Copyright Entrepreneur
It’s not surprising that conversations around AI in business often come with a fair level of apprehension. Every disruptive new technology has the potential to create problems as well as opportunities. I should know; as the co-founder and CEO of Roof Maxx, I helped introduce a new product to the roofing industry that gave North American homeowners a cost-effective alternative to roof replacement. As you can imagine, that created waves in an industry that had focused almost exclusively on offering roof replacements until that point in time. The point is, I’ve always been cautiously optimistic about new technology, as long as it can be used for good. And AI is no exception. That’s why I directed my company to embrace AI as a way of supporting our dealer network by creating systems that fill in training or resourcing gaps for them. Here’s what I did, along with some ideas on how you can leverage AI to achieve the same kind of results. Related: Don’t Be Afraid Of AI — Your Fears Are Unfounded, and Here’s Why Don’t worry: AI won’t make us obsolete We already know there are some things AI can’t do better than humans. In fact, there are many such things. That’s largely because AI doesn’t have the context of living in the real world. It may work faster than we do, but it can only work with the information it’s given. It can’t infer or associate the way we do, because, unlike us, it’s not constantly processing the insane amount of complex stimuli that we get just from being alive. To put it another way: Our life experience is what makes us uniquely valuable. You can’t reverse engineer that. But the sheer variety of life experiences that exist between different people can also work against us. We all have different backgrounds and different skillsets, and sometimes that creates communication gaps. If you’re running a business, those communication gaps can impact things like training and operations. That’s especially true if you’re running a company like Roof Maxx, which relies on a dealer network distributed across North America. AI can’t (and shouldn’t) replace all those talented individuals — but it can be used to help them stay on the same page. Related: AI Won’t Replace You — But an AI-Equipped Professional Will. Here’s Why. Don’t use AI to replace your talent — use it to enhance their value To show you what I mean, here are a few specific ways we’ve started using AI at Roof Maxx to support our dealers. Using AI notetakers for internal meetings has allowed attendees to be fully present rather than scrambling to take notes or hoping they have time to review a call recording later. One particularly useful feature of the program we use, which is called Fathom, is that it also allows users to ask questions based on transcripts. So if one of our team members is in the process of reviewing a potential new hire, they can ask questions like “What would this applicant’s biggest challenge be in the role?” and get tailored insights. We also use AI to crunch massive datasets, which makes it easier to draw meaningful conclusions when we have valuable information from different sources. This has helped us make better strategic decisions in messaging, media buying, production and much more. More recently, we were able to develop a completely revamped training program for our dealers in a fraction of the time it would have taken a team of e-learning authors to do so. We still went through manual versions and reviews of the information, but AI provided the framework and helped us make sure all of the essential information was included. It also made it more efficient to separate that content into various learning modules, which improved the user experience by making it easier for dealers to find the information they needed to succeed. Beyond that, our tech team uses AI to assist in coding, updates and debugs for our proprietary dealership management system, “Roof Maxx Connect.” Instead of threatening jobs for our team, it has allowed talent across our organization to achieve a higher degree of success. Related: How to Use AI to Amplify the Potential of Your Team AI isn’t just for multibillion-dollar tech companies Most people don’t associate roofing companies like ours with AI. You’d be forgiven for thinking of the people who run home service businesses as folksy Luddites who would rather work with their hands than do anything involving a keyboard and a screen. But technology like this is a huge part of what’s allowed me to grow Roof Maxx so quickly over the last few years, and here’s why: The trick to scaling any business is to reduce friction, and that is what AI is best at doing. We want to create the most friction-free home service business on the planet. That’s what Amazon did for online shopping, what Uber did for ride sharing and what Airbnb did for booking accommodations. We’re in the process of doing it for roofing. Friction in roofing comes from trying to find someone you can trust who will show up, perform, warranty and guarantee the work. Ultimately, we want customers to be able to come to our website, click a button and have an interactive conversation that helps them discover through Q and A whether the product makes sense for them and what the price for the service might be, all in real time. That won’t replace jobs; it will actually mean more business and more dealers doing more work.
