Chip
Chippie's AI assistant
G'day, I'm Chip, Chippie's AI assistant. Ask me anything about Chippie.
AI tools for tradies come in three shapes in 2026. Quoting apps turn a voice note or photo into a draft quote. AI phone receptionists answer calls while you're on the tools. AI admin tools do the paperwork you'd otherwise do at the kitchen table, reading your records and drafting the invoice. This page covers every tool we could verify doing that work for AU and NZ trades, what each actually does, what it costs, and the honest caveats. Start with the section below, though: the big platforms shipped their own AI through 2025 and 2026, so the first question is whether you already pay for what these apps sell. One disclosure up front: this page is published by Chippie, a job management platform that appears as a disclosed entry near the end, and we've labelled every vendor-reported claim as exactly that.
Most of the apps further down are new and small. The platforms below are not, and through 2025 and 2026 they shipped the same jobs the new apps sell: voice-to-job-notes, call answering, quote drafting, bill capture. Check this list before you pay for anything new. The catch is that most of it is a paid upgrade rather than a free feature drop.
What it does: the Australian platform (Darwin-based) lists an AI Writing Helper, AI Quote & Invoice and an AI Smart Assistant across its plans. Separately it sells an AI Phone Agent, a first-party voice receptionist that answers calls, handles common questions, texts callers a booking link, filters spam and hands you transcripts and summaries.
The caveats: the Phone Agent is an add-on tier on top of an add-on. It requires the Connect Plus ($49/mo) or Unlimited ($199/mo) tier of the separate ServiceM8 Phone product, so it is not included in a ServiceM8 subscription. It was announced with ServiceM8 14 in September 2025 on a phased rollout. Call-handling quality is vendor-described; we found no independent testing.
What it does: SmartTools is Tradify's AI set. SmartRead photographs a supplier bill or reads a PDF and extracts the vendor, line items and totals into a bill ready for review, killing the manual entry. SmartWrite drafts and tidies job and line-item descriptions and lets you set the tone.
The caveats: SmartTools sits on the Plus plan, so if AI-assisted quoting or bill capture is why you're looking at Tradify, that's the tier that delivers it. It is writing and data-entry help, not a tool that prices a job for you.
What it does: Simpro Group launched Lightning on 13 May 2026 across Simpro, AroFlo and BigChange, with four AI agents live on day one. Two matter most to a working crew: JobScribe captures the job in the technician's own voice, and JobBrief writes the post-job customer summary automatically. AroFlo Lightning is the AU and NZ badge.
The caveats: this is a paid platform upgrade, not a free release. It is priced as an uplift on your existing contract: 15% during a launch window that closed 31 May 2026, and 25% after it. Simpro's time-saving and first-time-fix figures are vendor-reported with no independent verification, and the wider feature wave rolls out progressively, so check what your own account actually has.
What it does: most tradies already pay for Xero, and JAX (Just Ask Xero) is its conversational assistant. Xero states JAX chat is available to all subscribers and users with no setup needed, answering questions against your own Xero data within your user permissions.
The caveats: Xero says there is "currently no additional charge" for JAX chat and explicitly reserves the right to change that, so treat free as today's price rather than a promise. The agentic version that completes tasks for you is a separate beta, so be sceptical of any claim that JAX does your invoicing today.
Why this section is first: the capabilities the newer apps sell as their whole product (voice notes, call answering, quote drafting) now ship inside platforms many tradies already subscribe to. That does not automatically make the point tools redundant, since a single-purpose tool can do one job better than a bundled agent, and no independent capability comparison exists either way. It does mean the honest question in 2026 is not "which AI app" but "is a point tool worth more than the AI already in, or newly upsold by, the platform I pay for".
Single-feature tools that turn a voice note, photo, or typed description into a draft quote. Fast for drafting; none of them runs the rest of your business.
What it does: photo or job description in, generated quote out in about 60 seconds. Trade-agnostic, not region-specific. There is a free tier and a paid Starter plan.
The caveats: the site's "2,847+ tradies" figure is vendor-reported; we found no independent review listing (Capterra, G2, Trustpilot) to corroborate it. It also contradicts itself on price: the homepage's own return-on-investment copy says $39 a month while the pricing block on the same page lists the Starter plan at $29 AUD a month. Confirm what you'll actually be charged before you subscribe. Quoting only, so pair it with something that handles the job after the quote.
