It does not do the job
A customer does not want a clever paragraph. They want someone who will turn up, do the work, and charge a number that matches the job. AI cannot see the consumer unit, the loft, or the rotten joist. If a tool talks as if it has, that is a guess.
Treat it the way you treat a keen apprentice on the phone. Useful for taking a message and writing things down. Not the person who prices the job from the cab without looking.
The work it can take
The part that steals the evening is almost never the tools. It is the thread you meant to answer at lunch, the “are you free Thursday?” that needed three replies, and the measurements you dictated into your phone and never typed up.
- Replying while you are mid-job, so the lead does not sit there until whoever else answers first.
- Turning a messy chat — photos, sizes, “sometime next week” — into a visit that fits the diary.
- Turning notes into a quote or an invoice without opening a laptop at the dining table.
That is the whole idea. Not a new way to talk about your business. A way to stop the business waiting until you are finished on the tools.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is OpenAI’s assistant, and it is the one most people mean when they say they have “tried AI”. There is a free chat, and paid plans if you use it all day. You open an app or a browser, type what you want, and it writes back.
For a trade it is genuinely good at a first draft: a reply that does not sound furious, a plain-English description of the job, a list made from a messy voice note. It can also look things up and explain a term so you know what to ask your scheme, rather than guessing in front of the customer.
It does not sit in the customer’s WhatsApp. It does not know you are already in Croydon at two, or what you charge to move a radiator. You describe the job from memory, check it has not invented a consumer unit, then you still send the message yourself.
Gemini
Gemini is Google’s assistant. On its own it is another chat box. The difference is where it lives if your paperwork is already in Google: Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Calendar. It can work on a document or a thread that is already there, instead of you pasting the whole thing into a new window.
That is a real advantage for an office that runs on those tools. A lot of sole traders do not. The enquiry is a WhatsApp, the price is in your head or a notebook, and the diary is whatever you agreed in the last five chats. Gemini will not see any of that unless you go and fetch it.
If you do keep quotes in Docs, it can help you tidy one. It still will not answer the customer while you are on the tools, and it still will not book Thursday around the job you already sold.
Claude
Claude is Anthropic’s assistant. People use it when the thing they are holding is long: a specification, a chain of emails, a quote that has grown into three pages of exclusions. It is strong at reading what you paste in and writing something careful back, without the breezy tone that makes a customer think they are talking to a call centre.
For a trade, that is useful when you already have the material. Drop in the thread and ask what they actually asked for. Drop in your own rough notes and ask for a scope in sentences a householder can follow. You are still the one who sat down to do it, and the answer still has to be copied somewhere the customer will see it.
Claude will not turn up, and it will not know your van. A long, confident quote for a bathroom it has only read about is still a guess.
What is actually different
They are the same kind of tool. A general assistant you visit. ChatGPT is the widest everyday draft and the one customers have heard of. Gemini belongs with Google’s docs and mail, if that is where your business already is. Claude is the one to open when the document is long and you want it read properly. Microsoft’s Copilot is the same idea inside Word and Outlook, which matters if you live there and does not matter if you do not.
None of them is the customer’s message, your diary, or the price you can afford to do the work for. The difference between them is which window you copy out of. The job after that — reply, book, quote, invoice — is still yours.
Pros
- A decent first draft of a reply, a scope, or a chasing message, in less time than staring at a blank note.
- Plain-English explanations when you want to understand something before you commit to it.
- A messy voice note or a long thread turned into a list you can actually work from.
- Cheap to try. You can open one tonight and see if the writing is any good.
Cons
- You have to stop the job and open another app. The customer is still waiting in WhatsApp.
- You still copy the answer back yourself. The chat box does not run the conversation.
- Yesterday’s photos, sizes and “Thursday after school” are not in there unless you paste them.
- They do not know the diary or the drive, so a suggested day is only as good as what you remembered to type.
- They will happily price a job they have not seen, in a font that looks finished.
- Your customer’s address and house photos are now in a general chat, not with the job.
Those gaps are the admin itself: the live thread, the day you can actually do, and a quote that leaves your phone. That is the work Pencil is for, on the WhatsApp you already use, while you are on the tools.
A blank chat box is not an assistant
Opening ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude and typing “write me a quote” is still you doing the admin. You are the one sat down, explaining the job from memory, then checking it did not invent a consumer unit. That is a faster notebook. It is not someone running the day.
An assistant for a trade already knows the conversation is on WhatsApp, that the diary is the thing that breaks, and that a quote is a price you have to stand behind. You should not have to teach it what a call-out is every time.
Part of the guide on how UK trades can use AI.
FAQ
- Will AI replace tradespeople?
- No. It cannot do the job on site. The useful version takes messages, books visits, and drafts quotes and invoices so you are not doing that at 9pm.
- Should I use ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude?
- ChatGPT for an everyday draft, Gemini if the file is already in Google, Claude if the document is long. All three wait for you to sit down and prompt them. An assistant for trades works from the WhatsApp you already use.
