By Aijaz Alam
How many home service contractors use AI?
About 25% of residential contractors said they currently use AI, in ServiceTitan's 2026 Residential State of the Trades survey of 1,000 residential contractors, published in April 2026. Census data for all US construction firms is lower: 16.1% used AI in the survey collected 5 to 18 October 2026, up from 7.4% in November 2025. Housecall Pro's smaller survey found 48%.
- 25%Residential contractors currently using AIServiceTitan, 2026 Residential State of the Trades, Apr 2026; the release says 'about 25%'
- 16.1%US construction firms that used AI in the last two weeksCensus BTOS, collected 5-18 Oct 2026
- 48%Home service pros who actively use AIHousecall Pro, 248 pros, May-Jun 2026
- 66%Contractor AI users saving at least three hours a weekServiceTitan, 2026 State of AI in the Trades, May-Jun 2026
- 11%Contractors with high or complete trust in their AI toolsServiceTitan, 2026 State of AI in the Trades, May-Jun 2026
The numbers
The full breakdown
How many contractors use AI: the main estimates
| Survey | Who was asked | When | Using AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey | US construction firms with employees | 5-18 Oct 2026 | 16.1% |
| ServiceTitan, 2026 Residential State of the Trades | 1,000 residential contractor owners and managers | Published Apr 2026 | About 25% |
| Housecall Pro, AI in the trades | 248 US home service pros, its customers and industry contacts | May-Jun 2026 | 48% |
| US Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey | All US employer firms, for comparison | 5-18 Oct 2026 | 24.6% |
Each row is the publisher's own figure. Census asks whether the business used AI in any business function in the last two weeks. ServiceTitan reports contractors currently using AI; Housecall Pro reports pros who actively use AI in their business. ServiceTitan's about 25% comes from its 2026 Residential State of the Trades survey; its later 2026 State of AI in the Trades survey (May-Jun 2026), the source of the results and trust figures below, gives no overall AI-use share.
Trades contractors and AI: results, reasons, barriers and trust (ServiceTitan, 2026 State of AI in the Trades, May-Jun 2026)
| Finding | Share | Asked of |
|---|---|---|
| Save at least three hours a week | 66% | AI users |
| Report improved profitability | 47% | AI users |
| Report increased revenue | 43% | AI users |
| Prefer AI built into their core platform | 61% | AI users |
| Cite difficulty hiring as a reason for experimenting with AI | 37% | Contractors |
| Cite providing off-hours support as a reason | 34% | Contractors |
| Cite reducing operating costs as a reason | 33% | Contractors |
| Barrier: understanding how to use AI in their business | 44% | Contractors |
| Barrier: lack of clear use cases | 43% | Contractors |
| Barrier: integration with existing software | 40% | Contractors |
| Barrier: high purchase cost | 17% | Contractors |
| Place high or complete trust in their AI tools | 11% | Contractors |
| Report little or no trust in their AI tools | 58% | Contractors |
1,017 verified US residential and commercial trades contractors (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing and more), fielded 26 May to 15 Jun 2026 by Thrive Analytics for ServiceTitan; margin of error plus or minus 3.7 points for the total sample, wider for AI users. Released 29 Sep 2026 as The Update: 2026 State of AI in the Trades, a different survey from the Residential State of the Trades behind the about 25% figure. High purchase cost fell 12 points from the previous wave (1,032 contractors, Oct-Nov 2025; question wording lightly revised between waves).
What home service pros do with AI (Housecall Pro, May-Jun 2026)
| Finding | Share | Asked of |
|---|---|---|
| Use AI for customer communication | 52% | AI users |
| Use AI for building estimates and quotes | 51% | AI users |
| Say AI helps them plan and report on the business | 43% | AI users |
| Say AI helps them respond faster and lose fewer leads | 40% | AI users |
| Say AI has contributed to revenue growth | 68% | AI users |
| Expect to use AI even more over the next year | 84% | AI users |
| Are not familiar with AI tools for their trade | 52% | Non-users |
248 US home service pros (HVAC 28%, plumbing 14%, electrical 10%, general contracting 10%; 69% owners or founders), online sample of Housecall Pro customers and industry contacts. Housecall Pro says to read the results as directional, not a population estimate.
Residential contractors and AI (ServiceTitan, 2026 Residential State of the Trades, published Apr 2026)
| Finding | Share |
|---|---|
| Currently using AI | About 25% |
| See AI as an efficiency engine | 74% |
| Believe starting early creates a competitive advantage | 73% |
| Early adopters reporting increased productivity | 48% |
| Early adopters reporting time savings | 45% |
Survey of 1,000 residential contractor owners, executives, general managers and directors by Thrive Analytics for ServiceTitan, released 7 Apr 2026. Field dates are not given in the release, and it does not say the sample is US only.
Over time
US construction firms using AI, Census BTOS, every other wave since November 2025
| Collected | Construction firms using AI | Standard error (points) |
|---|---|---|
| 17-30 Nov 2025 | 7.4% | 0.80 |
| 15-28 Dec 2025 | 8.7% | 1.01 |
| 12-25 Jan 2026 | 10.1% | 0.72 |
| 9-22 Feb 2026 | 9.4% | 0.79 |
| 9-22 Mar 2026 | 9.6% | 0.72 |
| 6-19 Apr 2026 | 10.1% | 0.68 |
| 4-17 May 2026 | 9.5% | 0.77 |
| 1-14 Jun 2026 | 12.6% | 0.72 |
| 29 Jun-12 Jul 2026 | 13.9% | 1.07 |
| 27 Jul-9 Aug 2026 | 14.9% | 0.78 |
| 24 Aug-6 Sep 2026 | 16.0% | 0.90 |
| 21 Sep-4 Oct 2026 | 17.2% | 0.72 |
| 5-18 Oct 2026 | 16.1% | 0.79 |
Census Sector file, construction (NAICS 23): homebuilders, heavy and civil engineering and specialty trade contractors such as plumbing, HVAC and electrical firms together. Only waves asked with the 'any business function' wording, which started with the 17 Nov 2025 collection; every other wave is shown, plus the latest. The dip from 17.2% to 16.1% in the last two waves is within the standard errors. Census's download files now label this question 'Super Intelligence or SI (formerly referred to as Artificial Intelligence or AI)'; we keep the AI wording, but if Census has changed the question itself, not only its label, later waves may not compare directly with earlier ones.