What it does: Australian-built quoting app promising a quote in about a minute, with an AI assistant, automatic follow-up, and instant invoicing. 7-day free trial.
The caveats: small-scale and vendor-sourced claims only; no independent review presence found. The AU focus is its strongest point in this group.
What it does: speak or type a job description and it generates a quote and PDF proposal. Australian-focused, on the App Store, 7-day free trial. This is the one entry on the page whose company we could independently confirm: the App Store seller is Ubuilda Pty Ltd, and the Commonwealth ABN register lists it as an active Victorian company, GST-registered, trading as SAMMY AI.
The caveats: estimating only, not job management. It ships fast (eleven releases between May and July 2026), but that's activity, not traction: the AU App Store listing showed 5.0 from just 7 ratings as at August 2026, and there is no Capterra, G2 or Trustpilot profile. Price is the real consideration. At $99.99 AUD a month per seat on iOS ($949.99 a year, which works out cheaper), a single-purpose quoting tool costs more than the entry tier of a full job management platform. The voice-first flow is the draw if you hate typing on site.
What it does: voice, text, or photo in, quote PDF out. "Built by a tradie," NZ and Australia focused. This is the one at instaquoteapp.info.
The caveats: it discloses no company anywhere on the site, publishes no pricing, and routes you to a quiz or a contact form instead, so you cannot find out what it costs without giving up your details. Don't confuse it with Insta Quotes below, which is a different and more transparent product with a near-identical name. We previously credited this entry with a Trustpilot listing as an independent-review signal; we've withdrawn that, because a Trustpilot page can exist with no reviews on it and the site itself doesn't cite one.
What it does: the more transparent of the two similarly named quoting tools, at instaquotes.com.au, with an NZ mirror. It's a product of Edos Solutions Pty Ltd, a Sydney company registered since 2005, and it publishes AUD pricing openly: $29 a month for 30 quotes and 1 user, $59 for 60 quotes and 2 users, $99 unlimited for up to 5 users, on a trial of 7 days or 7 quotes, whichever runs out first, with no credit card.
The caveats: the quote caps are hard and unused allowance doesn't roll over, so pick the tier on your real monthly volume. Edos describes it as built with AI-assisted development and launched around May 2026, so it's a side product of an established company rather than a proven one in its own right: we found no Capterra, G2, Trustpilot or app store listing. Neither this site nor instaquoteapp.info references the other, and we could not establish whether they're related.
What it does: the most internationally scaled AI quoting tool in this group; the vendor claims coverage of 25+ trades across 26 countries with region-aware pricing and multi-language quotes, from $16.58 USD a month. Live Capterra listing.
The caveats: global positioning, priced in US dollars, and we found no evidence of AU GST or UK/EU VAT-specific handling. Quoting only.
The missed-call problem is real: if you're on the tools, you can't answer the phone, and the caller rings the next tradie. Five options are worth knowing, listed cheapest first, because the trade-branded ones are the expensive end of this category and that is not obvious from their marketing.
What it does: ServiceM8's own AI receptionist, and the cheapest route in if you already run ServiceM8. It answers calls, handles common questions, texts callers a booking link, submits bookings on their behalf, transfers to the right person, filters spam, and hands you transcripts and summaries. It sits inside the $49 a month Connect Plus tier of the ServiceM8 Phone add-on.
The caveats: useless unless you run ServiceM8, and it's an add-on tier on top of an add-on rather than part of a ServiceM8 subscription. Announced with ServiceM8 14 in September 2025 on a phased rollout, so check it's live on your account. Capabilities are vendor-documented; we found no independent testing of call quality.
What it does: an Australian self-serve AI answering service, from about $99 a month for unlimited minutes, with a higher tier around $199 adding extra AI training, bookings and call transfers.
The caveats: general small-business software, not trade-specific, so it won't arrive understanding your job types or your trade's language without you training it. Self-serve means you configure it yourself. Included here because it is roughly a third the reported cost of the trade-branded options and a tradie comparing prices should know it exists.
