Forum Discussion

MTLcontractors's avatar
MTLcontractors
Jobber Ambassador
5 days ago

How Are You Handling AI-Generated Advice From Clients?

Has anyone else noticed clients using AI more during the estimating phase lately?

We’ve had clients show up with ChatGPT-generated scopes, pricing expectations, code information, material recommendations, etc.

Sometimes it’s actually helpful (rare lol). Other times it creates a ton of confusion because the information is partially correct but missing important context specific to local code, existing conditions, permits, sequencing, structural requirements, and so on.

Feels like part of the job now is separating general internet information from what’s actually applicable to a real project.

Curious how other contractors are handling this because sometimes it's hard to reason with someone who spent hours in a supportive AI echo chamber.

ai
client communications
quoting

4 Replies

    • MTLcontractors's avatar
      MTLcontractors
      Jobber Ambassador
      5 hours ago

      Love this. Zero AI detected! 

      I think the problem with some clients is that the AI gives them false confidence. If I'm honest with them but they are distrustful, they can go into the Echo chamber of a large language model and find support even if the support is wrong.

  • MTLcontractors's avatar
    MTLcontractors
    Jobber Ambassador
    2 days ago

    Great point! It basically just distills down basic info into an average, without taking into account how reliable, timely, regional or specific the info is. 

  • roselvaggio's avatar
    roselvaggio
    Jobber Ambassador
    3 days ago

    As a cleaning company owner, we’ve absolutely started noticing this more too. Not so much with code requirements, but definitely around pricing expectations and scope comparisons.

    You can almost instantly tell when a response came straight from ChatGPT because it reads super polished and starts comparing:

    • hourly rates
    • “industry averages”
    • what “most cleaning companies include”
    • employee wages vs pricing
    • profit margin assumptions
    • suggested frequencies
    • “recommended” square-foot pricing

    The hard part is the information is often partially true… but completely disconnected from the actual business realities of a specific company.

    AI doesn’t know:

    • local labor market conditions
    • payroll taxes/workers comp
    • drive time
    • cancellations
    • insurance costs
    • quality standards
    • employee retention issues
    • overhead structure
    • whether a home is lightly maintained or a disaster every visit

    And honestly, I think AI sometimes creates the impression that cleaning is more standardized than it really is.

    Two homes with the same square footage can be COMPLETELY different operationally.

    What’s worked best for us is not arguing with the AI-generated info directly. Usually if someone spent an hour getting reinforced by ChatGPT, they’re already anchored to it.

    At the end of the day, AI can summarize the internet, but it still can’t walk a home and understand what actually goes into servicing it consistently.