Why sources differ
Same question, different answers
| Number | When | Who measured | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16.1% | 5-18 Oct 2026 | US Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey | Survey of US construction firms with employees, with standard errors; use in any business function in the last two weeks. |
| About 25% | Published Apr 2026 | ServiceTitan 2026 Residential State of the Trades (Thrive Analytics) | 1,000 residential contractor owners and managers; 'currently using AI'. |
| 48% | May-Jun 2026 | Housecall Pro | 248 home service pros, its software customers and industry contacts; 'actively use AI'. |
| 24.6% | 5-18 Oct 2026 | US Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey | All US employer firms, for comparison. |
The estimates run from 16.1% to 48% because they ask different people different questions. The Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey is the only one built to represent all US construction firms with employees, and it asks a narrow question: did the business use AI in any business function in the last two weeks. It also mixes homebuilders and road builders with plumbing, HVAC and electrical contractors. ServiceTitan's figure of about 25% comes from its 2026 Residential State of the Trades survey of 1,000 residential contractor owners and managers, recruited by a research firm for a software company that sells AI tools; ServiceTitan's later State of AI in the Trades survey gives no overall use rate. Housecall Pro's 48% comes from 248 pros drawn from customers of its own software, which already has AI features built in, and wider industry contacts, so it says itself that the result is directional. Our reading: people who already use business software are more likely to try AI, which would push both vendor figures up. For a defensible headline, quote the Census rate for construction firms; quote the vendor surveys for what contractors do with AI and why.
What it means
How to use these numbers
Somewhere between one contractor in six and one in four uses AI today, depending on whose survey you read, and the trend is clearly up: the Census rate for construction firms more than doubled between November 2025 and October 2026. Construction still trails the economy as a whole, where about one firm in four uses AI.
The reasons contractors give are practical. Difficulty hiring is the most common reason for trying AI (37% in ServiceTitan's State of AI in the Trades survey, May-Jun 2026), ahead of covering calls outside office hours (34%) and cutting costs (33%). Users mostly put it to work on customer messages, estimates and reporting (Housecall Pro), and two in three AI users in ServiceTitan's May-Jun survey save at least three hours a week.
The brake is knowledge and trust, not price. In that same ServiceTitan survey, only 11% of contractors trust their AI tools highly, and the most cited barriers are knowing how to use AI and a lack of clear use cases. If you run a trades business, start with one task that costs you leads, such as missed calls or slow quotes, and measure the result before adding more.
Method and sources
How it was measured
Method
- Publisher
- US Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey (official); ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro (vendor surveys)
- Sample
- Census: a survey of US employer businesses every two weeks, published with standard errors. ServiceTitan: 1,000 residential contractors (Apr 2026 release) and 1,017 residential and commercial trades contractors (May-Jun 2026), both by Thrive Analytics. Housecall Pro: 248 home service pros, online sample.
- Definition
- Census: used AI in any business function in the last two weeks. ServiceTitan: currently using AI. Housecall Pro: actively use AI in their business.
- Released
- Census wave 5-18 Oct 2026 (published 22 Oct 2026); ServiceTitan 2026 Residential State of the Trades 7 Apr 2026 and The Update: 2026 State of AI in the Trades 29 Sep 2026; Housecall Pro 30 Jun 2026 (updated 13 Jul 2026)
- Checked at source
- 31 October 2026: Census Sector.xlsx and National.xlsx on census.gov, both ServiceTitan press releases and the Housecall Pro report page
- Next release
- Census publishes a new BTOS wave every two weeks
- Last changed
- 31 Oct 2026
- Data files
- CSV · JSON (stable links)
Sources
- Business Trends and Outlook Survey, US Census Bureau Official data
- ServiceTitan trades research (State of AI in the Trades, residential and commercial reports), ServiceTitan Vendor data
- AI in the Trades report, Housecall Pro Vendor data
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FAQ
More questions people ask
Why do contractors start using AI?
In ServiceTitan's 2026 State of AI in the Trades survey (May-Jun 2026), difficulty hiring was the most common reason for experimenting with AI (37%), followed by providing off-hours support (34%) and reducing operating costs (33%).
What do home service pros use AI for?
Customer communication and estimates come first: 52% and 51% of AI users in Housecall Pro's 2026 survey use it for those tasks. 43% use it to plan and report on the business.
Is cost what stops contractors from using AI?
Mostly not. In ServiceTitan's May-Jun 2026 survey, high purchase cost was the least cited barrier (17%, down 12 points). Understanding how to use AI (44%) and a lack of clear use cases (43%) came first.
Do contractors trust AI?
Not yet. Only 11% place high or complete trust in the AI tools they use, and 58% report little or no trust (ServiceTitan, May-Jun 2026).
Every number on this page was checked at its original source (US Census Bureau, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro). Free to cite with a link to this page.