How AI Is Changing How Customers Find Landscape Companies
00:00
Jack Jostes
Just how much has AI changed how homeowners and commercial property managers find landscape companies? In today's episode of the Landscaper's Guide, I'm going to answer that question based on what I'm seeing right now in February of 2026. Even though it feels like a constantly moving target. Today I'm going to share a clip from my recent keynote at the Rain Bird select contractor conference in Mexico. In this clip, I tell the story of how I used AI during a major home renovation project, including how I found a remodeling company, how I compared proposals with AI, how I evaluated options, and what that experience revealed about how your customers are searching today. Watch till the end to see where I share how landscape companies should focus their marketing in 2026. If you want to continue getting found by high value customers, let's dive in.
The Christmas Dishwasher Disaster
00:56
Jack Jostes
Last Christmas, a couple days before Christmas, this is what Christmas looked like at our house. We had leaking in our house and at first I went to my son and I'm like, what? What did you do? Why is there so much water in the floor? He's like, dad, I didn't do anything. So went down in the crawl space and there was water leaking down from the ceiling and I crawled under and I started knocking on the floor. My wife stopped and she's like, yeah, that's the dishwasher. I'm like, oh no. So I turned the water off and unfortunately I got to hire one of my other clients, which is a home restoration company. And I've done SEO about water restoration, water damage, repair, water. All, all the things were happening to my home and then we found asbestos. They found asbestos.
Two Asbestos Quotes That Were 100 Percent Apart
01:42
Jack Jostes
And they're like, well, you gotta work with an asbestos testing company and then an asbestos abatement company. And the insurance are like, you gotta get at least two quotes. And I'm like, I don't really need two quotes. They're like, no, you do. So I got two quotes and they were 100% apart in price. And I've never hired anybody for this. I hope I never do it again. It's really not a sexy thing to have done at your home. So I put the proposals in ChatGPT. I said ChatGPT. I got these two proposals. One of them is double the other one and it's like list of questions. So I emailed some of the questions to the. They were both referrals. I emailed the questions, I understood the questions. It wasn't some enormous AI thing. I'm like, these are good questions. They never replied.
Using ChatGPT To Compare Contractor Proposals
02:40
Jack Jostes
They just never replied to the questions. So I went with the company that costs less. And I'm sharing this story because homeowners are using AI to compare proposals, research plants and price out projects. They're getting information from it. So yes, relationships still matter. But in this situation, I kind of had equal relationships. They were both referrals, they had pretty good Google reviews, and they just never replied to those questions. And this is changing the way people buy. It's changing how they communicate. And when we're in this market where the dollar is worth 25% less than it was five years ago, people are more cautious about how they spend their money and they're going to spend more time researching online. So your digital presence becomes more important than to making the sale, to getting the lead, to closing.
Did ChatGPT Actually Eat Google’s Lunch?
03:37
Jack Jostes
Even a word of mouth referral is different than it was even a few years ago. So did ChatGPT eat Google's lunch? I used Gemini to create this Google's tool. I'm like, create a graphic of Gemini eating or chatgpt eating Google's lunch. And it did. It was pretty amazing. So there's a lot of fear marketing on LinkedIn. If you go on LinkedIn, it's like AI has taken over the world and it's going to replace you and you're going to be dead. If you don't become a robot tomorrow, we're like, oh no, it's going to kill me. So that's the fear. And, and I think it's largely fear because the reality is the people who post that kind of stuff never share any data. And the data shows that Google search is actually growing. Here is some information showing AI tool adopt.
What The Data Says About AI Vs Google Search
04:32
Jack Jostes
Now, in the purple are all the different AI tools combined. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, all those tools, Deepseek pulled in together and the blue is visits to Google, bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. And you see, it's kind of been unfazed. Google search actually grew during this period that AI tool adoption has increased. So they're both happening. And of all the searches between all of them, I mean, look at this. I mean, 94% of all the searches on the web are from Google. It's still the dominant one. Even when you include things like Bing, most people use Bing accidentally. They get the most Googled or the most Binged thing is Google people are like, how do I get out of here? So that's still true. It's still true today. And ChatGPT is used just a sliver of that.
Should Landscape Companies Panic About AI?
05:39
Jack Jostes
Is it relevant or am I going to help you show up how to get there? Could this change a year from now? Absolutely. But do we need to freak out and ditch our marketing strategy? No, we don't. But what has changed that's relevant to landscape companies? One of the big ones is AI overviews in Google. Here's a search results page for landscape design, Broadmoor, Colorado. We're going to geek out on this later, but check it out. This AI overview, that's new, that wasn't here a couple years ago, and the AI mode up at the top, that's new. People, people are clicking on that, they're using it. What you need to know is that these AI overviews mean fewer clicks to your website. So although Google is still king, how it works is very different.
AI Overviews And Fewer Clicks To Your Website
06:29
Jack Jostes
So if you've been doing SEO and pay per click for years, it's different. Search Engine Land shows that Google Organic and paid click through rate. So of the people searching, fewer of them are clicking than ever. Because a lot of those queries, they just answer the question right? In the AI overview and online estimates. This is very relevant to landscape companies and irrigation companies. This new online estimates. How many of you have filled this out? Personally, I'm just curious. No one's, no one's done it. It's new, but I'm going to demonstrate this later. I just recorded a bunch of stuff literally this week because so much is changing. So with all this change, where do we start? Hey, it's Jack Jostes, CEO of Ramblin Jackson, the Snowman Landscape Marketing Agency.
Where To Focus Your Marketing In 2026
07:20
Jack Jostes
We've worked with over 300 snow and landscape companies throughout the United States and we are constantly testing, measuring and refining what actually works to help contractors get found by great customers, build trust faster, and nurture prospects into high value jobs. If you're wondering where you should be focusing your marketing in 2026, especially with AI changing how people search, I'd love to help. Book a free 15 minute marketing brainstorm call at landscapersguide.com brainstorm. On that call, you'll get personalized feedback on your sales goals, your current marketing strategy, and whether your time, money and effort are aligned with how customers are actually searching and finding companies like yours today. You've been listening to the Landscapers Guide podcast. If this episode was helpful, subscribe on YouTube and visit landscapersguide.com podcast for weekly sales, marketing and leadership inspiration to grow your snow and landscape company.
08:26
Jack Jostes
I look forward to talking with you in the next episode like today's video and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get upcoming videos to help you grow your snow and landscape company. My name is Jack Jostes and check out my free resources in the show notes and click the next video to grow your business.