AI is quietly closing one of pool service’s oldest competitive gaps — but the technology is only as good as the operator behind it

There’s a telling detail buried in the way pool service companies have historically grown. It has nothing to do with pricing, technical skill, or route density. It comes down to who picked up the phone.

Hal Denbar spent years running one of the larger pool service operations in the country. Speaking recently on the Pool Guy Podcast, he described a growth pattern so consistent it had become almost a formula: customers would call two or three smaller companies, nobody would answer, and his team would get the business by default. 

“So much of our growth would come from a customer that had called two or three smaller companies where nobody picked up the phone,” he said. “We would by default get those customers because we were going to always pick up the phone in a way the smaller companies couldn’t.”

That’s a remarkably honest summary of a structural disadvantage that has quietly shaped this industry for decades. Solo operators and small crews service pools during business hours. Inbound calls come during business hours. When those two facts collide, leads disappear into voicemail. Studies of small business call behavior suggest that the majority of callers who hit voicemail don’t call back and simply move on to the next name in their search results.

AI-powered phone handling is starting to address this across the trades, and pool service — with its heavy concentration of solo operators and small crews — is a natural fit. Skimmer is the pool service management platform with the largest installed base in the industry, and became the first major vertical software vendor to ship an AI phone product purpose-built for pool pros earlier this year. Where that product sits within a broader industry shift toward AI adoption says something worth paying attention to.

A Practical Industry, Moving Carefully

2026 is the first year the pool service industry has structured data on how owners actually think about AI. Skimmer’s 2026 State of Pool Service Report showed that nearly 60% of owners intended to invest in AI-driven tools in 2026, with 21% describing themselves as very likely to do so.

Read alongside the skepticism in the same data set, that number tells a more complete story. 40% of owners say they would never trust AI to fully handle invoicing and payments. 28% wouldn’t trust it with quotes and estimates. 19% wouldn’t trust it with customer communication. Pool pros are broadly open to AI as an assistant and broadly resistant to AI as an autonomous agent and the line tightens wherever revenue or the customer relationship is directly at stake.

The concerns owners cite are operational rather than philosophical: Will it actually work reliably? Will it confuse my customers? Will my staff use it? That’s how professionals who run tight operations have always evaluated change. The use cases gaining ground reflect that posture. 

Writing and communication tasks, like drafting customer responses, rate increase letters, policy documents, and social media content, are where real-world adoption has taken hold. In every case, the AI produces a draft that a human reviews before anything goes out. Low risk, real time saving, no automated decision with consequences attached. getskimmergetskimmer

Inbound phone handling fits a similar profile, which is why it has emerged as one of the first AI capabilities to gain meaningful traction not just in pool service but across field service industries broadly.

Why the Phone is Where AI is Landing First

The asymmetry of the problem is worth understanding. A call going poorly leaves a poor first impression. A missed call is a customer the operator never knew they had. That risk profile makes phone handling one of the more defensible entry points for AI in any trade business.

AI phone handling requires no service history to function. The data requirements are minimal: the operator’s services, pricing, policies, and service areas. Compare that to the more sophisticated capabilities pool service software vendors are beginning to build toward — churn prediction, route profitability scoring, predictive maintenance — all of which require months or years of clean, structured operational data before they can deliver anything meaningful. Phone handling works on day one.

The underlying technology has also matured. AI voice agents five years ago were brittle, easy to confuse, prone to loops, and recognizable as automated in ways that actively irritated callers. The current generation handles natural language considerably better, can be trained on domain-specific knowledge, and escalates intelligently when it hits the boundaries of what it knows. That’s a categorically different product from the IVR systems the trades experimented with for years.

Generic answering services, which have been the traditional alternative for operators who couldn’t staff a receptionist, can run up to $500 per month, with no knowledge of the operator’s business, customer base, or service area. A domain-trained agent integrated into the operator’s management platform, capable of creating a lead record before the caller hangs up, represents a meaningfully different capability. Skimmer’s AI Phone is priced at $99 per month and operates within the platform rather than as a standalone tool, giving it access to existing customer data from the start. Operators configure the system before it goes live, reviewing and editing everything it pulls from their website. If the agent doesn’t know something, it says so and offers to take a message or transfer the caller.

The knowledge base is bounded by what the operator puts in. A well-configured system performs very differently from one set up in ten minutes and never revisited. 

The Limits That Matter

AI in pool service cannot replace field judgment. It cannot assess whether a pump is developing a bearing problem from the sound it makes, recognize that a pool has higher bather load than the readings suggest, or make a real-time call about whether conditions are safe for a chemical treatment. These are sensory, contextual judgments built on years of experience.

Phone handling sits well outside that risk zone, but there are subtler limits worth naming. AI has no knowledge that a particular customer had a difficult conversation about pricing last season, that another has been with the company for eleven years and deserves a personal call, or that a third wants the technical explanation rather than the summary. That relational knowledge lives with the operator and their team.

