AI Adoption in the Trades 2026: Where Does Your Business Actually Stand?

ServiceTitan just published a survey of 1,032 trade contractors — plumbers, HVAC companies, electricians, roofers, pest control, landscapers, garage door companies — asking where they really are with AI adoption. Not where they think they should be. Where they actually are.

The headline finding: contractors know AI is coming, and the window to get ahead of it is closing faster than most realize.

The Five Stages of AI Adoption in the Trades

Here's how the 1,032 respondents describe their company's relationship with AI today:

• 12% are already leading — AI is built into how they run the business.
• 34% are experimenting with a few tools.
• 19% are interested but haven't taken action.
• 22% are watching and waiting.
• 13% don't see AI as relevant to their business at all.

Add it up: roughly 46% are doing something, and 54% are watching, waiting, or opting out entirely — a business world splitting into two groups in real time.

The Gap Is Already Compounding

One detail that should raise the urgency: 60% of respondents said they were already "familiar" with AI, but 72% believe it's relevant to their industry. That gap between familiarity and belief is the tell — contractors sense the shift is real before they've acted on it. Every month that gap stays open, the 12% already leading pull further ahead on efficiency, ticket size, and close rates. This isn't a trend to monitor from the sidelines; it's a head start other people in your trade are already building.

There's also a split by business type. Commercial contractors are experimenting at a noticeably higher rate (40%) than residential ones (29%). If you run a residential plumbing, HVAC, electrical, or roofing operation, statistically you're more likely to be in the "watching and waiting" camp than your commercial counterparts — and waiting has a cost even when it doesn't feel like one yet.

Vincent Payen, ServiceTitan's SVP of Product, put it plainly: "For some, there's still an underestimation of the magnitude of the shift that's about to happen. AI will enable businesses to shift from manual operations to automation, placing them well above their competition."

Where Do You Actually Stand — Right Now?

Not where you'd like to be. Not where you'd tell a peer you are. Where you actually are, today, based on what's running in your business this week.

That's the honest starting point, and it's the only one worth acting on. Over the next four posts we'll cover where AI is showing up first, what results early adopters are seeing, why so many contractors stall out despite good intentions, and what to do this quarter — not "someday" — to close the gap.

If you already know which of the five groups above you're in, don't sit on that information. The businesses winning this transition aren't the ones with the most technology — they're the ones who moved while everyone else was still deciding. If you want an honest read on exactly where you stand, that's what a free diagnosis is for.

Source: ServiceTitan, "2026 State of AI in the Trades," survey conducted by Thrive Analytics, October 23–November 12, 2025, 1,032 respondents. Full report: servicetitan.com/guides/2026-ai-in-the-trades

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