AI use cases in field service, with examples
The short answer
Follow one service visit from the booking to the invoice and there are four places AI now helps: before the technician leaves, on site, after the job, and in the office. The examples below come from the vendors' own pages.
- Kenner: troubleshooting from the unit's history, the report, parts and quotes. Our product.
- Aquant: troubleshooting guidance by voice, text and phone camera.
- Salesforce Agentforce for Field Service: a pre-work brief, troubleshooting and a post-work summary inside Salesforce.
- Oracle Fusion Field Service: a start-of-day brief that reserves parts, and draft work orders.
- ServiceNow Field Service Management: work orders from text and images, and forms filled from photos.
- Simpro Lightning: the job written up from the technician talking.
Before the technician leaves
The brief is the most common use. Salesforce drafts a pre-work brief. IFS gives a work briefing before the job. SAP sends each technician a daily briefing by email. Oracle's start-of-day brief also reserves the parts.
A brief saves reading, not thinking. It summarises what is already in the system, so it cannot tell the technician anything the records do not hold.
On site
This is where the products differ most. Aquant guides the technician by voice, text or the phone camera. Neuron7 answers inside the CRM or field service system. Kenner answers by message or phone call from the history of the unit in front of the technician.
Photos and voice are now normal inputs. ServiceNow creates work orders from text and images and fills forms from photos. Salesforce's assistant can read photos.
After the job
Almost every suite drafts the summary. The difference is the input. Simpro Lightning and Kenner write the job up from the technician speaking. Microsoft updates the work order from speech or text, in preview.
The report is also next year's answer. A summary that records what was found and what fixed it is what the troubleshooting tools later read.
In the office
Scheduling and dispatch optimisation sits in the suites. Analytics is split: Aquant reports on teams, assets and parts, and Kenner reports what breaks across units and which faults take longest to diagnose.
Parts and quotes are the newest use. Oracle reserves parts in its brief, and Kenner orders parts and prepares quotes through the CRM and ERP.
The tools side by side
| Tool | Type | Answers from | How technicians use it | Writes the job report | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenner | Assistant on a knowledge graph of your own systems | Your company's own knowledge base, which Kenner builds: units, past jobs, alarms, parts and manuals from all your systems, linked in a knowledge graph | A normal phone call, or WhatsApp, iMessage, Teams or RCS. No new app | Yes. From a voice note, written back to your FSM, ERP or CRM | Free while in beta, starting with a two-week pilot for 5 to 10 technicians. Prices after the beta are not published |
| Aquant | Specialist troubleshooting platform | Your manuals, service records and service history, plus expert knowledge Aquant captures | A voice call, SMS, web or an embedded view, with the phone camera for visual guidance. No app required | Yes. Documents the repair and updates the service record | Not published. A free trial sign-up is offered |
| Salesforce Agentforce for Field Service | Built into the field service suite | Your Salesforce data: service history, assets and knowledge base, with manuals, similar repairs and sensor data for troubleshooting | Inside the Salesforce Field Service mobile app, by chat or voice. It can read photos | Yes. Drafts the post-work summary and the pre-work brief in Salesforce | $125 per user per month, on top of Field Service licences pricing page |
| Oracle Fusion Field Service | Built into the field service suite | Your knowledge base articles and Oracle Field Service data such as activities, parts and inventory | The Oracle mobile app, with AI Field Assist in its chat and handoff to a person | Yes. Draft work orders and a start-of-day brief that reserves parts | Not on the product page. Oracle publishes a global price list |
| ServiceNow Field Service Management | Built into the field service suite | ServiceNow data: assets, service history, work history and job details | ServiceNow's mobile experience, with an AI chat and voice prompts | Yes. Summaries and notes, work orders from text and images, forms filled from photos | Not published. Two packages, by custom quote pricing page |
| Simpro Lightning | Built into the trade field service software | Your Simpro data: job history, site notes, parts needs and previous visits | Simpro mobile. A brief before the job and voice capture on site | Yes. Writes up the job from the technician talking, and sends the customer a summary | Custom. Announced as a percentage uplift on existing contracts |
Each tool has a full entry, with sources, in the main guide.
Questions and answers
Which use case should we start with?
The one tied to a number you already track. If technicians lose time on paperwork, start with the report. If second visits are the problem, start with troubleshooting.
Does AI do predictive maintenance in field service?
Some suites market it. The pages we checked for these twelve products describe briefs, guidance, summaries and scheduling, so we do not make claims about prediction here.
Checked against
- Kenner: getkenner.com
- Aquant: Aquant for field technicians, Aquant channels, Aquant conversational AI for field service
- Salesforce Agentforce for Field Service: Salesforce Field Service, Agentforce for Field Service pricing, Agentforce for Field Service announcement
- Oracle Fusion Field Service: Oracle Field Service, Oracle AI for customer experience
- ServiceNow Field Service Management: ServiceNow Field Service Management, ServiceNow FSM pricing, ServiceNow Otto
- Simpro Lightning: Simpro, Simpro Lightning announcement