Michael

About Augmented Trades There's no shortage of AI content on the internet. What's missing is AI content written specifically for the person running a trade business — the plumber who's still answering their own phone at 9 PM, the electrician who spends Sunday afternoon writing estimates instead of being with their family, the HVAC contractor who knows they're losing jobs to competitors but can't figure out why. That's who Augmented Trades is for. Why We Built This The founder of Augmented Trades has spent years on the client side of the contractor relationship — planning and managing major home projects including a full basement remodel, extensive hardscaping and landscaping work, and a complete home theater build. That experience meant hiring contractors, reviewing bids, managing timelines, handling disputes, and learning — often the hard way — what separates a well-run trade operation from a chaotic one. It also meant watching AI tools transform the planning process from the homeowner side. Tools that used to take a professional days to produce — detailed project scopes, realistic budget ranges, material lists, contractor communication frameworks — became an afternoon's work with the right AI workflow. The question that led to Augmented Trades: if AI is changing how homeowners plan projects, what is it doing for the contractors executing them? And why was there no honest, dedicated resource answering that question for the trades? What We Do We test AI tools. We write honest assessments. We tell you what's worth the subscription fee and what's marketing hype. We translate the tech world into plain language that a working contractor can act on. We cover AI tools for estimating and bidding, scheduling and dispatch, lead generation, customer communication, business operations, and everything in between. We cover every major trade — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, general contracting, and landscaping. We also do something no other trades publication does: we write from the client's perspective. We tell you what your customers are researching before they call you, what AI tools they're using to check your quotes, and what they expect from a contractor in 2026. That's a perspective worth having. What We Are Not We are not a software company. We don't build tools — we evaluate them. We are not trade industry insiders. The founder has never run a contracting business. What we have is deep research, a genuine understanding of the client side of the trade relationship, and a commitment to honest assessment over affiliate-driven cheerleading. We are not another tech blog that discovered contractors exist. Every piece of content on this site is written for the person running a trade business — not for software buyers, not for enterprise contractors, not for investors. For you. The Name Augmented — not automated, not replaced. AI makes a good plumber better. It makes a good estimator faster. It makes a well-run operation tighter. The tool still requires the person. Augmented Trades exists to help that person use the tools well. --- Questions? Suggestions? A tool you want us to test? Reach us at [email protected]