I came across a conversation with Ash Munshi — former CTO of Yahoo, multiple-time founder, and now CEO of Pepperdata, an AI optimization company serving two Fortune Five giants. This is a guy who has lived through every major technological wave since the 1980s. He has context, perspective, and the scars to back it up. So when he talks, I listen.
And what he said about AI stopped me.
He said something most people in tech won’t admit out loud:
AI doesn’t actually know how to learn — not the way humans do. It can process mountains of data, but it doesn’t learn from experience. It doesn’t learn from failure. It doesn’t learn from observing the world the way we do.
Not yet.
And in his view, the real power of AI isn’t in replacing humans —
it’s in amplifying them.
Munshi said, “If you can suddenly 10x the engineer, your velocity increases and you can contribute more positively.”
That line hit hard. Because if you swap out “engineer” with operator, dispatcher, driver, salesperson, or owner, the point doesn’t change at all. This is exactly where home service businesses — junk removal, dumpsters, demolition, moving — are heading whether we acknowledge it or not.
What This Means for Junk Removal Guys
When a man who helped build the modern internet says AI doesn’t truly “learn,” but still believes AI is the most important shift of our era, that tells me something. It tells me he’s pointing beyond technology.
He’s talking about
capability.
About
speed.
About humans who become exponentially more effective because they’re no longer carrying the full weight alone.
And that’s exactly why small home service operators have the most to gain. We work in an industry that rewards speed — fast decisions, fast communication, fast fulfillment, fast follow-up, fast customer experience. The companies that win aren’t always the biggest, they’re the ones who move the fastest.
AI gives small businesses the ability to beat bigger companies not by eliminating people, but by
multiplying them.
AI Doesn’t Need to Be Smarter Than You — It Just Needs to Lift the Weight
AI doesn’t have wisdom or street smarts or instincts. It has something far more predictable:
capacity. Endless, instant capacity.
It never gets tired. Never gets distracted. Never forgets. Never calls out sick. Never takes a lunch break.
You don’t use AI to think for you. You use it to
lift the load so you can think better.
The same way a skid steer doesn’t replace the operator — it replaces the operator breaking his back with a shovel. AI is the modern skid steer for your brain and your business. This isn’t automation pushing people out. This is augmentation pulling people up.
The Human-In-The-Loop Advantage
Munshi believes the real future is human-in-the-loop. And for home service businesses — where judgment, nuance, empathy, and trust matter — this is where the real money is.
Here’s how I see it:
AI drafts,
but I decide.
AI can generate a quote, estimate, follow-up message, or a route plan in seconds. But I’m still the one hitting send, approving the price, and making the call. That’s speed without losing control.
AI communicates,
but I close.
AI can respond instantly to inbound leads, gather details, answer questions, even filter out tire kickers. But when a homeowner is ready to book? That’s on me. Humans close deals. AI simply makes sure the opportunity doesn’t die before we get there.
AI handles everything that used to slow us down — the admin work, the follow-ups, the schedule gaps, the repetitive questions, the reminders, the customer nurturing. All the things we know we should do but never have time for. AI removes the excuse. It fills the cracks in your operation.
And AI magnifies the good employees while exposing the bad ones. A mediocre dispatcher stays mediocre with AI, while a strong dispatcher becomes unstoppable. A lazy salesperson stays lazy, but a hungry one becomes a machine. AI doesn’t fix people — it multiplies who they already are.
That’s what “10x the engineer” really means. It’s 10xing the human.
Small Operators Can Now Act Like Big Companies
I’ve lived through every major shift in this industry — Google Ads, LSAs, online reviews, mobile search, CRMs, call centers, automations, routing software. Every shift rewarded the operators who adapted fastest.
But AI is the biggest shift I’ve ever seen. And for the first time ever, the advantage goes back to the small operator.
AI doesn’t care if you have one truck or ten, one dispatcher or none, one owner doing everything or a full office staff. You can now respond like a 20-person team, follow up like a call center, schedule like a logistics department, market like an agency, and nurture customers like a Fortune 500 company.
This is capability.
This is leverage.
This is how small operators outrun competitors with deeper pockets but slower feet.
AI Is the New Speed Advantage
You don’t win by being perfect. You win by being faster. AI gives you that speed in every corner of the business — faster quotes, faster callbacks, faster scheduling, faster customer service, faster decisions, faster marketing execution.
Even a 10–20% increase in speed compounds. You convert more customers. Your operations tighten. Your customer experience levels up. Your reputation grows. Speed becomes part of your identity — something big companies can’t buy, no matter how much money they throw at the problem.
This Isn’t About Replacing People — It’s About Replacing Excuses
For years I’ve heard owners say things like, “We’re too busy to follow up,” or “I can’t afford an office person,” or “I’m out on the truck all day,” or “I’m just not a tech guy.” AI ended that era. The tools exist. The leverage exists. The opportunity exists. The operators who move now will dominate. The ones who wait will fall behind.
Where This Really Goes
AI still can’t learn like a human — and that’s fine. We don’t need AI to become human. We need humans who know how to use AI. Munshi isn’t saying machines win. He’s saying the humans who work with the machines win.
The next five years will expose a massive divide: operators who embrace augmentation versus operators who cling to the past. One group will scale. One will stall. One will hire. One will shrink. One will grow more profitable. One will blame the economy.
The divide will look unfair because it will be.
My Closing Thoughts
AI won’t replace you. It won’t replace your team. It won’t replace the hauler down the street. But the operator who uses AI to take the weight off their shoulders, multiply their capacity, and increase their speed — that operator will outrun everyone else.
This is the moment to evolve. Not next year. Not after busy season. Not when things “slow down.”
The future is still human.
But the future belongs to the humans who adapt.
That's the Haulers' Edge ✌️
