AI in roofing

By Emma Peterson. 

Explore how artificial intelligence will be reshaping contractor operations in 2026. 

Across the industry, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way contractors and other professionals do business. To learn more about how AI technology is being used into the current industry landscape, Kevin Hocevar, the director of research at ABC Supply, and Larry Sullivan, ABC’s VP of digital data and analytics, joined us for an episode of Roofing Road Trips®.  

For context, the roofing industry is, overall, in a fairly stable place for the time being. Kevin explained, “If you take a step back at the 10,000-foot level and look at the broadest measure of economic activity, so things like gross domestic product (GDP), we’re doing okay. Growth is below average, but it’s not a recession, we are still growing.” A great example of what this state of stability looks like is to take a look at the labor pool. Kevin shared, “If you take labor, markets have been loosening. You've got nonfarm payroll data, which has been growing slowly. The unemployment rate has ticked higher, but looking at the glass half full, unemployment rates are around 4.3% today, which is toward the lower end of historic ranges and represents a fairly healthy labor market overall.” In other words, we are going into the new year with a cautiously positive economic outlook.   

So, how does AI fit into this economic landscape? Larry dove into how this technology can help contractors, sharing, “AI has the capacity to make things easier for contractors and their customers... It is getting embedded into all the tools we use, all the applications we use.” So, whether you are AI’s biggest fan or not, it is here and finding ways to effectively use it is key to staying competitive. 

There are many ways that contractors can incorporate AI into their existing operations. Larry explained, “You can start today, very simplistically. Have AI field emails for you to keep things organized. Or maybe have it help you make an existing customer proposal look more professional...For contractors in particular, AI is already helping them with things like measurement reports.” At the end of the day, staying competitive through AI is all about finding the ways that it can work with your existing operations, not about building new operations around AI. Larry put it simply, “There's AI everywhere, it’s in commercial and sports games and search engines... At this point, I actually think that it's going to just start fading into the noise to where we don't even have to talk about AI. It's just technology. It's just how we operate.” Overall, as AI continues to integrate into everyday tools, roofing contractors who embrace it as a practical enhancement rather than a disruption will be best positioned to stay efficient, competitive and ready for the future. 

Listen to the whole podcast to learn more about how technology fits into the current state of the industry.