I have a roster of a few home service companies (plumbers, roofers, landscapers, etc.) that I do freelance marketing for. Lately, the owners I work with have developed a serious case of AI shiny object syndrome.

They’re bombarding me with links to scammy IG ads for “game-changing” AI tools they think will save their businesses overnight. Even talking about replacing their CSRs with "virtual agents". This will obviously lead to some terrible customer experiences, but all they can see is dollar signs at the prospect of laying off that part of their labor force.

If I keep pushing back and pointing out how short sighted some of these ideas are, they’ll eventually find someone else that will implement them. So, I’m trying to get out in front of this a little bit and find any AI tools that don’t suck—something I can pitch back to them that’s actually useful and not just a fancy new way to ruin their customer experience.

Then when they brag to their other buddies in the trades about how "cutting edge" their business is, it will be in part because of me, not in spite of me.

Any suggestions for AI tools that:

• Help small service businesses without completely alienating their customers?
• Automate repetitive tasks in a way that doesn’t scream “this was done by a robot”?
• Aren’t just some scammy overpriced subscription service with a flashy demo?

If you’ve actually used something that works, I’d love to hear about it. Honestly, the bar is low. Just help me stop these guys from accidentally burning their businesses down with bad AI ideas.