What it does: an Australian managed AI receptionist service from about $149 a month plus setup, with plans running up past $1,000 a month for heavier use. Setup is quoted from around $990 and includes onboarding, call-flow design and ongoing tuning, month to month with 30 days notice.
The caveats: also not trade-specific. The managed model is the difference from Hey Jodie: someone else designs and tunes the call flow, which is worth more if you don't want to configure anything, and less if you do. Setup cost is real money on top of the monthly.
What it does: the most heavily marketed Australian AI receptionist aimed at trades; answers your calls, books jobs, and captures leads.
The caveats: we've stopped calling this the most established option, because the evidence doesn't support it. Sophiie does not publish pricing (its pricing page returns a 404) and we found no Capterra, G2 or Trustpilot presence, so the widely quoted figure of around $300 a month plus roughly $800 setup is secondary-sourced, not vendor-published. Named testimonials on its own site are the only user evidence we could find. That reported price is around three times Hey Jodie's, so the trade-specific fit needs to be worth the difference. Call handling only; it doesn't quote or invoice.
What it does: AI phone receptionist for tradies; call answering and admin capture, in the same category as Sophiie. Pricing is on its site.
The caveats: newer and less established than Sophiie, and we could not verify a price to put in the table below. Same category limits apply. Not a quote-to-invoice tool.
Same five tools as above, on price.
| Option | Published price | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 Phone Agent | Inside the $49/mo Connect Plus tier of the ServiceM8 Phone add-on | First-party, only useful if you run ServiceM8 |
| Hey Jodie | From $99/mo, unlimited minutes | Self-serve, not trade-specific |
| Valory AI | From $149/mo plus setup | Managed service with call-flow design, not trade-specific |
| Sophiie AI | Not published; reported around $300/mo plus ~$800 setup | Trade-branded |
| Tradie Pal | On its site; we could not verify a figure | Trade-branded |
Prices are vendor-published and were checked on 11 August 2026, except Sophiie's, which is secondary-sourced because Sophiie publishes none. AUD. We have not tested call-handling quality on any of these and found no independent testing of any of them, so treat this as a price comparison only, not a quality ranking. Being trade-branded is worth something if it means the agent understands your jobs, but it is worth checking whether you are paying two to three times a general option for that.
AI admin tools for tradies are the ones aimed at the paperwork rather than the quote or the phone: reading your own records back to you, drafting the invoice, and filing the note you never got around to writing. This is the category trying to take a bite out of the evening admin. Two standalone tools are worth knowing, and they work in opposite directions. Note that the incumbents are moving into exactly this space too: Tradify's SmartRead does bill capture and Simpro and AroFlo's JobScribe turns a technician's voice into job notes, both covered in the first section.
What it does: the inverse of a receptionist, and the most genuinely novel tool on this list: you ring it and say what you need ("send the invoice for the Smith job," "book Dave in Thursday") and it actions that in Fergus, ServiceM8, Xero, QuickBooks, Google Workspace, or Apple Calendar. $80 AUD a month for about 3 hours of voice time, 30-day trial. Tradify and MYOB integrations are on its roadmap.
The caveats: it's a voice layer on top of your existing tools, so its value depends entirely on which platforms it can reach; check the integration list against what you run.
What it does: we publish this page, so treat this as the disclosed entry rather than a review. Chip AI sits inside Chippie and reads your own jobs, clients, quotes, invoices, calendar and revenue, answers questions about them, rewrites a description you wrote, and drafts a quote or invoice. Three limits ship with it and they matter more than the capability: it never invents a price, so the amount comes from you; every write waits for you to tap approve; and it can only do what's on its tool list. It's on the free plan.
The caveats: that limit list is the honest reason Chip AI is less exciting than most of this page. It doesn't price your jobs, it doesn't chase invoices on its own, and it doesn't answer your phone. If what you want is a tool that quotes without you, Wired and the quoting apps above are closer to that than we are.
Not AI wrappers, but they turn up in the same conversations: purpose-built tools for specific trades or business shapes.
What it does: residential construction and renovation project management, founder-built by a two-person team with 35 years of construction experience: scheduling, site diary, subbie management, compliance docs, and a client portal. Live on iOS and Android.
The caveats: project-management-first, not quote-to-invoice-first. Best fit is builders and renovators running multi-week projects, not service tradies running many small jobs.
