Where AI fits in a removalist's office work

Think of an AI writing tool as a fast assistant that has never seen your trucks, your rates or your customers. It's good with words. It knows nothing about your business unless you tell it, and it can't be trusted on facts.

That one idea sorts most of a removalist's office work into two piles.

Jobs that are mostly words

Moving admin is full of repeat messages. A customer asks for a quote, you reply. A booking is made, you confirm it. The week before, you remind them about parking and packing.

Writing tools can make a first draft of these. You supply the facts, the tool supplies the phrasing. Pages on this site go through each job:

• Replying to moving enquiries
• Booking confirmations and reminders
• Turning customer notes into an inventory list
• Preparing a quote with AI help
• AI phone answering

Jobs that stay with people

Some work can't be handed over, however good the tool looks in a demo.

Prices. Moving costs depend on things only you know. In the United States and Canada, long-distance prices are generally set by factors such as the weight of the items, distance, speed and timing.¹ Over in the United Kingdom and Australia, volume sets the price, not weight.¹ A tool doesn't know your truck sizes, crew rates or fuel costs.

Judgement calls. Can the truck reach that driveway? Is that piano a two-person job? Will the lift book out? A photo can hint at these, but you decide.

Promises. Any date, time window or price in a message is a promise from your business. Check it before it goes out.

Why checking matters

Tools that write text can sound sure of themselves while being wrong. Wikipedia says language models have been seen to "confidently assert claims of fact which do not seem to be justified".² Australia's privacy regulator agrees. Its guidance on AI products says false results are a known problem.³

For a moving company, a wrong answer could be a wrong arrival time, a wrong inclusion, or a promise to move something you don't carry.

Customer details

Quotes and bookings hold names, addresses and phone numbers. That's personal information.

The Australian regulator suggests keeping personal information, and above all sensitive information, out of public generative AI tools.³ That advice comes from Australia. If you work in the UK, the US or elsewhere, look up your own regulator's pages. Nothing here is legal advice.

A practical habit: leave out what the draft doesn't need. A reply can often be drafted with "the customer" and a suburb, then the name added by hand.

Questions to ask before paying

• What happens to the messages and photos I enter? Are they kept, and for how long?
• Can I turn off any use of my data for training?
• Where is the data stored?
• Can I see and edit every message before it's sent?
• What does it cost today, and how do I cancel? Prices change, so note the day you looked.
• Can I export my templates if I leave?

If a maker can't answer these in writing, keep customer details away from the tool.

A sensible way to start

Take one repeat message, such as the booking confirmation. Draft it with a tool and fix it by hand. Keep the fixed version as your own template. After that, ask whether the tool still adds anything.