To fully grasp the impact automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will have on the trades, it’s probably wise to think back to the not-too-distant past.
“When I bought my business in 2007, the only thing I needed to do was have my name in the phone book, right?” said success coach Angie Snow, Principal Industry Advisor at ServiceTitan and former owner of Western Heating & Air Conditioning. “That was marketing.”
Less than 20 years later, digital platforms and web search engines are just part of the complex web of marketing. The internet changed business and the world, and the trades have adapted, successfully.
“Now we’re in this new age of AI and trying to discover what we can do with AI to improve our businesses … ” Snow said. “With AI, how many things can we automate? Not only in marketing, but with our customer communications, with the way that we are pricing, with the way that we put pricing together—wasn't that a nightmare?
“To be able to use AI to analyze that, it's revolutionizing the way we're going to be able to do business in the trades.”
‘It’s going to be incredible’
Snow, Chris Hunter and Ellen Rohr, two other ServiceTitan employees and leading voices in the industry, talked frankly about the impact of automation and AI in the trades during a break at the Elite Trades Championship Series competition in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“A game-changer,” said Hunter, Principal Industry Advisor and Director of Customer Relations at ServiceTitan and co-owner of the Go Time Success Group.
“It’s going to be incredible,” Snow said.
“I feel like I’m living in a golden age,” said Rohr, Brand and Industry Marketing Lead at ServiceTitan and co-founder of Zoom Drain.
The praise may sound over-the-top, especially because AI is in its infancy. But the feelings are genuine, and in part are based on how AI is integrated into ServiceTitan, the cloud-based software for the trades.
The three industry experts all believe AI’s impact on the ability of technicians to do their jobs will be immense. And all said they believe AI will enhance that ability, not take it away.
“What's so cool about our jobs is at some point a drain cleaner has to show up and face down that drain,” Rohr said. “It’s the (business) housekeeping that can be done automatically and digitally. That's really exciting.”
Hunter agreed.
“As a tech who turned business owner, I love working on things,” Hunter said. “I didn't love having to do all the paperwork and insurance and marketing and all that. So being able to automate and doing that really, really well with AI, then letting people just concentrate on building—I think it's going to make people a lot more happy as well.”
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A new job type on the horizon
AI may open up opportunities for a different kind of person to enter the trades, the industry experts said, because running a contracting business will demand technological expertise as well as manual skill.
“In the past, if you were just good with your hands, you'd get in the trades,” Hunter said. “But now you can actually be really, really good with the ‘school’ part of it and be good with your hands and get into the trades and succeed.”
Snow points out that, when implemented properly, AI can help understand what reports are needed, and what a business owner should track for each different role in the company. That in turn helps the business be more profitable, Hunter said.
The three talked about the way AI and automation take a lot of busy work off the technician’s plate, too. They discussed AI as an enhancement to what people already do, something that gives them more time to devote to the team, customers, and individual improvement.
Rohr added that AI can analyze a situation and provide clear information, which protects the business and customer. It can provide notes, and glean information from data points to zero in on the best approach and solution to a problem.
“You can get information a lot easier, and act on that information,” Rohr said. “And also isn't that one of the reasons why technicians don't like their job—the paperwork?”
Hunter said AI can facilitate a complex job by telling a technician “everything that’s happened at the house before he got there, and maybe even help diagnose something before he even gets there, based on the past history and the incoming phone call.”
“With AI, we have the opportunity to have better information where the AI lives within the equipment and then it lives within your software,” Rohr said.
Fears can be eased with change management. Snow suggests layering in AI gradually. Telling the team how and why AI is being used could ease minds. Seeing AI’s benefits can ease them more.
The internet scared some. So did the cloud. Even GPS routing was once considered “out there.” With use, they all became second nature.
The same is true of AI. As the technology develops and automation becomes the norm, perception will change.
“The crazy thing is, we're just getting started with this?” Hunter said. “I mean, we probably can't even imagine what AI will do for the trades in the next 10 years.”
