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ServiceTitan's 2026 State of AI in the Trades: What Every Roofing and Contracting Business Owner Needs to Know

Writer: Heidi
Heidi
Jun 29
9 min read

ServiceTitan surveyed 1,032 contractors across roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, pest control, landscaping, and garage door trades about AI. The data reveals a widening gap between the contractors pulling ahead and the ones falling behind — and exactly where your business fits in that picture.



What Is the ServiceTitan 2026 State of AI in the Trades Report?

ServiceTitan partnered with independent research firm Thrive Analytics to survey 1,032 contractors nationwide — 70% from company leadership, 20% in office roles, and 10% from the field — across seven trades: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, commercial landscaping, and garage door.


The goal was simple: find out where the trades industry actually stands on AI. Not the hype. The reality.


What they found tells a clear story about where the industry is headed — and who's going to be left behind.

screen of computer with graphs and dashboard of a business

Key Finding #1: Most Contractors Believe AI Is Coming. Almost Nobody Is Ready.


This is the number that should get every contracting business owner's attention:

72% of contractors believe AI is relevant to their business.


66% expect moderate or major transformation from AI within the next 1 to 3 years.

That's not a fringe opinion. That's the overwhelming consensus of more than 1,000 of your peers saying: something big is happening here, and it's happening soon.

Now here's the number on the other side of that equation:

Only 12% of contractors have actually embedded AI into their business processes.

Another 34% are experimenting with a tool here and there. And 41% are still completely on the sidelines — watching, waiting, and doing nothing.

Do the math: nearly 9 out of 10 contracting businesses have not made a real move on AI yet.

In your market, right now, that means the contractor who acts first has a real window to build an advantage that is very hard to close later. That window exists today. It will not exist indefinitely.


Key Finding #2: The Contractors Using AI Are Already Seeing Real Results


The report didn't just measure opinions. It measured outcomes from contractors already in the game.

Among contractors who are using or experimenting with AI:

  • 62% report measurable gains in efficiency and productivity

  • 74% say improved efficiency is the top benefit — and it's delivering on that expectation

  • 47% are seeing better business decision-making and insights

  • 36% are already cutting operational costs

  • Nearly two-thirds are saving 3 or more hours of work every single week


Three hours per week sounds modest. Multiply it across a 10-person team and you've recovered 30 hours — nearly a full-time employee's worth of capacity — without a single new hire.


The report includes real case studies that make this concrete:

An Oklahoma-based HVAC company used AI to automate technician-to-job matching and nearly doubled their average install ticket from $8,500 to $18,500.

A Florida HVAC company integrated AI across their full operation and achieved a 22% year-over-year increase in close rates.

A Texas HVAC company used embedded AI tools and saw a 94% year-over-year increase in average ticket value.

These aren't technology startups. These are trades businesses — the same kind you're running — that found the right starting point and executed.


Key Finding #3: The Biggest Barrier Is Not Technology — It's Knowing Where to Start


When contractors who aren't using AI were asked what's holding them back, the answers were clear:

  • 44% — Lack of training or skilled staff

  • 44% — Integration complexity

  • 38% — Difficulty understanding how to use AI tools

  • 37% — Unclear ROI

  • Only 18% — Employee resistance

Read that last number again. The fear that "my crew won't accept this" is almost never the real problem. The real problem — cited by nearly half of all contractors — is that nobody has walked them through it.

This is a guidance problem, not a technology problem.

That's the exact problem the Business Automation Blueprint™ from Avidity Innovations is built to solve. More on that below.


