AI for Contractors: How Home Service Pros Are Using AI in 2026
We just surveyed over 1,000 home service business owners across the U.S. and gathered real-time stats about how they're using AI in their day-to-day operations. The gap between businesses using AI and those that aren’t is starting to show: 88% of businesses who are fully-booked use AI vs 27% of businesses who are still filling their calendars Here's what 52% of the 1,050 home service business owners surveyed say they use AI for: 54% for quoting 52% for invoicing 51% for writing emails and proposals Younger owners are adopting it fastest --> 64% of business owners under 30 already use AI. Curious how this compares to what you're seeing in your own business. Are you currently using AI for quoting, scheduling, or customer communication? Or is it something you're still exploring?
Starting a New Hardscape Division While Busy with Landscape Maintenance Team
How do you actually start a new division of your business while still managing day-to-day operations? Between quoting, scheduling, and running jobs, it’s hard to carve out time to build something new. Curious how others have handled this without things falling through the cracks. What worked for you? Context: our "bread and butter" as a landscaping company has been in residential maintenance (lawn cutting, care, property clean-ups, trimming, garden care, softscape / small hardscape installs, etc.). My business partner and I are near max capacity with taking on more residential maintenance clients and would like to get into higher earning, longer term, larger projects on the install / design side of landscaping.AI Renderings- Which is the best to work with?
I started attaching renderings in jobber on their line item picture to give them an idea of what the thing I'm bidding will look like. I feel like Chat GPT you have to fight to keep it looking somewhat like their place. Gemini - I feel like once it gets an idea in it's head, it just won't change it. I can't tell you how many times I've repeatedly told it to stop putting a window in the shower then it will just keep it in the same place. How do you guys go about doing these? Any free or inexpensive platforms? Or is it just my prompts. Maybe share prompts that are working for you :)How I Finally Delegated Estimating (Without Hiring Another Person)
For years, estimating was the one thing I couldn’t take off my plate. We changed the org chart. We hired roles. Delegated everything we could. But estimating? That was always me. Even if I wasn’t doing anything else in the business... I was still stuck quoting jobs. It was the bottleneck I couldn’t fix—until now. I built a ChatGPT-powered estimator trained with my systems, my pricing, and my language. It asks the right questions, runs the math, and delivers estimates like I would—without me being involved. Now I’m no longer the bottleneck. Customers get quick answers. I get my evenings and weekends back. Want to build your own? Map out your estimating logic. Plug it into ChatGPT. Test and refine. If you're stuck working all day and doing estimates at night and on Saturdays anddddd, sometimes even Sunday mornings when everyone's sleeping—this might be your way out. Heres my direct Zoom link if you'd like to learn more: https://calendly.com/ryaan-besthandymancompany/bh-plan-phone-consultationUsing AI in your in person quoting?
I walk with clients during my in person estimate and I hear their pain points, their frustrations, their real-life struggles. But here is the thing, how many of those golden nuggets are we actually capturing and leveraging? I have started using AI to transcribe and analyze my client walkthroughs, and it has become a bit of a game-changer. Suddenly, that offhand comment Jennifer made about never having her whole house clean at once? That's not just a conversation, it is a marketing goldmine, relatability and authenticity. It is the real struggle our ideal clients are facing. But I am curious: How are you leveraging your client conversations? Are you capturing those golden nuggets, their pain points, their objections, the emotional drivers and turning them into content, testimonials, or business insights? What tools or strategies are working for you to extract the real value from your client interactions?Are you using AI in your business yet or still “just curious”?
Where are you at with AI right now? A) Not using it at all B) Using it for basic stuff (e.g., emails, replies) C) Using it for ops (e.g., estimating, training, reporting) D) “We run everything through AI” level—share below how you’re using it! In this episode of Masters of Home Service, PhilRisher and ryaantuttle share real-world ways home service pros are using AI to: Speed up estimating and hiring processes Create ready-to-use marketing content Prep for the shift from traditional SEO to AEO and GEO Want to put these tips into action? Download our free AI starter toolkit (includes scripts and pro tips). Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Switching from Spreadsheets to Fleet Management Software: What Changed for You?
If you have moved from spreadsheets or whiteboards to a fleet management tool, what changed the most for you day to day? Did it save time, reduce mistakes, or improve visibility across your vehicles? Is the switch actually worth it? I personally used to keep my schedule in Excel until one day I missed an appointment. This is where Jobber came in for me, but what is your story?How do you manage different level Service Contracts in Jobber?
We are currently offering one service contract; however, we are looking to create three tiers. We would have a Silver, Gold, and Platinum package. Each package/membership would offer something different. How could we effectively manage this in Jobber to keep track of which clients are on which level package? How many visits they have/have used? Payments? Etc.Automated Task Creation?
Is there a way in Jobber to create an automatic “Task” creation que after a job is bid? For example: Sales rep goes and does a bid, customer doesn’t sign on the spot, and a “task” is automatically created on the schedule that is titled follow call. This follow up call would happen 24 hours after client received the bid. Then maybe another task creation at 3 days. And the ability to create a desired que? THIS WOULD BE IDEAL FOR AUTOMATING MY SALES TEAMS FOLLOW UP CALLS AND MAKING SURE THEY GET COMPLETED.Building an AI online bid?
I have been messing around with the idea of creating a way for my customers to submit some information on their own through our website and AI provide them their bid for painting. Has anyone done this? Have any ideas on how to do it? And what could be the potential pros and cons of this? I'm thinking that it would need to have a customer login & portal. There would need to be a way to upload additional files. Pictures and videos of project. There would need to be a fee that is charged to use this service to try and gatekeep competitors from using it. The fee would be removed if the job is landed. There might need to be an agreement signed that unforeseen work that wasn't included in the submission could result in a change order. What would you add?