What it does: Melbourne-based all-in-one small business app: invoicing, quotes, CRM, bookings, accounting, and marketing, with GST, ABN, and BAS built in. Free to start, native iOS app. It also sells an AI voice receptionist as an add-on, which the vendor prices at $79 a month on top of a $25 a month AI Companion, so about $104 a month before the plan itself.
The caveats: general small-business software that targets tradies as one of several verticals, not a purpose-built trade tool, and its scale claims are vendor-sourced only; no independent review listing found on Capterra, G2, Trustpilot or the app stores. Every capability of the AI receptionist is vendor-asserted, and the sample call transcripts on its own site are labelled as illustrative rather than real.
What it does: two unrelated electrician-focused products share this name. TradeDocs NZ is full electrician job management with NZ EWRB-compliant Certificate of Compliance templates. TradeDocs UK is narrower and more novel: photograph a consumer unit or boiler data plate and its AI vision extracts the circuit data, cross-references BS 7671 and Gas Safe requirements, and issues a QR-verified PDF certificate, pay as you go with no subscription.
The caveats: electrician-only, and make sure you're reading about the right one; the NZ and UK products are different companies.
What it does: full disclosure: this page is published by Chippie, so we're the last entry and you should read it accordingly. Chippie is quote-to-invoice job management for crews of 1 to 10: quotes, scheduling, invoicing, and payments in one app on Android and iPhone, with voice dictation for hands-free notes and Chip AI for the admin side, which never invents a price, waits for your approval tap before any write, and only does what's on its tool list (the AI admin section above has the detail). Free plan of 20 jobs a month for 1 user; Pro is $25 AUD a month including 2 users, Team is $45 for 4.
The caveats: Chippie is a job-management platform with a deliberately narrow AI inside it, not an AI point tool; it's the layer the tools above sit alongside. If you want the enterprise depth of an AroFlo or Ascora, we're not that either; see the full comparison.
First published 5 July 2026 and re-verified 11 August 2026 from vendor sites and, where they exist, independent listings (the Commonwealth ABN register, Capterra, Trustpilot, app stores). The August pass added the established-platform section, gave the wider AI receptionist field (ServiceM8 Phone Agent, Hey Jodie, Valory AI) proper entries rather than a passing mention, separated Insta Quotes from the similarly named Insta Quote AI, corrected the Sophiie AI entry, and flagged QuoteMatey's price contradiction. Where a user count, price or capability comes only from the vendor, we've said so. Prices change; check each vendor's site for current figures.
Four things reliably: draft quotes from a voice note, photo, or job description (QuoteMatey, QuoteMe, Sammy AI, Insta Quote AI, PlanUpPro); answer your phone and capture leads while you're on the tools (Sophiie AI, Tradie Pal, and ServiceM8's own Phone Agent); action admin by voice, like sending invoices, writing up job notes or booking jobs (Wired, Tradify's SmartTools, Simpro and AroFlo's JobScribe); and generate compliance certificates from photos (TradeDocs UK). The important shift in 2026 is that the second and third of those now ship inside the big platforms as well as from standalone apps, so check what you already pay for first. None of the standalone apps runs your whole business; they're point tools that sit alongside job management software.
Increasingly yes, and it's the first thing to check before paying for anything new. ServiceM8 lists an AI Writing Helper, AI Quote & Invoice and an AI Smart Assistant across its plans, and sells an AI Phone Agent that answers calls, though that one needs the $49 a month Connect Plus tier of its separate Phone add-on. Tradify's SmartTools captures supplier bills from a photo (SmartRead) and drafts job and line-item descriptions (SmartWrite) on the Plus plan. Simpro and AroFlo launched Lightning on 13 May 2026: its JobScribe turns a technician's voice into job notes and its JobBrief writes the post-job customer summary, priced as an uplift on your existing contract (15% during a window that closed 31 May 2026, 25% after). Xero says its JAX chat assistant is available to all subscribers at currently no additional charge. Most of this is a paid upgrade rather than a free feature drop, but it is often cheaper than buying a separate AI app.
