How Agentic AI Is Disrupting the Trades

Wyatt Smith, CEO of UpSmith, joins Amir to unpack how agentic AI is transforming the skilled trades industry. From dispatch optimization to human-in-the-loop workflows, Wyatt shares a practical and visionary lens on how AI can solve deep productivity challenges, empower call centers, and proactively generate business opportunities. If you think AI only disrupts digital industries, this episode will make you think again.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Agentic AI is unlocking productivity by automating repetitive coordination tasks—like technician dispatching—allowing humans to focus on higher-value interactions.

Skilled trades businesses already have rich data but need tools to surface and act on it proactively rather than reactively.

Selling AI into traditional industries requires proof points, tight business cases, and sensitivity to the human element.

AI augments, not replaces—freeing up people to do work they're best suited for, like nuanced customer engagement.

💬 Highlight Quote:

“Advances in technology automate tasks, not people… Machines do what they're best at so humans can do what they're best at.” – Wyatt Smith

⏱️ Timestamped Highlights:

00:38 – Intro to Wyatt Smith and UpSmith's mission in the skilled trades.

02:51 – Why dispatching the wrong tech to the wrong job is a billion-dollar coordination problem.

05:09 – The customer journey in home services—and where productivity breaks down.

08:54 – AI adoption challenges in the trades and how business owners evaluate new tech.

11:15 – Human-AI dynamics: skepticism, latency, and building trust with agentic systems.

13:49 – “AI creates more work”: how automation changes tasks, not headcount.

17:19 – How UpSmith trains agents like new hires with workflows and documentation.

20:31 – Personalization at scale: how agents remember details from 5 years ago.

23:20 – The future of call centers and human-in-the-loop automation.

25:49 – Wyatt’s contact info and closing reflections.