When Allyssa Tackman heard the artificial intelligence in ServiceTitan’s dispatch agent would be handling the dispatch board, she had one thought.
"I thought it was taking over somebody's job," she said.
Tackman, office manager at Esser Air Conditioning and Heating in Palm Desert, Calif., came to the company in 2018 as a single mom who had never worked in an office. She helped onboard ServiceTitan the first time, left during the pandemic, and came back in 2023 to find a company leaning hard into automation.
In the early days of using the dispatch agent, the team changed the software's assignments about 40% of the time — and adjusted as they went. They were also tweaking technician skills, adjusting settings, and learning what the system needed to perform. And the system was learning, too.
Today that number is around 10%.
"The AI is definitely learning our metrics better than when we first set it up," she said.
What changed her initial thought about AI in dispatch was the moment she decided to step back and let it go.
"There are jobs where I think, I don't know if this is the best technician for the job," Tackman said. "I let it go — and it assigned the best tech for profit."
The AI just needed a partner, not a replacement.
General Manager Michael Esser, who runs the business his father, Tim, founded in 1980, has watched the same pattern play out across the operation. With eight technicians, four install crews, and six people in the office, he said Esser began June 2026 with $6.2 million in revenue in the trailing 12 months, and on pace for more than $7 million in 2026.
The company culture is a big driver of that growth. So is the emphasis on automation, he said.
"Automation within ServiceTitan is a game changer in the industry," Esser said. "It's unifying our process. It's delivering top-notch customer service. It's lead generation. It's putting the right call with the right technician. It's optimizing our dispatchers, our outside salespeople, our technicians, our installers.
"It's literally optimizing every facet of our business."
A sequence of successes
Esser's automation begins at the first marketing touch and continues until a technician pulls into a customer's driveway. Between those points, ServiceTitan's Pro Products run sequentially across the front office.
Marketing Pro automates campaigns. Online booking in ServiceTitan allows customers to click a booking link and schedule the work at a time that suits them, automatically. The dispatch agent ensures the right technician gets to the right opportunity.
Automation does not eliminate human contact. Instead, it enhances it, because it allows the team to carefully walk a customer who needs it through needs or concerns.
"(Automation) frees up so much of our time for customers," Esser said. "That interaction is what really builds the trust between our client and Esser.
"It allows the team to spend a lot less time doing the discovery and more time in the action. More time in the training, more time in the employee development, customer satisfaction focus, all of that.
"It really just frees people up for the right stuff."
Hot and cold? Not at Esser
Everything at Esser reflects the reality of providing HVAC services in the extreme summer heat of the desert environment in the Coachella Valley. The challenge? Keeping busy during the winter months, which while chilly are not close to Chicago-cold.
Marketing Pro allows Esser to target the customer base strategically, automating outreach for scheduling maintenance work early in the "slow" season to generate other work.
Text and email campaigns encouraging customers to set up maintenance visits include a direct online booking link — no phone call required. Online booking presents open times based on ServiceTitan's Adjustable Capacity Planning. The customer selects the time and day that suits their schedule.
Dispatch Pro ensures the right tech goes to the right job, factoring in skills, location and revenue potential. It tailors the schedule to each technician's expertise, but considers profit potential as well.
Technicians at Esser know the system rewards results. Managers review the metrics in team meetings. The understanding, Tackman said, is clear.
"If you're doing good, you're going to get the good calls," she said.
Speed to lead, always
The faster response rate enabled by ServiceTitan's automation has made a difference in how many jobs Esser wins. In the trades, a customer who doesn't get a callback often just calls the next company on the list.
"We get them booked quicker," Tackman said. "We get a quicker response to the customer, and we can win the job."
Tracy Patterson has seen the same transformation from a different angle. A customer service rep and administrative assistant at Esser who has worked with ServiceTitan since 2015, she watched the platform evolve from a scheduling tool into the operating system for the entire business.
The shift landed personally.
"I used to work 100 hours a week," she said, only slightly exaggerating. "Now I'm working 40 hours. It has literally cut my time in half."
The time she recovered came directly from automation absorbing the manual work—double entry, chasing leads across platforms, after-hours board-watching. Esser is now consolidating outside communication tools entirely, she said, because ServiceTitan has absorbed them.
"We are canceling the other programs we have as far as communication," Patterson said. "It's an all-in-one, inclusive package."
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When I leave work, I leave it
Tackman came back to Esser after the pandemic needing a job that would let her be present at home. The automation at Esser allows that.
"When I leave work in the evening, I know that Dispatch Pro is going to handle it," she said. "When I come in the morning, the schedule's set for the guys. I don't have to take work home with me.
"When I leave work, I leave it. I'm able to focus just on my children and my husband."
That, Esser said, makes him happy. Work-life balance is important to him, and important for him to provide for his employees, he said.
"I'm very motivated by just the development of people," he said, "giving them a chance, watching them grow — some of them buying houses, starting families.
"All of it."