They're genuinely fast at producing a draft quote from a voice note or photo, which beats typing on a ute tailgate. The honest caveats: they're single-feature tools, so the quote still has to land somewhere for scheduling, invoicing, and payment; most are young products whose user numbers are vendor-reported rather than independently reviewed; and a generated quote still needs your pricing judgement before it goes out. Price is the one that catches people out: Sammy AI is $99.99 AUD a month per seat, which is more than the entry tier of a full job management platform. Most offer 7-day trials, so the cost of finding out is low.
It depends whether you want trade-branded or cheap, and the two don't overlap. Sophiie AI is the most heavily marketed trade-specific option, but it publishes no pricing (its pricing page returns a 404) and we found no Capterra, G2 or Trustpilot presence, so the widely quoted figure of around $300 a month plus roughly $800 setup is secondary-sourced rather than vendor-published. Tradie Pal is a newer trade-branded alternative. Price those against the field: if you already run ServiceM8, its own AI Phone Agent sits inside the $49 a month Connect Plus tier of the ServiceM8 Phone add-on; outside the trades, Hey Jodie starts around $99 a month with unlimited minutes and Valory AI from $149 a month plus setup. We found no independent testing of call-handling quality for any of them, so treat that as a price comparison, not a quality ranking. Wired is a different shape worth knowing about: instead of answering inbound calls, you ring it and tell it what to do (send an invoice, book a job, chase a payment) and it actions that in Fergus, ServiceM8, Xero, QuickBooks, Google Workspace, or Apple Calendar, at $80 AUD a month with a 30-day trial.
No. Every AI tool on this list is a point solution: it quotes, or answers the phone, or files a compliance certificate. The quote-to-invoice backbone (clients, jobs, scheduling, invoicing, payments) still needs a job management platform underneath, whether that's Chippie, Tradify, ServiceM8, Fergus, or another. Wired makes this explicit: it's a voice layer that works on top of Fergus, ServiceM8, and Xero rather than replacing them.
It ranges widely, and the standalone AI apps are not the cheap option. Buying separately: Sammy AI is $99.99 AUD a month per seat, Insta Quotes runs $29 to $99 AUD a month depending on how many quotes you need, Wired is $80 AUD a month for about 3 hours of voice time, OneBookPlus's AI receptionist works out around $104 a month before the plan, Sophiie AI is reported around $300 a month plus setup, and PlanUpPro starts at $16.58 USD a month. Inside software you may already pay for: Xero's JAX chat is currently no additional charge, Tradify's SmartTools needs the Plus plan, ServiceM8's AI Phone Agent needs a $49 a month add-on tier, and Simpro and AroFlo's Lightning is a 25% uplift on your existing contract. For scale, ServiceM8's entry Starter plan is $29 AUD a month including GST for an entire job management platform. Check the current price on each vendor's site; these were checked 11 August 2026.
Two are worth knowing, and they work in opposite directions. Wired is a voice layer you ring to action admin in tools you already run (Fergus, ServiceM8, Xero, QuickBooks, Google Workspace, Apple Calendar), at $80 AUD a month for about 3 hours of voice time. Chip AI is built into Chippie and reads your own jobs, clients, quotes, invoices, calendar and revenue, drafts quotes and invoices, and rewrites descriptions you wrote, with three limits: it never invents a price, every write waits for a human tap, and it can only do what's on its tool list. Chippie publishes this page, so weigh that second one accordingly. Neither does your BAS or prices a job for you.
Chippie is a quote-to-invoice job management platform for crews of 1 to 10, with Chip AI built in. Chip AI reads your jobs, clients, quotes, invoices, calendar and revenue, answers questions about them, rewrites a description you wrote, and drafts a quote or invoice. Its limits ship with it: it never invents a price, every write waits for you to tap approve, and it can only do what's on its tool list. It does not price your jobs, chase invoices on its own, or answer your phone. This page is published by Chippie, so read our entry knowing that. Free plan is 20 jobs a month for 1 user, and Pro is $25 AUD a month including 2 users.
Chippie handles quote, schedule, invoice, get paid. Free plan: 20 jobs a month, forever.
Start freeAll product names on this page are trademarks of their respective owners; Chippie is not affiliated with any of them. This roundup is published by Chippie and includes Chippie as a disclosed entry.
G'day, I'm Chip, Chippie's AI assistant. Ask me anything about Chippie.