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Fight Fire with Fire

August 20, 2026 7:00 am

The same technology that insurance carriers are using to shrink your estimates can—and must—be turned into your most powerful documentation and negotiation tool. There is a quiet revolution happening inside the claims departments of insurance carriers and most restoration contractors have no idea how dramatically it is about to affect their bottom line. Artificial intelligence is no longer a future-state concept in the insurance industry. It is here. It is deployed. It is making decisions. And in far too many cases, those decisions are coming at the direct expense of restoration professionals who are

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The Restoration Industry Has Changed. How We Respond Will Define Its Future.

August 18, 2026 8:33 am

After more than 20 years in the restoration industry, I’ve watched our profession evolve in ways I never expected. Some of those changes have been positive. Technology has made us more efficient, documentation has become more sophisticated, and we have better tools than ever to prove what a property needs. At the same time, however, one of the biggest changes has made our jobs significantly more difficult. Years ago, it wasn’t unusual to have spirited disagreements with insurance adjusters. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but there was usually a mutual understanding of

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Calm Is Contagious

August 17, 2026 5:01 pm

The first job on a loss isn’t the building. It’s the room. By the time the phone rings, somebody’s worst day is already underway. A kitchen fire, a supply line that let go over a long weekend, a storm that opened up the roof — whatever pulled them into it, the person meeting your tech at the door hasn’t slept, is still in yesterday’s clothes, and can’t figure out where to stand in a house that stopped feeling like theirs an hour ago. They are not thinking clearly. They are not supposed to be.

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AI Just Changed the Marketing Game

August 11, 2026 7:48 am

AI is changing marketing faster than most businesses can keep up with—and restoration companies are no exception. In this episode, Michelle and Katie Harris, Founding Partner at Spot On Solutions, dive into how AI is reshaping marketing for service-based businesses, from content creation and search to Google Ads, video, customer engagement, and more. The answer isn’t to panic—or ignore it. It’s to get brave, start exploring, and learn how to use AI strategically. They also talk about why every company needs an AI policy, where human oversight still matters, and why authentic brand content

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Restoration’s Next Leadership Challenge: Technology Doesn’t Have Ethics. People Do.

August 11, 2026 7:24 am

When most people hear the phrase code of ethics, they think about honesty, integrity, and doing right by the customer. As restorers, we should. The Restoration Industry Association (RIA) has done an outstanding job establishing ethical principles that guide how we serve our customers, work with carriers, and conduct business. Those standards are foundational to our profession and have helped establish the trust our industry depends on. I believe, however, that restoration is facing another ethical challenge, one we aren’t talking about nearly enough: technology. Not because technology is bad. Quite the opposite. I

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The Invoice Is Only as Defensible as the Operation That Produced It

August 10, 2026 9:00 am

Nobody loses money on a large loss because the work wasn’t needed. The water wicked up the walls by two feet in the lobby. The fire took out half the third floor. The hurricane ripped the roof off the hotel. The need is rarely ever in question. The problem is usually the lack of solid processes, procedures, and documentation. Companies lose money on large commercial losses because the operation behind the invoice couldn’t prove itself. The crews were there, the equipment ran, and the building got dry, but months later the contractor is sitting

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Deep Dive #4: Tech & AI | 2026 State of the Industry

August 7, 2026 11:56 am

Technology and AI are reshaping how restoration companies operate—from the field to the back office. In the fourth 2026 State of the Industry Deep Dive on Technology & AI, in partnership with KnowHow, join Michelle Blevins and Leighton Healey as they explore what the latest industry data reveals about AI adoption, automation, and the tools transforming restoration workflows—and what it all means for your business. You’ll also hear real-world insights from an incredible panel of industry leaders: Brayden Everton, Founder, Aiyarise Intelligence Inc.  Tyler Tanaka, CTO, ATI Restoration, LLC Taylor Carmichael, MIS, Director of

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What One Number Cost Us at the Negotiating Table

August 6, 2026 9:16 am

Fellow restorers, About 100. That is roughly how many restoration companies completed the last Cost of Doing Business Survey. Out of nearly 1,900 RIA members and thousands more restorers working in this country, about 100 of us filled out the form. I want you to understand what that number did. When RIA leadership sat down with a carrier representative and presented the industry’s financial data, that representative dismissed it. Not by disputing the methodology, not by producing better numbers, but by pointing at the response count. One hundred companies. That was enough to wave

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Why Most Restorers Are Getting AI Wrong

August 5, 2026 11:55 am

I’ve been talking about AI in this industry for a couple of years now, and the message hasn’t changed: most companies are getting it wrong before they even begin. But the problem isn’t the technology. It’s the foundation underneath it: the documentation. According to the C&R State of the Industry report, AI in Estimating & Jobsite Documentation is the number one department restorers want to enhance at 35.7%, well ahead of training at 22% and sales and marketing at 16.1%. Nearly half (47%) of teams are already trying to use AI, so the interest

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84% of Restoration Companies Are Open to AI. Most Are Still Writing Emails.

August 4, 2026 7:00 am

An operations manager at a restoration company used to get to the office early. Not because he wanted to. Because he had to. Ninety minutes, every morning, trying to get ahead of the day before the phones started ringing and the crews walked in. Yet, he never felt ready. His words, not mine: “There was no one day that I felt comfortable having all the information I needed before everything went to a hundred miles an hour.” That’s not a technology problem. That’s about every restoration operator I’ve talked to. Here’s the strange part.

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