AI Is Already in Your World

Whether you’re actively using AI in your business or not, you’ve definitely heard about it – maybe in the pub, on the radio, or through industry newsletters. From ChatGPT (used by over 800 million people weekly) to the features being built into sales platforms and job management tools, AI is everywhere in the digital world. It’s hard to escape.

I’ve been in digital marketing for over 15 years, so I’ve seen my fair share of trends, hype, and regulatory changes (such as the introduction of GDPR).

But with AI, it feels different.

This isn’t just another “tech fad”. I’m seeing the impact in other industries I work in, like recruitment and travel, and trades are no different, especially when it comes to marketing and operations.

Luckily, for now, you’re not about to be replaced by a robot heating engineer or plasterer.

Your job’s safe.

People still need trusted professionals to turn up and do the work. But there are ways AI can help, and the questions it raises are worth paying attention to.

In this article, I’m going to focus on AI for Tradesmen and some of the areas I think you can get the most out of AI, to save you time and money.

Is AI Going to Replace Trades Jobs?

Let’s get this one out of the way first. AI won’t be installing your customer’s new boiler or rendering the side of a house any time soon. The hands-on work that tradespeople do is protected, for now. This puts you in a great position. 👋

But AI is already influencing how customers find you, how quickly you can quote, and how well you can compete with other local businesses.

So it’s less about job replacement and more about using it to get a business edge. Those embracing tech (yes, even in small ways) are often more efficient, more organised, and end up winning more jobs.

How Can AI Actually Help My Trade Business?

You don’t need to be a tech wizard to benefit from AI.

I speak to tradespeople all the time, and a common theme is a hesitation around “tech stuff”.

This is why we get on! You guys and girls are fantastic at your trade, and want to outsource the tech to a company like Trade Pixels, who can take all of that stress away (and we’re good at it).

But I also see a growing group of business owners in the trades who are using tools that make their lives easier, improve efficiency, and ultimately help them save precious time to focus on delivering good work and driving new business.

Here are a few ideas on how tradespeople can use AI:

Admin & Organisation

• Helping you shape, write and send better emails
• Build and prioritise your to-do list for the day or week
• Use for business advice (e.g. how to raise prices, or deal with late payers)
• Use AI to summarise customer feedback or reviews
• Transcribing and summarising calls and meetings
• Scheduling meetings and keeping your calendar up to date
• Creating professional proposals and sending them quickly
• Responding to enquiries faster
• Create onboarding documentation for new starters

Marketing & Sales

• Writing posts for social media and content for emails
• Helping you plan and structure ideas for content or blog articles
• Designing flyers or posters using text prompts
• Performing competitor analysis helps you understand how you compare
• Summarising reviews and testimonials into shareable formats
• Smart Chatbots to help qualify leads on your website

Analysis & Insight

• Analysing and summarising numbers from spreadsheets
• Offering insights on operations or staff issues
• Summarising regulations or legal requirements
• Help you break down projects to understand project profitability

Are you trying any of this out at the moment?

AI & Search: What’s Changing and Why It Matters

Search is changing fast, but it’s still one of the main ways people find your business and services.

Even with tools like ChatGPT and Claude starting to eat into the search market share, SEO is still hugely relevant.

When someone types “emergency plumber in Chester” into Google or an AI chatbot, they still have clear intent, and you want your business to show in the results.

What’s changed?

If you search for something on Google, here’s how a modern search result looks:

• AI-Generated Overview (summary of top results)
• Paid Ads
• Google Maps/Local Listings
• AI-Generated FAQs
• Organic Search Results

This means people are seeing more information, faster, but also more noise. You want your business to be omnipresent (show up everywhere – summaries, maps, and results).

People are also now asking AI tools for recommendations/opinions on tradespeople.

Try it yourself, search in ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini” for: “Best [your trade] in [your town]”

Are you in the answer?

If not, a better SEO presence can help.

To show up, AI models consider:

• Google/Bing (Search) rankings
• Brand mentions online
• Reviews and trust signals
• Website quality and brand authority
• Local listings

In other words, the same stuff that good SEO has always focused on. If you get your SEO strategy right, you’ll be in a good place with the LLMs (AI chat tools).

Traditional search (like Google and Bing) is still a dominant force for now (owning 97% of the search market), but SEMrush predicts that AI search visitors will surpass traditional search visitors by 2028 – we’ll keeping an eye on the developments.

What Tools Should I Try First?

You don’t need to download 20+ apps for AI to start having an impact. Start small and work your way up. Here are a few places to start, alongside some examples of how you could use each tool:

ChatGPT (free & paid)

ChatGPT is a useful assistant. You can use to do a wide range of tasks, but you may find it useful to plan, structure, and write content for social media, brainstorm ideas, summarise articles, make sense of legal documents, and compare tools (software and hardware).

Claude (free & paid)

Claude’s a handy tool when you’ve got tons of info and no time to make sense of it. It’s great at reading, analysing and summarising long documents, whether that’s supplier price lists, T&C’s, or technical manuals. You can chuck in messy notes, contracts, or legal stuff and get a clear summary that saves you the headache. It’s also solid with spreadsheets and numbers, so if you’ve got pricing tables, materials lists, or sales data in a spreadsheet, Claude can help pull out the useful bits without you having to dig around.

Otter.ai (free & paid)

A super useful tool that allows you to record your meetings. The tool will record, transcribe, summarise and then create actions/tasks based on the recorded conversation. No need for manual call notes anymore. Throw back to the time you’d taken a call in the Van, and then tried to remember all the details discussed a couple of hours later? This tool can solve that issue.

Canva

Canva AI is a great tool for tradesmen. Need great-looking social media posts, or a new leaflet designed? Simply type into the prompt box (the more detail the better), upload your logo, and Canva will do the rest for you. I’ve listed an example request for a Facebook Post below:

Zapier + AI

Zapier allows you to connect your different tools and systems. Enquiry from your website? You can now use Zapier to plug this into your CRM, create a lead, and fire out a response email. There’s tons of use cases here to remove the manual work you’re currently doing and allowing all of your tools to sync and speak to each other.

Don’t Get Left Behind

As I said at the start, AI won’t replace your hands when it comes to day-to-day delivery of service, but it can replace a lot of wasted time and hassle.

Even using it for a few small things, like dictating and summarising calls with customers,  sending clearer quotes, or replying faster to enquiries coming through your website, can make a huge difference. New AI tech is rolling out at a rapid pace, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for new tools and techniques that can benefit your business.

Remember not to overthink it. Just start somewhere, small.

If you have questions about AI, Automation, or general digital marketing for your Trades Business, you’re in the right place. You can get in touch with an expert here.