AI Quote Agent: Automating B2B eCommerce Quote Requests (2026)
Quick summary: B2B quote agents draft from customer price and ATP — they do not auto-issue above your cap. Reuse Gateway ~180 ms → ~95 ms on the B2B CRM canary. Artifact thresholds are fixtures, not client SLAs.
Key Takeaways
- B2B quote agents draft from customer price and ATP — they do not auto-issue above your cap
- Reuse Gateway ~180 ms → ~95 ms on the B2B CRM canary
- On 17 June 2026, AgentCore Harness reached GA (What's New)
- After 30 July 2026, Classic is the wrong greenfield
- First-party signals we reuse (not eCommerce outcomes) — Gateway server-side tools cut median tool RTT ~180 ms → ~95 ms on a B2B CRM assistant (12 tools, ~8k turns/day) — Gateway post
Table of Contents
An RFQ is a pipeline, not a chat. Requirements, catalog match, customer price, inventory, a recommended quote, then an approval gate, then an issued quote in CPQ. Skip the gate and you have a salesperson who never sleeps and never read the contract.
On 17 June 2026, AgentCore Harness reached GA (What’s New). Fine for a draft-quote loop with a handful of tools. After 30 July 2026, Classic is the wrong greenfield. High-value submit still belongs to a workflow — agent vs workflow.
This post is a gate table. Dollar caps in the artifact are placeholders. They are not FactualMinds quote-SLA measurements.
First-party signals we reuse (not eCommerce outcomes) — Gateway server-side tools cut median tool RTT ~180 ms → ~95 ms on a B2B CRM assistant (12 tools, ~8k turns/day) — Gateway post. Quote turns will add CPQ latency on top. Platform silhouette ~$791/mo at 50K sessions is not a CPQ invoice (decision guide). Use the AgentCore pricing calculator.
Reproduce this — Replace the fixture caps in
b2b-quote-approval-gates.md. Run the eval rows. Folder:ecommerce-ai-agents-series/.
Opinionated take: the agent drafts; CPQ issues. Auto-issue only inside a cap you already enforce in Cedar and in CPQ. Trade-off: fewer “instant quotes.” You keep humans on contractual risk.
Sales lookup (net, history, ATP) is the sales agent. New accounts that are not approved do not get issued quotes — onboarding gates. AWS composition: FactualMinds AgentCore brief.
RFQ → issued quote
flowchart TD
rfq[RFQ]
req[Requirements]
cat[Catalog match]
price[Customer price]
atp[Inventory / lead time]
rec[Quote recommendation]
gate[Approval gate]
q[Issued quote]
rfq --> req --> cat --> price --> atp --> rec --> gate --> q
gate -->|over cap or terms| hitl[Human queue]| Step | Rule |
|---|---|
| Requirements | Account, SKU/UOM, qty, ship-to if you have it. Missing account → no net. |
| Catalog | Sellable to that account. Do not invent a substitute SKU. |
| Customer pricing | getCustomerPrice only. Public retail is not a fallback. |
| Inventory | ATP or unknown. Do not promise a dock date the WMS did not return. |
| Recommendation | Structured draft: lines, MOQ check, validity from CPQ rules. |
| Approval | Under cap + standard terms may follow your CPQ auto-issue. Above cap, custom T&Cs, credit hold → HITL. |
| Issue | OMS/CPQ send. Agent does not freelance SMTP. |
MOQ and contract terms are data. If the model “waives” a 12-unit minimum because the buyer asked nicely, that is a failed eval — not hustle.
Agent drafts; high-value is HITL
Fixture caps in the artifact ($5,000 / $25,000) exist so you have something to delete. Put real numbers in Policy.
| Amount / condition | draftQuote | submitQuote |
|---|---|---|
| Under cap, MOQ ok, standard terms, fresh price list | Yes | Only if CPQ already auto-issues that class |
Over cap, custom terms, restricted SKU, stale asOf | Yes (incomplete) | No — HITL |
| Credit hold / pending onboarding | Recommend only | No |
Context: illustrative Cedar. Attach accountId and amountUsd from the tool resource, not from the prompt.
