for the next material group.

2. Fix your comparison basis up front

Decide once that you always compare delivered, in Euro, at your real volume. Tell Superkind the basis as a rule, and every future comparison lands the same way without you repeating it.

3. Put approvals where the approver is

If your managing director lives in Outlook, approvals go there. If purchasing works in Teams, approve in Teams. Superkind uses the same rules and approvals in every channel.

4. Check the first comparisons closely

In the first two weeks, read every normalised comparison before you approve. Each correction teaches Superkind your freight assumptions and your specs, and after that you only look at exceptions.

5. Ask for the missing line, do not guess it

When a quote is missing packaging or a lead time, let Superkind draft the follow-up to the supplier. You approve the email, Superkind sends it, and the comparison is complete instead of estimated.

6. Protect your price data

Supplier prices are sensitive. Agree a data processing agreement, keep the data in Europe, and make sure it is not used for model training. Under the EU AI Act (Article 4), brief the people who work with the AI so they understand what it does.

Conclusion

Comparing quotes with AI does not mean letting software pick the supplier. It means the reading, converting and normalising is done for you, the hidden costs are added every time, and a person approves before any order goes out. Superkind does this in the tools you already use, moving data between Outlook, Excel and SAP Business One through its 1,500+ integrations, with your prices hosted in Europe. The fastest way to see whether it fits: take the next real request, forward the quotes to Superkind with “Compare these for me, delivered, in Euro”, and check the comparison. If you want to go deeper first, read our guide on AI in procurement.

Frequently Asked Questions

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• AI in Procurement: From Contract Analyser to Autonomous Supplier Scoring
• The Best AI Tools for Procurement and Supplier Management: An Honest 2026 Buyer Comparison
• Classic Procurement vs. AI Procurement Agent: Where the Boundary Runs in Mittelstand Sourcing in 2026
• The AI Employee for RFP and Tender Responses: Winning More Bids Without a Bigger Bid Team

Henri Jung

Co-founder of Superkind, the AI employee teams write to in Outlook, Teams and Slack. Henri helps companies, from small teams to the Mittelstand, hand their routine work to AI - without new tools, consultants or an in-house AI team.