Fergus, a job management platform used by more than 26,000 tradespeople across Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, launched an AI-first approach to its software on September 13, 2026. The shift moves the Sydney-based company beyond simply digitizing paperwork to actively helping trade businesses complete work faster and get paid sooner.
For years, trade software has moved administrative tasks from paper to screen without eliminating the work itself. Tradespeople still capture site details, build quotes, update job statuses, track costs, create invoices, and chase payments. Fergus is embedding AI directly into its existing platform to handle these tasks, not by adding a separate tool, but by working inside the system tradespeople already use.
How AI fits into the daily workflow
The company is rolling out AI across three main touchpoints. Fergus Assistant sits inside the existing web product for owners and office teams managing jobs, schedules, quotes, invoices, and reporting. A mobile version lets tradespeople on site type or speak updates from their phone, capturing what happened while leaving a job and flowing that information directly into quotes or invoices. A new experience called Fergus AI works alongside business owners to handle admin from first enquiry through final invoice.
"We've spent 15 years learning how trade businesses actually work. We know where the admin piles up, where time gets lost and, importantly, where that slows down getting paid," said Mark Bartels, CEO of Fergus. "A tradie can use their voice on site to capture what happened, turn that into a quote or invoice, or ask Fergus why a job is losing money."
Context without extra integration
Fergus's approach relies on combining AI with 15 years of trade-specific knowledge and the operational data already running through a business. The platform already knows the customer, site, job, costs, quote, and invoice. There is no separate system to integrate, no data to migrate, and no prompting expertise required. This allows the software to move past answering simple questions and start executing work.
Business owners can ask questions like "Why is this job losing money?" or "Which jobs made us the most money last month?" and receive answers grounded in their actual job and financial data. They can describe a report they need and Fergus builds it in seconds. For owners, this shifts the software from a passive record-keeper to an active participant in AI for Management and daily decision-making.
Tom Ryan, owner of Rydalmere-based Rylec Automation, described the impact on his business. "I just ask and it's done, whether that's jobs, invoices or reports. It's saving us hours every week and letting us cut down on clicks and paperwork," Ryan said.
Real-time insight replaces after-the-fact reporting
Fergus Assistant and Fergus Go are available now to customers across all three markets. Fergus AI begins rolling out next week. The underlying goal, Bartels said, is straightforward: "Tradespeople should spend less time operating software and more time running profitable businesses."
Rather than bolting a chatbot onto existing menus, Fergus is weaving AI Agents & Automation into the sequence of work itself. Voice capture on site becomes a quote. A spoken question about margin becomes an invoice review. The context that makes this possible already lives inside the platform, accumulated across a decade and a half of trade business data.
Why this matters for management
For managers and business owners, the Fergus launch signals a practical shift in how vertical SaaS tools deliver value. Instead of requiring staff to learn new interfaces or toggle between systems, the AI operates on data the business already generates. That means faster invoicing cycles, tighter margin visibility, and fewer hours lost to administrative catch-up. The takeaway is not about AI for its own sake - it is about software that reduces the time between completing work and converting it into cash.
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