MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. (MSM)

Industrial supplies distributor, 7,284 associates, 88% U.S. Read October 19, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending August 30, 2025, filed October 23, 2025. Ranked 22 of the 198 Industrials companies read so far, by the share within reach now.

An industrial distributor whose filing counts 7,284 associates with 2,636 in field sales and service and 88% in the U.S., so the whole workforce is read at machinery and supplies wholesaling.

The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.

What follows from the reading

Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 25% now, 35% at the end of 2027, 38% at the end of 2028, 39% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 39% desk work, 21% people work and 40% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 59% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 28% becomes checking a model's work and 12% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.

Headcount

7,284 employees as of August 30, 2025 (stated). Stated: approximately 88% of the workforce is based in the United States.

The filing: “As of August 30, 2025, we employed 7,284 associates worldwide, of which 7,077 were full-time and 207 were part-time.”

The workforce as industry patterns

What the filing says about the workforce: 7,284 associates worldwide as of August 30, 2025, 7,077 full-time and 207 part-time; about 88% in the United States; 2,636 field sales and service associates (2,697 a year earlier); no union representation; OSHA total recordable incident rate 0.77.

Companies read with the same leading pattern

Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Machinery, Equipment, and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

• Genuine Parts Company (GPC, 65,000 employees)22% now, 32% by 2028
• W.W. Grainger, Inc. (GWW, 25,000 employees)25% now, 38% by 2028
• Fastenal Company (FAST, 24,489 employees)24% now, 38% by 2028
• Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (AIT, 6,900 employees)25% now, 38% by 2028

What the filing says about AI

5 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing says it uses AI-driven insights to optimize marketing, and is leveraging AI in forecasting models, customer-care recommendations, order error processing, product taxonomy classification and chatbots for associates.

• “We deploy advanced analytics and artificial intelligence ("AI")-driven insights to optimize our return on investment in marketing across customer acquisition and retention initiatives.”
• “MSC is actively leveraging AI in various areas to improve customer experiences and drive efficiencies in areas such as time-series forecasting models for financial planning, recommendations for our customer-care team, order error processing, natural language processing to automate product taxonomy classification and chatbots for our associates to quickly find relevant information.”
• “We believe our strategic alignment with leading vendors in this space will position MSC well for a future where AI technology will be integrated into many aspects of MSC's business.”
• “We are also actively leveraging AI in various contexts to improve customer experiences and drive efficiencies in certain areas of our business.”
• “As we continue to leverage, secure, and pilot the use of AI-driven technologies, we have increased and expect to continue to increase our investments in such technologies.”

Its annual reports, year by year

Sentences naming AI in each annual report, counted by one rule, beside the median report in the Index that year. Each count links its filing. Every company, by year and sector

• Fiscal 20211median 0
• Fiscal 20221median 0
• Fiscal 20233median 1
• Fiscal 20246median 4
• Fiscal 20255median 10

Headcount by filing year

As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.

Limits of this reading

• The Index's 7,077 is the full-time count alone; the filing states 7,284 associates including 207 part-time (rule 2).

Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0001003078-25-000123, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.