Before You Run Your Trades Business on an AI-Built App

Episode: Episode 75

Your AI-built dashboard looks ready. Then dispatch closes a job and the office still sees it as open. In this episode of The Catalyst for the Trades, Jazmin Ramirez sits down with CI Web Group CEO Jennifer Bagley and CTO Chris Heney to talk about what contractors should check before they buy an AI tool or put one they built to work.

Chris compares a polished interface to wallpaper. AI can put it up in seconds, but the structure underneath determines whether the software can handle a day’s work. He shares an example from his own team. An AI-generated app had several versions of the same task board. A change to one board didn’t carry over to the others, and different rules for what counted as “done” threw off the open-ticket count. For a trades business, that same problem could leave dispatch and the office working from different job statuses.

Jennifer and Chris give owners practical questions to ask their AI builder or software vendor. Where does the app get the official job status? What has to happen before a job moves from scheduled to complete? Who can view or change customer records? They also explain how to use an AI prototype to show a developer what your team needs and what to have reviewed before real jobs, customer data, and daily decisions depend on it.

Guest: Jennifer Bagley and Chris Heney

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