AI will not replace humans in the workforce, but companies using AI will replace restorers who ignore it.
The property restoration industry is rife with opportunity, having grown significantly over the last decade. Demand for property restoration services will only increase over the next several years due to factors such as the increasing frequency of natural disasters and aging infrastructure across the country.
However, the industry faces a challenge in efficiently meeting the increasing demand for high quality restoration services. Restoration firms globally need more necessary human capital and advanced technological resources to respond to the needs of communities everywhere.
A practical solution lies in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the technology that learns from data to mimic human logic and thought patterns. It enables decision-making, action-taking, and workflow initiation in response to various stimuli.
AI tools automate and optimize restoration processes, allowing professionals to perform more work virtually and analyze extensive data sets to gain insights that would be challenging for humans to do alone. By incorporating AI into workflows, restorers ensure efficiency and accuracy in their operations, all while giving its users — employers both onsite and back in the office — the ability to focus on customers so that they can deliver exceptional, highly personalized experiences.
AI not only enhances output, customer service, and thus profitability, but it also helps restorers attract and retain more employees who will be passionate about and successful in their jobs. AI creates room for restoration professionals to focus on human connection by reducing the burden of monotonous paperwork and analog processes, which historically has bogged them down.
While it may seem counterintuitive that adopting sophisticated technology would enable more human interaction, AI increases opportunities for employees to focus on communication, conflict management, and building their emotional intelligence. By reducing administrative workloads and providing deeper insights into properties, AI gives restoration professionals more time to focus on people and their well-being instead of figuring out project logistics.
Given the heightened importance of our industry in ensuring the thriving of people and communities, we have a responsibility to join the AI revolution today.
Where the Property Restoration Industry Stands with AI Today
Despite the clear benefits of AI, the property restoration industry as a whole has been slow to adopt the technology. Even though keeping up with technology has been a concern for restorers in recent years, there has been significant reluctance around AI.
This hesitation stems from the misconception that AI will eliminate the need for human workers in the industry. This, however, simply isn’t the case. AI may change the nature of jobs, but it won’t replace people in what is a people-focused industry. It will eliminate only mundane, repetitive tasks, allowing human workers to focus on more complex and relationship-oriented tasks. By working in tandem with AI, restoration professionals can amplify their human abilities to provide life-changing customer experiences, especially during their customers’ times of crisis.
Everyone in the property restoration sector must find their place on the AI train. The pace is increasing, and we don’t want anyone in the market left stagnant, standing at the station. While AI won’t replace humans in this industry, companies that don’t use AI will certainly be replaced with restoration businesses that do use this evolving technology.
How the AI of Today Enables Property Restoration Contractors
AI has evolved tremendously since it first emerged decades ago. With the emergence of multi-modal AI, we’ve seen one of the biggest jumps in AI innovation over the last year and a half.
Earlier AI systems were primarily prompt-based, generating responses and content and performing tasks based on text prompts (think: chatbots and text-generation machines). Multi-modal AI can process multiple data types simultaneously, such as text, images, and voice. With multi-modal AI, machines and applications can process data from built-in cameras to interact with what users see as they see it. It is interactive and provides value in real-time. This advancement allows restoration professionals to do much more than they could with older analog methods or even earlier forms of AI.
For instance, AI can significantly enhance sales and marketing strategies. Many AI-driven solutions enable users to create branded images, advertising messages, emails, blog posts, and presentations by simply inputting critical data into the system.
When it comes to specific restoration company functions, AI can be transformational. For example, AI can remove traditional challenges from the field documentation process for water mitigation technicians.
The bottom line is that AI-powered tools can enhance every aspect of a restoration company’s operations, from sales and marketing to field documentation. These solutions provide everything needed to compete effectively in the market. And this is just the beginning—there will soon be opportunities to integrate AI into every function of a restoration business.
Get on Board with AI Now: Ignore the AI Revolution at Your Peril
At the rate that AI is evolving and that different forms of it are being developed every year, your ability to compete in the market will become exponentially more difficult the longer you wait to embed the technology into your processes. The sooner you integrate AI into your processes, the better equipped you will be to compete for all the arising opportunities and ultimately make a meaningful impact in your community.
The industry’s future is leaning heavily toward AI, and there are ample opportunities to join the AI movement in ways that make sense for companies of all sizes and budgets.
Consult with technology vendors offering AI-driven workflow solutions for all your functions — from marketing to job and documentation management.
Garret Gray
Garret Gray is the President of Global Insurance at CoreLogic, where he leads a team of industry experts focused on building market-driven solutions that drive better customer outcomes throughout the property insurance ecosystem. Garret is passionate about driving transformative change for insurance carriers and restoration contractors by providing them with digital solutions to enhance as well as integrate underwriting, insurance, and processes. Previously, Garret was the founder and CEO of Next Gear Solutions, acquired by CoreLogic in August 2021. Next Gear is an industry-leading source of water mitigation, job, and sales management software, as well as claim scoping and auditing solutions. Next Gear’s platforms and applications are used by more than 8,700 restoration companies across the United States and Canada, including most of the top 25 US insurance carriers.
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