Five things I am watching this fall
What just became possible
What has my attention heading into the last quarter, and why each one matters to a company your size.
I spend a lot of time looking at what is coming, mostly so the owners I work with do not have to. Here is where my attention is.
1. The Local Services Ads migration
Home services is in the first wave and it is happening now. Single target CPA, no manual bidding, a new lead inbox, and reports that do not come with you. If you take one thing from this month, download your history before your account moves.
2. Phone agents going from novel to standard
A year ago an AI answering your phone was a curiosity. It is now a real category with real competition and real quality. By spring, a missed call during business hours starts to look like a choice rather than an accident.
3. Search becoming an answer instead of a list
More people asking an assistant and getting a recommendation, fewer people scrolling. A large shift, and unusually friendly to businesses that are genuinely good and clear about what they do.
4. Estimating from a photograph
Solid in roofing already, moving into the rest of the trades as vision models get better at seeing what is in an image. The company that can give an honest number in ten minutes is going to take a lot of work from the company that schedules a visit for Thursday.
To be clear, the site visit is not going away. The pointless site visit is.
5. Colorado's new AI law
Effective January 2027, and for companies like yours it is mostly a hiring question. Sixteen months is plenty of time if you start while it is boring.
What it all adds up to
For most of my career, technology in this industry favored whoever had the biggest budget. Better software cost more, so the national player had it and you did not. That flipped. This wave is cheap, available to anybody, and it disproportionately rewards the operator who is close to the customer and quick on their feet.
That is you. It has always been the small local company's real advantage, and this is the first time in twenty years the tools have been pointed in your direction.
Good time to be paying attention.
SB26-189 Automated Decision-Making Technology · Colorado General Assembly
H.R. 5764, AI for Main Street Act · Congress.gov
One conversation, no pitch
Which of these five actually applies to you?
Forty five minutes on your business and I will tell you which one is worth your attention this quarter and which three are not.
Book a free auditBen In Denver · Englewood, CO · The engine is running
