Understanding AI's place in roofing

MCS Influencer Randy Chaffee says the key to AI is to use it, not be afraid of and keep doing it, otherwise you're going to fall behind very quickly.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with MCS Influencer Randy Chaffee. 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 again with Randy Chaffee. Our May 2025 question is what technology should contractors be using to improve their businesses? 

Randy Chaffee: Every single thing available. How's that? And we could stop it at that, right? 

But seriously, we're such a technologically based world now and we've talked about in the past, but obviously drones is a big thing for not only measurements, working in conjunction with some of the roof measuring people, also for marketing standpoints, AI we've talked about some in the past and I think AI ties into almost everything. I was talking to somebody the other day and he said, "I'm not going to use AI." I said, "Are you using Siri? Are you using Alexa?" Wait, Alexa's talking to me on the other room. No, just kidding. But we're using AI every day, right? And so drones, AI and something that's old now and it's surprising that we're talking about it as old already, but social media, when we talk about that from time to time, all of that is getting so digitally and technologically based. It always has been, obviously it's a technologically based concept. But I think the real key point is you got to use it or you're going to fall behind and you're going to fall behind quickly. 

I've had an opportunity to have conversations with several people lately in the AI world, and that's an area that I use a fair amount. I mean, I use it every day a thousand times probably and I'm a novice still, even though I use it a lot. But the point is, it's like most of this technology, if you don't get into it now, you're going to fall behind very, very quickly. And then it's almost like, I don't know, putting it into terms of back in high school, all of a sudden you're thrown into a college prep senior calculus class and you never took second grade math, right? That's where you're going to be real fast with all technologies because it's changing so fast. 

Alex, I introduced a speaker at the National Frame Builders Association conference in Knoxville a few weeks ago about a month ago now and he was talking about AI. He and I met up and talked in person over a brewski or two, and when he started his talk, the first thing he said is, "A lot of people say, AI is the future." He said, "They're wrong." Then he just looked at everybody. He goes, "It's right now. It's not the future. It's right this minute." And he said, "I'm going to speak for an hour and a half and when I'm done, there'll already be changes. That's how quickly it's changing." 

So I think it's key is I'm not one of these people that are concerned that AI is going to take everybody's jobs, all that kind of stuff. Will there be some jobs that go away or go into something different? Of course. Back in the days of the blacksmith, when Henry Ford came out with a model T, all of a sudden there wasn't a lot of need for blacksmiths anymore after a while. People learned to be tire wheel repair people or brake people or automotive mechanics and those kinds of things. So I think the key is learning to make use of all these, because taking in the roofing world, if you're not using drones and you're not using them, whether it's in the estimating part of it, to speed up the accuracy in the process, but also if you're not using it for your marketing, you're showing a street level picture of the house, which is nice or your competitor is using this fly around showing the beautiful look from all angles. I'm sorry. That's where you'll lose, right? That's where you'll lose or you'll fall behind. 

So I just think that all of the above is really the answer. That's my long version way of saying all the above. And right now, as soon as we're done, hang up, quit watching this. Go do some technology. That's what I would say. 

Alex Tolle: Yeah, and I think too, the fear of technology taking over jobs, it's going to also create other jobs. So yeah, maybe we don't need somebody to tear off a roof. We were just talking about robotics, but you're going to need somebody to run the robots. 

Randy Chaffee: Exactly. 

Alex Tolle: There's always going to be other jobs created from the technology. 

Randy Chaffee: Yes. And usually those jobs that get created, not always, but I think in general, are higher skilled, which comes with higher pay. And robotics is a great one, and I forgot about that. I have several rollformer customers in my world that are using more and more robotics. I have some of my manufacturers that do a lot of stuff by robotics, and you're right, maybe somebody's not welding that piece anymore because robot's doing it, but somebody's making sure the robot's programmed, making sure it's running, making sure it gets fixed when it gets a broken fingernail or whatever happens to a robot. So I think you're spot on. So use it, learn it and don't be afraid of it. 

It's easy to be afraid of it. We go back and read all that science fiction junk from 50 years ago, and we think we're going to be stuck in a chair with the wires going out of our head or something crazy. But the reality is, look at all this crazy stuff on the iPhone now that 30 years ago you'd never believed, it was all science fiction. And now it's just normal everyday stuff for everybody. So the key is to use it, not be afraid of and keep doing it. 

Alex Tolle: Totally agree. Thank you so much, Randy Chaffee, for your time and answering another MetalCoffeeShop influencer question. We'll see you next month. 

Randy Chaffee: We'll be back.