How Broccoli is Transforming the Trades

Broccoli Wants AI to Answer Every Contractor's Phone

Broccoli is building AI voice agents for home services contractors, starting with the call center. Contractors cannot hire enough good CSRs, and once the CSR goes home an answering service takes over, so Broccoli answers the phone and books the job onto the dispatch board. Jain argues voice technology has crossed the uncanny valley and that contractors should ignore fear-based AI marketing rather than rush.

Takeaways

• Broccoli came from 140 contractor interviews. Jain and his cofounder went door to door in the Bay Area last summer, collected about 120 problems and chose the most pressing one, call centers and answering services, as the company to build.
• Voice agents have crossed the uncanny valley. Middleton spent roughly three minutes on a hotel call before realizing he was talking to an AI. Jain says voice technology now works at 9pm on a Sunday and never throws tantrums.
• Broccoli augments call centers rather than replacing them. It integrates with ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro, prioritizes jobs the way a good CSR would, treating equipment over ten years old as a replacement, books onto the dispatch board and calls the on-call technician for emergencies.
• Fear-based AI marketing is widespread in the trades. Jain has watched webinars where agencies sell AI agents that do nothing, and contractors are told they will go out of business without AI. He says the AI of today is the worst it will ever be.
• Broccoli handles outbound leads across channels. It makes outbound calls within seconds on leads from any channel, including Google, LSA, Yelp and other sources, sends SMS, and emails the office when a lead cannot be dispatched so the customer can be rescheduled.
• AI's purpose is democratizing access to knowledge. Jain's mother is not proficient in English and now writes emails with ChatGPT. He expects AI to displace certain skill levels while creating many jobs that do not exist today.
• Broccoli is live with over 400 contractors. The company works with more than 400 contractors across the country, and a contractor can try it by entering a phone number at broccoli.com. Jain says it is still early days for AI transforming a whole business.

The roadmap beyond the call center

1. Dispatching, extending the agents past the call center into how work reaches technicians, is the next step over 12 to 18 months.
2. Technician support, so techs get help while they are on site.
3. Estimates and proposals, drafted from the details of the job.
4. Follow-ups that keep leads and customers from going cold.