Key Finding #4: The Back Office Is Where AI Is Winning First

The report asked contractors which areas of their business they're automating. The results map directly to where the fastest ROI lives:

Area

% of Contractors Using AI Here

Administration (billing, reporting, compliance)

59%

Marketing & Sales (lead gen, ad optimization)

51%

Customer Service & Communication (call routing, chatbots)

39%

Field Operations (scheduling, dispatch, predictive maintenance)

39%

Design & Planning

19%

This is not a coincidence. These five areas map almost exactly to Avidity's 5 Automation Zones™ — the framework at the core of every Business Automation Blueprint™:

  1. Estimating & Proposals — getting bids out faster and winning more jobs

  2. Scheduling & Crew Coordination — eliminating the owner's phone as the dispatch center

  3. Customer & Project Communication — automated updates that keep clients informed without PM intervention

  4. Billing & Collections — invoices that go out on time and follow up automatically

  5. Administration & Reporting — compliance, documentation, and visibility without manual effort

The fastest wins in the report — and the fastest wins we see with clients — come from identifying which of these five zones is costing a business the most right now, and fixing that one first. Not all five at once. The highest-leverage gap first.


Key Finding #5: Midsized Contractors Have the Most to Gain


One of the most important findings in the report for businesses in the $5M to $20M range:

51% of the largest companies surveyed are already using AI. Only 36% of smaller businesses are.


This means bigger competitors have a head start. That's the bad news.

Here's the good news: the report found that midsized companies see the biggest productivity lift when they adopt AI.


Large companies have layers of management and overhead that absorb inefficiency. A midsized contracting business in the $5M to $20M range feels every hour saved — directly in margin, capacity, and owner time. The ROI hits faster and harder at this size than at any other.

The window to catch up — and then pass — larger competitors who are moving slower than their size suggests they should is still open. But it requires moving now, not in another 12 months.


Key Finding #6: Contractors Don't Want to Build AI From Scratch — They Want a Trusted Partner


The report found that 59% of contractors prefer AI that is already built into the software and platforms they use — not custom-built tools, not standalone AI products bolted on separately.

What contractors are telling the industry is clear: they don't want to become technology experts. They want a trusted partner who understands their business, knows which tools work, and handles the implementation.

That's the role of a fractional Chief Automation Officer — and it's why the Business Automation Blueprint™ exists. It's not a software sale. It's a strategic engagement that starts with understanding your specific operation, identifies your highest-leverage opportunities, and builds the implementation plan around your business — not a generic template.


Key Finding #7: AI Is Not Coming for Your Crew


This one is worth saying plainly because we hear the concern from nearly every business owner we talk to.

Only 18% of contractors in the survey cited employee resistance as a barrier to AI adoption.

Your crew isn't afraid of this. In many cases, they're the ones who want it most — because they're the ones stuck doing the repetitive, manual work that automation handles. Scheduling calls. Status updates. Chasing down photos. Filling out the same paperwork on every job.

The goal of automation in a contracting business is not a business without people. It's a business where your people spend their time on work that actually requires a human being — craftsmanship, relationships, judgment, and problem-solving.

As ServiceTitan's VP of Product put it: "Every part of your business will fall into one of three categories: fully automated, human with AI help, or just human. That mix is what we are seeing shift rapidly."


What This Report Means for Your Contracting Business in 2026


Here is the honest summary of what 1,032 contractors just told us:

The trades industry believes AI matters. Almost nobody has made a real move on it. The contractors who figure out where to start — and execute — in the next 12 to 18 months will build a competitive advantage that is very difficult for slower-moving competitors to close.

The businesses that wait will not just stay even. They will fall behind companies that are compounding efficiency gains, margin improvements, and speed advantages month over month.

The question is not whether AI will change contracting businesses. The report answers that definitively: it already is. The question is whether your business is going to be on the right side of that change.


How to Find Out Where Your Business Stands


The most common barrier cited in the ServiceTitan report is not knowing where to start. Forty-four percent of contractors said so directly.

That's exactly what a Business Automation Blueprint™ from Avidity Innovations is designed to answer.

In one focused working session, we map your contracting operation across the 5 Automation Zones™ — the same five areas the ServiceTitan report identified as the highest-impact areas for AI adoption in the trades:

  • Estimating & Proposals

  • Scheduling & Crew Coordination

  • Customer & Project Communication

  • Billing & Collections

  • Administration & Reporting

You leave with a clear picture of which zone is costing you the most time and margin right now, what it's actually worth to fix it, and a practical roadmap for what to do first.

