Haworth builds AI knowledge hub empowering dealer partners to respond faster to clients

The gist

Haworth, a global leader in workspace design and furniture manufacturing, sells through a global network of independent dealers. For client questions and information requests, many dealers have been using outdated files and manual requests to SMEs, which resulted in slow response times and weakened brand alignment.

With the Responsive Platform, Haworth built an AI-powered knowledge hub connecting corporate, field sales, and dealers through a single source of truth. Now, SME bottlenecks are eliminated, proposals that once took days are completed in hours, and dealers and Haworth sales members deliver faster, more accurate, and on-brand responses to clients, giving Haworth a leg up in a highly competitive industry.

The rundown

Haworth’s response challenge

• Haworth lacked an easily searchable centralized database for finding content and answers to ad-hoc questions.
• Content and proposal processes were fragmented across dealers, field sales teams, and corporate subject matter experts (SMEs).
• Dealers relied on outdated materials and manual email requests of corporate SMEs to gather answers.
• Repetitive questions flooded SMEs, stretching response times and delaying proposals.
• Legacy software was the place “where content went to die” and lacked AI-powered search.

Impact and results

• A centralized knowledge base unifies Haworth corporate, field teams, and dealers, and is updated daily through a first-of-its-kind integration with Adobe Digital Asset Manager.
• Responsive Ask gives field sales and dealer teams instant, conversational AI access to the knowledge base while reducing the burden on SMEs.
• 16 dealers currently use Responsive to answer client questions, manage RFPs, and translate content, producing faster, more confident, and more accurate responses.
• Time-to-first-draft dropped from days to hours, accelerating overall project completion by 35-50% with AI-assisted drafts grounded in verified content.
• Haworth now has greater visibility into client questions and trends, creating intelligence that will inform future product development and content updates.
• Consistent, on-brand, translated proposals across regions ensure every bid reflects Haworth’s design standards and branded story.

The before: Unreliable content, SME bottlenecks, and zero visibility 

In the fast-moving world of office furniture and workplace design, Haworth’s competitive edge has always been its expertise in design and sustainability, and its unmatched product portfolio. That knowledge lived across systems and silos, with Q&A pairs for RFPs managed by the Client Engagement Studio team. But accessing it was another story.

Critical knowledge was buried in outdated systems “where content went to die.” With a global sales force and more than 600 international dealers, each needing quick, accurate answers for RFPs, proposals, design solutions, and client questions, the cracks started to show.

Field teams spent hours searching for the right information, often turning to corporate SMEs for help. Those SMEs, who were already stretched thin, became a bottleneck. Turnaround times slipped. Outdated responses crept into proposals, risking inconsistent messaging and missed brand marketing opportunities.

Haworth needed a single, AI-enabled source of truth that:

• Centralized approved content and documents.
• Empowered field teams and dealers with AI to respond faster with current, compliant information.
• Reduced the daily dependency on SMEs.
• Provided data and insights to strengthen content, products, and strategy.

By adopting Responsive, Haworth gained exactly that. The SRM platform gave field teams and dealers the speed, accuracy, and confidence to respond quickly and stay on brand, while freeing SMEs to focus on innovation instead of inbox triage.

Improving knowledge flow to give dealers a competitive edge

Haworth began by implementing the Responsive Platform at its corporate headquarters in Michigan. The Client Engagement Studio, previously led by Crystal Fiedler, along with Kate Fincham, Shan Dunn, and Sarah Hill, took ownership of the rollout. Their first goal: transfer Haworth’s content from a stagnant repository into an accessible, AI-ready knowledge base.

Responsive Professional Services worked side-by-side with Crystal, Kate, Shan, and Sarah to structure, tag, and govern Haworth’s content so it could support fast and accurate AI-driven responses. As for the migration process itself, “I can sum it up in one word: seamless,” Crystal said.

With their Responsive Content Library established at Haworth corporate, the Client Engagement Studio team began training field sales teams and SMEs, ensuring each function knew how to access and contribute to the new system. 

“Responsive understood our unique business and tailored the setup and training,” Kate said.

Rolling out Responsive to dealers

With the corporate foundation in place, Haworth began onboarding a group of its independent dealers. Responsive gives each dealer a secure, dedicated workspace (called Responsive Business Units) where they can:

• Add localized assets such as bios, project imagery, and regional case studies.
• Respond to clients in real time using Responsive AI that draws from verified, approved content.
• Manage their own RFP responses and other bids from start to finish with AI-powered workflows.

This structure preserves dealer autonomy while ensuring everyone draws from the same accurate, up-to-date source of truth.

Unlocking Responsive Ask for fast, conversational access to trusted knowledge

Once a dealer is onboarded, their teams gain immediate access to the full knowledge base and Responsive Ask. Each dealer’s Ask is a conversational AI assistant that draws from the knowledge in their dedicated workspace. 

Ask allows users to locate accurate answers in seconds, complete with a TRACE Score™ and source citations. TRACE Score™ is a quick, 0-100 check that shows how you can trust an AI-generated answer based on accuracy and relevance to the source material. 

Dealer reps can access Ask from anywhere via browser or desktop app. They use it on their phones and laptops to answer high-stakes customer questions at any time from anywhere. 

Impacting the client experience with AI and translation

As corporate, field sales, and dealer teams embraced Responsive AI, the impact became clear almost immediately:

• Dealer partners saved 35-50% of their time on each project.
• Client questions, even highly technical ones, could be answered live with confidence.
• Teams stopped hunting for documents or relying on inconsistent content sources.
• Draft answers to proposals were ready in hours, not days.
• SME bandwidth improved significantly as repetitive questions disappeared.

Responsive’s translation capabilities are another huge time-saver for international dealers. Haworth corporate produces mostly English-language content. In the past, dealers would have to translate much of the marketing and sales collateral on their own before sharing with non-English-speaking clients. Now, dealers translate directly in Responsive to instantly localize content, enabling faster cross-market responses.

Partnering to integrate Adobe DAM for faster content updates

Responsive Professional Services also guided Haworth through the integration of Responsive with Adobe Digital Asset Manager (DAM), where the company uploads new images and documents. The integration removes the manual steps previously required to keep the Responsive Content Library and dealer Business Units current with new product content. As SMEs add assets to DAM, they automatically sync to Responsive, keeping the knowledge base up to date for field sales and dealer teams with minimal human oversight.

41,000 data points, one voice

By centralizing knowledge and empowering dealers with AI, Haworth has turned one of its biggest operational challenges into a strategic advantage. As of today, 16 dealers are live on Responsive. By the end of 2026, Haworth expects that number to double and be the tipping point that will pave the way for the rest of the dealer international network. 

“That’s when we’ll really scale Responsive and start seeing deeper insights and measurement across the network,” Crystal said.

The Responsive Platform gives every dealer instant access to accurate, on-brand information, enabling them to respond faster and with greater confidence while reducing their reliance on corporate SMEs. This has strengthened dealer relationships, accelerated response times, and given time back to dealers, field teams, and SMEs.

Beyond efficiency, the platform delivers intelligence that shapes how Haworth grows. Insights into client questions and industry trends will be used to inform content, product development, and sales strategy. What began as a response challenge has become a powerful, AI-driven ecosystem that connects Haworth’s entire network. The Responsive Platform unites corporate, field, and dealer teams around one shared goal: delivering an exceptional client experience, everywhere Haworth does business.