ServiceTitan survey finds 62% of commercial service contractors have tried AI and 15% of users report clear ROI

What it does

62% have tried AI, and 33% use it across the business

The report covers the service side of MEP work, meaning maintenance agreements and repair calls. ServiceTitan sells field service and construction software and now describes its product as an agentic operating system for the trades, so the sponsor has a stake in the AI answers. (An agentic system is software that carries out a chain of steps by itself, for example booking a technician and then sending the invoice when the job closes.)

The full report sits behind a download form. This post works from the press release and the report's landing page, which carry the headline figures.

Watch the bases. The first three rows cover all 1,020 respondents. The last two cover only "contractors using AI," and ServiceTitan does not say how many respondents that is.

These figures are most useful to a service manager choosing where to pilot a dispatch tool, or to a CFO weighing a software budget against cash flow. Respondents picked scheduling and dispatch (37%) and predictive maintenance (31%) as the areas where they expect AI to have the greatest impact. The release also names estimating, remote diagnostics and customer inquiries, without shares.

Evidence so far

The 15% covers somewhere between 5% and 9% of the full sample

The 15% figure depends on a base the release leaves open. There are two readings:

1. 1

   If "contractors using AI" means the 33% who are actively using it or have embedded it, about 337 respondents, then 15% of them is about 5% of the full sample.

   5%
2. 2

   If it means the 62% who have piloted or deployed it, about 632 respondents, then 15% is about 9% of the full sample.

   9%

Under either reading, fewer than one respondent in ten reported a clear return. The landing page does not restate the base.

“Only 15% can point to a clear, proven return on investment so far.”

ServiceTitan, report landing page

Against 2025

AI as a top technology priority rose from 15% to 33% in a year

The year-over-year comparisons come from ServiceTitan's annual survey of commercial service contractors, which drew on the same kind of MEP-heavy sample in May 2025. The 2026 release reports three of them.

Cash flow

40% now rank cash flow among their top three goals, up from 28%

So, on cash flow, 40% of respondents now rank improving cash flow among their top three business goals, up from 28% in 2025. Increasing net profit margins ranks first at 42%, and acquiring new customers trails at 29%.

82% invoice within three days, and 96% wait at least 15 days to be paid

The billing questions measure the time from finishing work to getting paid. Eighty-two percent send invoices within three days of completing work, yet 96% wait at least 15 days to be paid and 30% wait more than 30 days. The 2025 release reported averages instead, two days to invoice and 28 days to get paid, so the two years cannot be lined up question by question.

In the field

69% name warranty and agreement details as a top obstacle for technicians

The field questions describe records that are missing at the job. Sixty-nine percent cite warranty coverage and agreement details as a top obstacle for technicians. The 2025 release put the lack of fast access to warranty and service agreement data at 70%, parts availability at 57% and retrieving service and repair history on site at 55%. The 2026 release names parts and service histories as challenges and gives no shares for them.

A second survey

ServiceTitan's March survey put measurable AI impact at 38%, up from 17%

ServiceTitan ran a separate survey this year of more than 1,000 commercial construction leaders at commercial building firms, released March 30, 2026. It reported that 38% of contractors saw measurable business impact from AI, up from 17% in 2025, with cost estimation and budgeting (24%) and bid management (22%) as the leading uses. Only 20% ran on a single platform. The samples differ, so the March figures describe a different population from the September ones.