Most field service software is very good at storing what happened and very bad at giving it back. The history is in there — the work order, the photographs, the model and serial off the unit, the note dictated in a driveway — but getting to it means knowing which screen and which filter. Ask ProTech is the other way round: you ask, and it reads.
The question everybody actually asks
Every service company has the same conversation several times a week. A customer rings, and somebody in the office has to work out what happened at that address the last time anyone went. What was done, who did it, what is installed there, and is it the same fault as before.
The information is nearly always there. It is in a work order from eight months ago, in a photograph nobody has looked at since, in a note a technician dictated from a driveway. Finding it means knowing where to look, and the person on the phone usually doesn’t.
So ask instead
Ask ProTech takes the question in the words you would use on the phone. Not a search box, not a filter, not a date range — a question.
“What did we do at the Miller house last time?”
“What unit is installed there?”
“What’s the serial number on that condenser?”
“Which jobs did we do on Mill Lane this year?”
“Who was on site at the church job?”
“How many hours did the crew put in yesterday?”
It answers from the jobs your own company recorded, and it shows you the work orders it drew the answer from, so you can open the one you actually wanted.
What it reads
Ask ProTech is given your recent work orders — the customer, the address, the date, the job type, the photographs taken and the notes dictated on site. It is given your route stops, so a question about a customer finds the visits as well as the paperwork. And it is given the equipment recorded at each address: brand, type, model number, serial number and install date.
That last one is why a serial number is answerable at all. The model and serial are captured at the unit by whoever was standing in front of it, against the customer’s address — so the question can be asked years later by somebody who has never been to the property.
It respects who is asking
Estimates and invoices are handed to Ask only when the person asking is an owner or an office user. A technician can ask what was done at an address, what is installed there and what the notes said, and will not be given a total, a rate or a markup — because Ask follows the same permission rule as every money screen in the app.
It is worth saying plainly: an AI assistant that quietly ignored your permissions would be a liability, not a feature. This one does not become a side door around them.
Typed or spoken
Tap the microphone and say the question, or type it. It is the same dictation technicians use for service notes, which is the point — a question asked from a truck should not require two hands.
What Ask ProTech isn’t
It is not a general-purpose chatbot and it will not answer questions about the world. It does not diagnose equipment, quote a price or write your estimate for you. It cannot see another company’s data, and if the work was never recorded in ProTechCam it will not have an answer — there is nothing to read. It is a way of asking your own records a question, which is a smaller promise than the industry usually makes and one we can actually keep.
Common questions
Can field service software search old work orders with AI?
That is what Ask ProTech does. It reads your company's own work orders, route stops and equipment records and answers a question put in plain words — for example "what did we do at 14 Mill Lane last time" — instead of making somebody filter a list.
Does it make things up?
It answers from your records only. If the work is not in ProTechCam it will not have an answer, and it does not have access to any other company's data. It is a way of reading your own history, not a general chatbot.
Can a technician use it to see money?
No, and this is deliberate. Estimates and invoices are only given to Ask when the person asking is an owner or office user. A technician asking about a job gets the work, the equipment and the history, and never a total, a rate or a markup — the same rule every money screen in the app follows.
What can it actually answer about?
Work orders, route stops, the customer and address they belong to, job notes, photo counts, and equipment recorded at a property including brand, model and serial number. Owners and office users also get estimates and invoices, and hours worked.
Do I have to type the question?
You can, or you can tap the microphone and say it. The same dictation the technicians use for service notes works here.
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