Technology isn't as scary as it seems

MCS Influencer Randy Chaffee says that if you're hiding from technology, you're going to fall behind.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Alex Tolle: Hello, I'm Alex Tolle with MetalCoffeeShop.com, and I'm back for another metal influencer response with Randy. How's it going, Randy? So good. So, for November 2025, our question is: what are emerging technologies that have the potential to transform the way metal building projects are planned and executed?

Randy Chaffee: Alex, it's going great and you? Good. Man, I love this question because are we in a great time for technology? It's compounding and growing. So we've talked about this in other questions in the past. And I love where we're going if you want to grasp technology. And I think it's important in this world is it's much more than it used to be, not just steel and screws and stuff, whatever stuff is. It's so much more. It's building information. Modeling, right? That's something that's used a lot nowadays. It's the drones, it's aerial imaging, it's your eagle views and roofers and the different people out there that have the digital systems. It's the automation and robotics for the role-forming people, right? And the guys doing roll forming. I've been in some plants lately where it's like space tech stuff. It's like I found the Wizard of Oz behind a curtain.

And you're watching some of this stuff going on, and it's so much different than the old mechanical brake, with the big heavy ball that he has set in there, and you each measured a little bit, right? Now you set it up and walk away for the evening, and you've got a pile of trims tomorrow. It's pretty amazing, all the way from the supplier end, the manufacturing end, all through the the installer.

But I think the key is to grasp it, to understand AI, for example, and all the other things that are available. Y'all can't hide from that anymore. If you hide from it, even though you're doing great work, you're just going to fall behind the people that are using all the technologies available to them.

For example, I'm pretty close with some people who do a lot of in-home sales for metal roofing. They already have the whole project priced before they get to the homeowners. They start laying out the project and talk to the homeowners, for example, because they've already shot the Eagle View or whoever else they're using. They've already plugged it in. They already know exactly where the cost is going to be, if there are any discounts that they could or could not give, depending. The work's already done for them, and it's done accurately and correctly, which is a beautiful thing.

So I think the real thing is, people worry about all the technologies, and there are so many of them. And I get the fear. I know a lot of people close to me who fear technology and what it's going to do to jobs. I mean, let's face it. When Henry Ford made the Model T, there wasn't the need for as many blacksmiths, right? But they learned to build wheels or do whatever they did in the auto plant. So there could be some shifts, but I think the key is that they are never going to take the people out of this.

It's still a people business. It's still craftsmen putting the roof on. It's still craftsmen doing the trim work. It's still quality control people watching over what's happening with the robotics, with the equipment. So I think it's just a matter of making it quicker, faster, easier, more accurate and getting rid of the inefficiencies of your time so that people who are craftsmen that are good at what they're doing, whether it's estimating or whatever, or out on the job site, can spend more time hopefully doing more jobs and allow the technology to take that tedious, mind-numbing stuff out of the picture.

And so if we look at it that way and quit being scared about it, because it's here, and I know it gets said a lot and — pardon my words on this, because I don't think it can be said enough — is, there's always a caveat to this and an asterisk to the fact that some jobs will change. I think that's probably accurate. Some jobs may go away, but there'll be other jobs that replace them. You just have to be thinking ahead, and are you in a position where you could be? Then maybe you should start looking at it soon and figure out where you fit in and how you can make use of it.

But with all that said, as the roofing company owners, it's not going away. Again, the old statement, you're not going to get beat by somebody that, because of AI, you're going to get beat because with somebody that's using AI and is just more efficient, they're faster, they're quicker, they're more accurate. And so I think it's key that we all have every aspect. I use it every day. I use technology every day in my rep agency world. And not so good sometimes, as you noticed, it took me 12 minutes to figure out how to get back on here after I got lost. But with that said, even when I get frustrated and mad, I still understand the importance of using this. So don't be afraid, use it, use all the technologies, because it's so much of an augmentation to what we do. And I think if we look at it that way, yeah, we're going to win every day.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, I think that's the most important part is looking at the technologies that you have adapted over time, using a computer every day or anything digital that we've implemented and maybe have been using for 10, 20 years now, and how scary that was when it first came out, but how much it's helped you or if you joined it really late, say you didn't get a website until 2025, then you're you probably see why people have implemented that technology sooner and now you're behind, you're late in the game. So you've got to implement it before you're too far behind.

Randy Chaffee: Exactly. Well, two things about that are, I'm old school enough, or have been around long enough. It's a nice way of saying older. It's not that funny. Anyway, I remember those weird things. You'll find them in a museum somewhere, called a payphone. And you'd pull up and dial 16 numbers with your hand freezing at the payphone. And I remember how scary but I wanted it when the first cell phone came out. It's like, you're kidding me? We're going to carry this thing around and actually talk to somebody from the road, from a job site? I mean, that just seemed like earth-shatteringly weird, right? And it wasn't that long ago. I mean, it seems like it now, but chronologically, it wasn't that long ago. So you're right. It's the changes are always scary at the start.

The other part, the last thing, what you said, you started to hit on, I think, is important, Alex, is that with technology changing, it changes so quickly. It compounds on each other so quickly that every day, every week, every month, God forbid every year that you go by and don't get started, you're going to find yourself, I don't want to say hopelessly lost, but you're going to be lost to where it's going to take a lot longer to catch up because anybody that's using this stuff technology-wise now, new stuff comes out every day.

And we scratch our heads and we poke around and we can't figure it out. And then we call somebody, you get frustrated, but that's based on having used it for a while. Now think about if you hadn't used it at all. And now all of a sudden, you're forced to use it. To me, it's like, you never were taught elementary school math, and all of a sudden, you found yourself 17 in a senior's calculus class, you might as well just get up and go sit in the principal's office, which I did a lot by the way. That was my relative school. Anyway, another story for another day. The point is you're so lost, you'll never catch up.

And so I think it's important to grasp it, jump on it, use it. Not all at once. Don't be stupid. I mean, if you haven't used any technology, I probably wouldn't go buy 12 drones and six robots and just invest $3 million on a bunch of stuff. But start somewhere. Start with AI, start tinkering with it, start figuring out what this stuff can do for you. And you'll be surprised how unscary it is once you get used to it. That's from an old school guy who's almost been around forever.

Alex Tolle: Absolutely. Who took 10 minutes to join this studio, right? I'm just kidding.

Randy Chaffee: And again, she had to bring that up, but sure, you know, I think that's a great point, though. I use technology every day. I do a lot of podcasting, a lot of other stuff. I'm using it all day long, and I still get points where it's like — why isn't this working? Why can't I figure it out, you know?

Alex Tolle: Yeah, well, I had you muted the whole last recording, so it's both of us. So we're always learning.

Randy Chaffee: Yeah, I know you did, and you blame me on it to which I didn't appreciate but, anyways, good stuff. I mean, I think it's a great subject and very timely. So I love chatting about that. Thank you.

Alex Tolle: Yeah. Thank you so much, Randy, as always, we will see you next month.