The comparison
AI back office options for contractors, compared
Checked November 12, 2026, against the contractor criteria: per-job costing, estimate follow-up, change orders, multi-crew scheduling, approval control, availability.
| Option | What it is | Contractor fit | Availability & price shape | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deck 72 by Copp Oak (our pick, our product) | AI teammate suite: crew chief + Growth/Sales/Operations/Money/People/Business Builder, one shared memory, component-level job costing | Built around per-job margin, estimate chase and approval law for service/contracting shops | Pilot now; launch planned late Nov 2026; pricing at launch | Contractors who price by the job and want the office knowledge in-house | Pre-launch — unproven at scale; judge pilot outcomes, not promises |
| aibackoffice.io | Managed AI back-office service | Their team runs your processes; job costing depends on the process they build for you | Available now; ~$499–$1,999/mo | Contractors who need hands-off coverage this month | Process knowledge sits provider-side; define exit terms |
| Platforms: ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro, Buildertrend-class | Systems of record with AI features | Where jobs, schedules and invoices live; costing is there if your team feeds it | Available now; platform pricing | Every contractor, as the foundation under any option here | Software ≠ staff; the 9 p.m. office is still you |
| VA agencies / freelance office help | Remote humans, task-based | Good at defined tasks; costing discipline is yours to design and police | Available now; hourly | Overflow tasks with clear instructions | Continuity, training, and your evenings spent managing |
| Office manager (hire) | A person in your office | The benchmark — judgment, relationships, local knowledge | ~$3,500–$5,000/mo loaded | Shops big enough to keep one great hire busy and backed up | Hiring risk; single point of failure; you've been looking for months already |
The honest summary
Keep your platform. For the work itself: managed services are the buyable-today answer, a great hire is the proven one, and Deck 72 is the in-house AI crew — our product, in pilot, recommended here with its status on the label and its criteria on the table for you to grade it by at launch.