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Illustrative scenario

A trades firm drowning in quote admin

  • Construction
  • Process automation

Overview

How we'd find and prove an AI opportunity for a small construction or trades business losing evenings to quotes and follow-ups.

The situation

The pain point The owner spends most evenings turning site notes and photos into written quotes, then chasing them.

A regional plumbing and heating firm with 15 staff wins work on responsiveness. Quotes go out slowly, some never get followed up, and good jobs slip to whoever replied first.

Diagram: site notes from the van, photos on the phone, the price list and a customer who wants it today all land on the owner every evening, and some quotes never get chased.

Where AI could help

Two opportunities stand out, both well inside what AI does reliably today:

  • Drafting quotes from structured site notes and a price list, so a first draft is ready in minutes for the owner to check and send.
  • Follow-up prompts that flag quotes going cold, with a suggested message.

This is document drafting and reminders, not magic. The skilled judgement, what to charge and what the job really needs, stays with the owner.

Diagram: the site notes, photos and price list feed an AI that drafts the quote in minutes. The owner checks, edits and sends it, and quotes going cold are flagged with a suggested follow-up.

How we'd approach it

  1. Intake. A short call to see how quotes actually get produced today.
  2. Opportunity scoring. We'd rank the quote-drafting idea against the follow-up idea on return, cost and effort.
  3. Proof of concept. We'd build a working demo that turns a handful of the firm's real (anonymised) past jobs into draft quotes, so the owner can judge the quality before spending on a build.
  4. Report. Cost modelling, including monthly running costs, and where it would and wouldn't help.
  5. Build or handover. If they go ahead, we build it, or hand a development-ready brief to their own team or supplier. Their choice.
Diagram: five steps, from intake and scoring to a proof of concept on real past jobs before any build, then a report including running costs, and the choice to build or hand over.

What success would look like

We wouldn't promise a number up front. In the proof of concept we'd measure the things that matter to this business: how long a quote takes to draft, how many drafts are usable with light edits, and how many quotes get followed up. If those don't move, we'd say so.

Diagram: three things measured today and in the proof of concept: time to draft a quote, drafts usable with light edits, and quotes followed up. No number is promised up front.

See it on your own data

Every business is different, so the proof of concept is where we find out whether this works for yours.

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