Appreciation post: My buddy in Austin mentioned his AI tool can now predict material costs from a photo...

He showed me a picture of a deck he took, and the app gave him a lumber estimate within 5% of his manual quote, which got me thinking about how much these small, practical AI helpers are changing the groundwork for jobs like mine without making a big fuss about it.

3 comments

3 Comments

jakewhite3mo ago

Know exactly what you mean. That deck example hits home. I just used a free site that does the same for drywall from a room pic. Saved me an hour of measuring last week. These quiet tools are becoming part of the daily workflow without anyone really noticing.

ruby_grant3mo ago

Quiet tools" - are they actually saving money or just time?

kim.wren19d ago

@ruby_grant how do you define "saving money" in this context - does saving an hour of measuring count as saving money for you or not?