No tech jargon. No 40-page consulting report. No vague recommendations. A straight answer about where your business stands and exactly where to start.

If you're one of the 88% of contractors who hasn't fully embedded AI yet — this is your starting point.

[Book a Discovery Call with Avidity Innovations →]


Frequently Asked Questions About AI in the Trades



What is the ServiceTitan 2026 State of AI in the Trades report? 

It is an industry research report produced by ServiceTitan and independently conducted by Thrive Analytics from October 23 to November 12, 2025. It surveyed 1,032 contractors across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, commercial landscaping, and garage door trades on AI adoption rates, barriers, benefits, and real-world outcomes.

Only 12% of contractors have fully embedded AI into their business processes. Another 34% are experimenting with select tools. That means 88% of contracting businesses have not made a full move on AI — representing a significant competitive window for early movers.

Among contractors using or experimenting with AI, 62% report measurable gains in efficiency and productivity. Nearly two-thirds are saving three or more hours per week. Case studies in the report include an HVAC company that nearly doubled average install tickets from $8,500 to $18,500, and another that achieved a 22% year-over-year increase in close rates.

Lack of training and integration complexity tied at the top, each cited by 44% of respondents. Only 18% said employee resistance was a barrier. The primary obstacle is not technology or people — it is the absence of a clear starting point and a trusted guide.

The back office delivers the fastest ROI. Administration leads at 59%, followed by marketing and sales at 51%, and customer service and field operations at 39% each. These align directly with the five areas covered in Avidity's 5 Automation Zones™ framework.

 The 5 Automation Zones™ is Avidity Innovations' proprietary framework for assessing and implementing AI in contracting and trades businesses. The five zones are: Estimating & Proposals, Scheduling & Crew Coordination, Customer & Project Communication, Billing & Collections, and Administration & Reporting. Each zone represents a distinct area where contracting businesses commonly lose time and margin to manual, inefficient processes.

The Business Automation Blueprint™ is Avidity Innovations' structured discovery and assessment process. In a single working session, we map a contracting business across the 5 Automation Zones™, identify the highest-leverage gaps, quantify what those gaps are costing the business, and produce a practical implementation roadmap. It is designed to solve the #1 barrier identified in the ServiceTitan report: not knowing where to start.

Yes. The ServiceTitan report found that 51% of the largest companies are already using AI compared to 36% of smaller businesses. However, midsized companies — those in the $5M to $20M range — see the highest productivity lift from adoption because every hour saved translates directly to margin and owner time without layers of overhead to absorb it.

 No. The ServiceTitan report found that only 18% of contractors cited employee resistance as a concern — and the real-world results support their confidence. AI handles repetitive administrative work so that skilled employees can focus on the work that requires them: craftsmanship, client relationships, problem-solving, and judgment. The goal is a business where people do the work only people can do.

The report found that the most successful early adopters started with AI embedded in trusted platforms — not custom-built tools or standalone products. Engaging a fractional Chief Automation Officer like Avidity Innovations provides the strategic guidance to identify the right starting point, avoid costly missteps, and implement in a way that fits the business rather than disrupting it.

A fractional Chief Automation Officer (CAO) is an outside automation strategist and implementation partner who works with a business on a part-time or project basis. For contracting businesses in the $5M to $20M range, a fractional CAO provides the expertise of a senior operations executive without the cost of a full-time hire. Avidity Innovations operates as a fractional CAO firm exclusively focused on specialty contractors and trades businesses.


Avidity Innovations is a fractional Chief Automation Officer firm serving specialty contractors, trades businesses, and B2B service companies. We help owners identify where their operation is losing time and margin — and implement the systems to get it back. Headquartered in Raleigh, NC. Serving businesses nationwide.

Source: ServiceTitan 2026 State of AI in the Trades. Research conducted by Thrive Analytics, Oct. 23 – Nov. 12, 2025. n=1,032 contractors across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, commercial landscaping, and garage door trades.

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