// Sketch — over-cap submit is forbid. LOG_ONLY then ENFORCE.
forbid (
principal,
action == Action::"submitQuote",
resource
)
when {
resource has amountUsd &&
resource.amountUsd > 5000
};Browser off. No capturePayment. Bedrock Guardrails do not replace Cedar for submit.
HITL packets need the same evidence the AM will ask for: session id, tool trace, accountId, line SKUs, customer-price asOf, MOQ result, requested terms vs standard, amount vs cap. An approval button without a trace is a rubber stamp.
Do not let the buyer JWT approve their exception terms. Draft yes. Issue of custom payment terms or MSA language is associate plus finance/legal — same human bar as onboarding credit. Pending accounts do not get issued quotes. approved is a commerce status, not a vibe.
Public retail quote tools (PDP price + email PDF) are a different product. If you only have list price APIs, you do not have a B2B quote agent. You have a leak. Wire getCustomerPrice first — sales agent policy.
What broke
What broke — A draft-quote harness with
submitQuoteattached “so the demo could email PDF.” First over-cap RFQ went out with list price in a footnote and net in the header — mixed because catalog and CPQ disagreed. Detection: HITL queue empty; CPQ showedissuedwith no manager id; eval “over cap must not submit” failed. Fix: split draft vs submit; Cedar forbid on submit above cap; fail ifgetCustomerPricemissing; send only from CPQ after approval. Lesson: automating the PDF is not automating the contract.
The CRM canary (~180 → ~95 ms) tells you Gateway is not the slow part. CPQ issue and approval SLA are.
Minimum quantities and contract terms live in CPQ/ERP, not in the system prompt. If MOQ is 12 and the RFQ is 4, the agent recommends a 12-pack or a human exception. It does not issue a 4-unit net “to be helpful.” Same for payment terms: net-30 vs net-60 is a finance change, not a chat close.
Harness is enough for draft-only with five tools. If quote-submit, credit-check, and catalog specialists need different IAM, export to Strands on Runtime — CTO architecture brief. Do not buy Classic after 30 July 2026 to “get quotes out faster.”
Eval the obvious abuse cases before the demo: shopper JWT must not draft a net quote; buyer A must not see buyer B; over-cap must not submitQuote; stale asOf must not issue. If any of those pass, you do not have a quote agent. You have an email bot with a price hallucination.
The $5,000 / $25,000 rows in the artifact are placeholders. Put the real caps in Cedar and CPQ the same day. Prompt-only caps drift.
What to Do This Week
- Write your real caps into
b2b-quote-approval-gates.md. Delete the fixtures. - List MOQ, standard terms, and who signs exceptions.
- Wire
getCustomerPrice+getAvailability+draftQuote. LeavesubmitQuoteoff until Cedar is boring. - Ten goldens: under cap, over cap, below MOQ, shopper JWT, pending account, “take a card to hold it.”
- HITL queue: session id + tool trace on every over-cap row.
- Harness for draft-only if ≤5 tools; else Runtime. Not Classic after 30 July 2026.
- Contact FactualMinds if you need Policy on CPQ writes — Generative AI on AWS.
What This Post Doesn’t Cover
- Full sales discovery UX — sales agent
- Credit limit / MSA activation — onboarding
- Native Shopify CPQ connector (there isn’t one on AgentCore)
- Measured quote-cycle-time KPIs from a client engagement
- Legal playbooks for Incoterms or export licenses
FAQ
When should you NOT auto-issue a B2B quote from an agent?
When amount, MOQ, freshness, credit, terms, or restricted SKUs fail the gate. Draft; humans or trusted CPQ rules issue. Skip Classic after 30 July 2026.
What could go wrong if the quote uses public retail price?
You send a number that is not the contract. Fail closed.
What could go wrong if submitQuote has no Policy?
The model will issue over-cap quotes to “close the chat.” Cedar plus HITL.
Can a buyer JWT approve their own exception terms?
No. Draft own-account RFQs only. Terms and over-cap issue stay internal plus finance/legal.
Is Bedrock the quoting engine?
No. Bedrock is the model. CPQ is the record. AgentCore hosts the loop.
Should the quote agent take a credit card to “lock the price”?
No. A quote is not checkout. No payment tools.
Need RFQ gates on Gateway without a native Shopify myth? Contact us or Amazon Bedrock.
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