Tales From the Trenches

Everyone is talking about AI. The challenge is moving beyond the hype and finding practical ways to use it to improve a business.

We have been working on a project to bring AI-powered insight to our clients. The goal is not to replace people or automate decisions. The goal is to help business owners better understand what is happening inside their operation and identify opportunities for improvement.

Over the years we have invested considerable effort building data structures that provide a better understanding of service operations. We track customers, work orders, technicians, assets, maintenance history, quoting activity, scheduling, billing, and many other aspects of a trades business. The next logical step is helping owners ask questions about their business in plain language and receive meaningful answers.

That sounds simple, but choosing the right AI platform is not.  There are dozens of AI tools available today. Our clients and staff have experience with ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, and others. Every month new products appear on the market. The reality is that many users will naturally gravitate toward their preferred AI tool. I can’t blame them as I do the same thing!

When evaluating a platform, however, we have to look beyond intelligence alone. Availability, scalability, ease of adoption, cost, and most importantly security become critical factors.

Our roadmap consists of three phases: (We are implementing Phase I)

Phase I – Operational Insight

Using data already stored within YourRadar to provide reporting, analysis, and business insight.

Phase II – Financial Insight

Integrating accounting information to provide a more complete picture of business performance. At this stage, data security and governance become even more important.

Phase III – External Benchmarking

Incorporating external data sources to help clients benchmark performance, identify trends, and uncover growth opportunities.

After evaluating various options, we chose Microsoft’s ecosystem as the foundation for our initial implementation. Most of our clients already use Microsoft 365, making adoption easier. Tools such as Copilot, Power BI, Azure Data Lake, and Microsoft Purview provides a familiar environment while offering governance controls that help ensure business information remains protected.

Was it the smartest AI platform available? Perhaps not.

Was it the best fit for our clients? We believe so.

One lesson we’ve learned is that the “best” AI tool depends heavily on context. A solution that works well for a trades contractor may not be the right solution for one of our IBM clients. Different businesses have different requirements, workflows, security concerns, and levels of technical maturity.

The biggest takeaway from this project is that successful AI implementation is not about choosing the most powerful model. It is about delivering the right answers, to the right people, using data they can trust, within an environment they are comfortable adopting.

The technology will continue to evolve rapidly. The real challenge is not finding AI. The real challenge is finding practical ways to apply it to solve real business problems.  It is no longer whether AI will be part of your business. The question is whether it will help you make better decisions on Monday morning.