G’day Legend,
Let’s talk about something that’s been doing the rounds lately — AI in automation. Everyone’s raving about it. You’ve got tech bros on LinkedIn talking about “AI agents” replacing staff, AI writing your emails, AI answering your phones, and probably AI brushing your teeth next.
But here’s the thing — while AI can be bloody clever, it’s not always the right fit for trade businesses that just need things to work.
AI Sounds Flash, But Here’s the Catch…
The big problem with AI is that it’s non-deterministic. That’s just a fancy way of saying you never know exactly what it’s going to do. You could feed it the same info 10 times and get 10 slightly different results.
Now that’s fine if you’re doing creative stuff like generating blog content or social posts — the randomness is a feature, not a bug. But when you’re trying to run a business system?
That’s where things go sideways.
Most Businesses Want Deterministic Processes
Let’s break it down:
- If a customer fills out a form on your site…
- You want that customer to go into your CRM or job system (like ServiceM8 or Simpro)…
- And you want it to happen the same way every single time.
You don’t want the AI “guessing” which job type it is.
You don’t want it accidentally creating a duplicate.
And you sure as hell don’t want it stuffing up a mobile number.
90% of the automations we build at Trade Magnet don’t use AI at all.
That’s why 90% of the automations we build at Trade Magnet don’t use AI at all. We build solid, step-by-step workflows — using tools like Go High Level and n8n — that run exactly the same way, every time. From A to Z, no detours, no dodgy guesses.
Because when it comes to critical workflows like:
- Capturing leads
- Booking jobs
- Sending quotes
- Following up
- Updating job systems
…you don’t want “maybe.” You want done.
So Is AI Useless Then?
Not at all, mate. Like any tool, it’s about using it in the right spot. Here’s where AI is useful:
🧠 Content Generation
Finished a job? We can pull some of that data — job type, suburb, result — and get AI to whip up a blog post or customer story. You want variety in that stuff. That’s where AI shines.
💬 AI Chatbots
Need a chatbot on your website to answer FAQs or capture leads after hours? That’s a good use of AI. If it’s trained right, it can save you a heap of time.
✉️ Email Writing Assistance
Need to send out regular newsletters or customer updates? AI can help draft them. Still needs a human eye to polish it, but it gets you 80% of the way there.
🔄 Rewording & Repurposing Content
Got a chunk of text you want to turn into a Facebook post, a testimonial, or a Google review? AI can help reshape it quickly.
But the key takeaway? AI works best when it’s supervised. Think of it like a keen apprentice — useful as hell, but you wouldn’t let them wire up a switchboard unsupervised, right?
Reliable Beats Flashy, Every Time
Tradies don’t want a system that “usually works.” They want a system that always works.
That’s why we build our automations using solid logic blocks.
Each node has a job.
Each step follows the last.
Each action leads to a guaranteed result.
That’s the difference between automation and AI-powered guesswork.
So When Should You Use AI?
Here’s the rule of thumb we use at Trade Magnet:
| Task Type | Best Tool |
|---|---|
| Lead Capture | Reliable workflow |
| CRM Updates | Reliable workflow |
| Job Creation | Reliable workflow |
| Follow-Up SMS/Emails | Reliable workflow |
| Writing Content | AI (with supervision) |
| Blog/SEO Content | AI (then edited) |
| Support Chatbot | AI (trained + tested) |
| Creative Brainstorming | AI |
AI is a tool, not a solution. It works great when it’s used for the stuff that doesn’t need to be perfect. But when you need accuracy, speed, and no-stuff-ups — stick to structured automation.
The Bottom Line
AI has its place, but it’s not the magic bullet people make it out to be. Especially not in tradie businesses where reliability is king.
If you want to explore AI in your marketing — great, we’ll show you how.
But if you want your lead system, CRM, and job workflows humming along properly — we’ll keep AI on the bench and let automation do the heavy lifting.
Because the goal isn’t to look fancy — the goal is to get stuff done, without headaches.
Want to know how we build automation systems that actually work (with or without AI)? Hit us up. No pressure, no tech talk — just practical advice that suits your business.
