I finally got an AI to write my job bids and clients actually loved it

I fed three old roofing quotes into ChatGPT and had it generate new ones for me. The language was way clearer than my usual scribbles but it missed all the local code details I always throw in. So is AI useful for small biz owners or does it just make us look good on paper?

3 comments

3 Comments

hugoj1220d ago

I paid $50 for an AI roofing bid too and the inspector flagged three missing code items before the customer even saw it. It wrote really pretty sentences but forgot to include the required 30# felt underlayment step. The customer could tell something was off and asked for a revised bid. So yeah it cleaned up my language but now I have to double check every single line before sending it out. Not exactly saving me time if I have to proofread code compliance.

the_simon20d ago

Last year I had a job where my handwritten bid was a mess but it had every code detail down to the nail spacing because I just copied what I always do. The AI version read like a professional but when I compared them side by side it missed the required fire caulking around the vent pipe and that's a $200 fix if the inspector catches it. So yeah the customer thought my AI bid looked more polished but they also asked why my original bid had more specific numbers they could check against the city website. I think it depends on whether you want to look good or actually get the work approved first time around. For me a clean sentence doesnt mean much if I'm redoing the job a week later because the AI forgot the local rules.

charlescraig20d ago

Pretty sure inspectors have been flagging missing caulk on handwritten bids since before AI was a thing. That's kind of the point of an inspection - they catch what you missed. The real question is whether your own brain is any better at remembering every code detail when you're rushing through a bid at 10pm. I've seen plenty of handwritten estimates that forgot the same stuff because the guy was copying his old template wrong for years. The AI making a mistake is just a different flavor of the same problem. If you have to double check everything anyway, might as well pick the format that takes less time to type out.