Preparing a moving quote with AI help

A quote has two halves. One half is numbers and decisions: your prices, your risks, your gut feel about the job. The other half is organisation and wording: a clear layout, a list of what's included, plain terms. AI tools can help with the second half. The first half is yours.

Keep prices out of the tool's hands

What goes into the price depends on your business. For long-distance moves in the United States and Canada, factors include the weight of the items, the distance between the original and new location, and the speed of the move.¹ Elsewhere the basis differs: Wikipedia says that in the UK and Australia, volume is what counts, not weight.¹

A writing tool doesn't know your rates, your crew sizes or your slow days. If you ask it for a price, it will produce one that sounds reasonable. That's the problem. Wikipedia describes hallucinations as responses that "seem syntactically sound, fluent, and natural but are factually incorrect".²

So work out the price yourself, in your own spreadsheet or quoting system. Give the tool the finished figures to place on the page.

What the tool can do well

• Lay out the quote. Job summary, addresses, date, inclusions, exclusions, price, payment terms, how to accept.
• Turn your notes into plain sentences. "Two-person crew, stairs at pickup, lift at delivery" becomes a readable paragraph.
• Spot gaps. Ask it: "What questions would a customer have after reading this?" Then decide which ones to answer.
• Match your tone. Paste in your usual wording and ask for a draft in that style.
• Make a checklist for the job sheet. Items to confirm before the quote goes out.

What you check on every quote

The Australian privacy regulator says plainly that AI can give false answers.³ Treat a quote draft like a stranger's work. Check:

• Names, addresses and dates match the enquiry.
• Every price and total is what you worked out. Add the lines up again yourself.
• Inclusions and exclusions match what you do. Packing, dismantling, storage, cleaning, disposal and stairs are common places for a mismatch.
• Anything about insurance or liability uses your own policy wording, not the tool's.
• Terms such as deposits, cancellation and payment are your actual terms.
• Nothing has been added that you didn't ask for.

If the draft includes wording about rights, guarantees or refunds, take it out unless a person who knows your local rules has approved it. Consumer and contract rules differ by country and state. Your national consumer regulator or small-business agency is the place to check.

Telling the customer what the quote depends on

Quotes go wrong when the job changes. Say plainly what the price assumes: the inventory, the access, the dates, the parking. Ask the tool to put these assumptions in a short list near the price. Then add the line you'd want if the job changed: what happens when there's more to move, or when access is harder.

Make that rule yourself. Don't accept a version the tool offers without reading it.

Customer details

A quote holds names, addresses and often phone numbers. Use placeholders such as "[Customer]" and "[Pickup address]" in the tool, then add the real details in your own document. The regulator in Australia advises against putting personal information into public generative AI tools.³ Check the equivalent for where you work.

Questions for a quoting tool

If a product claims to build quotes for you, ask:

• Which parts are calculated by fixed rules I set, and which parts are written by AI?
• Can I see how a price was worked out?
• Can I lock the price fields so the AI can't change them?
• Is there a record of what changed between versions?

A tool that can't separate your numbers from its wording is a risk for any business.

The earlier steps are covered in inventory lists, and the message that follows acceptance is in booking confirmations.