There’s also an adoption question that gets underweighted in most vendor conversations. Most AI errors in small business settings trace back to unclear instructions or rushed use, not technology failure. Staff who haven’t been shown how to use a tool properly will either misuse it or avoid it. An AI phone system configured with incomplete service areas, outdated pricing, or no escalation rules for emergencies creates problems the launch metrics don’t capture. The owners getting the most value from AI right now started with a narrow use case, kept humans reviewing output, and built from there. That model applies to phone handling as much as anywhere else. 

What’s Actually Changing

For years, the ability to answer every inbound call was a competitive advantage that scaled with headcount. Larger operations with office staff picked up. Smaller ones didn’t. That gap shaped customer acquisition in ways Denbar described plainly — the bigger operators captured leads the smaller ones were simply unavailable to take.

AI compresses that gap at the entry level. A solo operator using AI phone handling can offer the same baseline responsiveness as a company with dedicated office staff, around the clock, at a fraction of the cost. The ceiling on what AI can do in a pool service business scales with operational data — clean service records, consistent chemical logs, complete billing history. Operators building those records now are the ones who will be positioned to use more sophisticated capabilities as they mature.

Research on small business AI adoption consistently finds that very small businesses are most likely to believe AI isn’t applicable to their scale, but this belief drops significantly as business size increases. The evidence suggests this is primarily an education problem, not an applicability problem. 

The use cases exist for the one-truck operator, and we know the phone has always been a growth lever in pool service. Whether smaller operators take up the AI version of it — and configure it carefully enough to actually work — is the open question.

(Alexandria, Va.) — The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (PHTA), the trade association representing the swimming pool, hot tub, and spa industry, is inviting public review and comment on the proposed revision of the PHTA-6 Standard for Residential Portable Spas and Exercise Spas.

As an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited standards developer, PHTA follows a consensus-based standards development process that includes public review and comment opportunities for proposed standards revisions.

The draft revision of the PHTA-6 standard focuses on site-specific installation and consumer use of residential portable spas and exercise spas after delivery to the end user. Proposed updates are intended to improve enforceability, support regulatory alignment, address certification gaps, and enhance safety continuity throughout the industry.

The revised draft also includes updated language and new content designed to reflect current industry practices, technologies, and requirements.

The public review period for the draft PHTA-6 standard opens May 22, 2026, and closes July 6, 2026. During this time, industry professionals, regulatory agencies, and other interested parties are encouraged to review the draft and submit comments for consideration.

The public review announcement was published in ANSI Standards Action on May 22, 2026.

The draft standard and instructions for submitting comments are available on the PHTA-6 webpage at phta.org.

For additional information, please contact PHTA’s Standards Department at [email protected] or call (703) 838-0083.

About the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance:
The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (PHTA), a non-profit organization with 4,000+ members from around the world, was established in 1956 to support, promote, and protect the common interests of the $62B pool, hot tub, and spa industry. PHTA provides education, advocacy, standards development, research, and market growth initiatives to increase our members’ professionalism, knowledge, and profitability. Additionally, PHTA promotes the use of pools by expanding swimming, water safety, and related research and outreach activities aimed at introducing more people to swimming, making swimming environments safer, and keeping pools open to serve communities. For more information, visit www.phta.org.

Watson’s Accelerates Strategic Growth with Acquisition of Viridien Patio + Fireplace, Strengthening Southern U.S. Presence

Cincinnati, OH (May 18th, 2026) – Watson’s, one of the nation’s largest retailers of home recreational products and furnishings, today announced the acquisition of Charlotte, NC based Viridien Patio + Fireplace, the Carolinas premier destination for high-end outdoor furniture, outdoor kitchens, fireplace and hearth products.

The acquisition of Viridien further strengthens Watson’s Southern U.S. presence, building on its 2024 acquisition of Fort Myers, Florida-based Recreational Warehouse, while also expanding its leadership in the outdoor furnishings category overall. The addition of four Carolinas locations—Charlotte, Lake Norman, Raleigh, and Greenville—brings Watson’s total store count to 39. Following the acquisition, Watson’s will operate 23 corporate locations and 16 franchise and affiliate locations.

“Expanding into the Carolinas market has long been a strategic objective for us,” said Erik Mueller, CEO of Watson’s. “The market’s strength and sustained economic growth make it a natural fit for our continued expansion. Combined with Viridien’s strong team, shared values, proven business model, and established presence, this acquisition represents an excellent strategic alignment. We are excited to welcome the entire Viridien team into the Watson’s family and to continue delivering high-quality products and experiences that bring enjoyment and relaxation to families across the region. Looking ahead, we see meaningful
opportunities to expand our product offerings and further grow our presence throughout the state as we invest in and grow alongside the community.”

“Watson’s is a family business with a strong culture, an outstanding reputation, and values that closely align with our own. From the beginning, it was important to me to find a partner that truly understood what Viridien has been built on over the past 45 years — taking care of our employees, customers, and vendor partners while always operating with integrity and a long-term perspective. I genuinely don’t believe we could have found a better home for our business. This partnership creates exciting opportunities for growth while allowing us to preserve the culture, service, and relationships that have defined Viridien for decades,” said Grant W. Henegan, Owner and President of Viridien Patio + Fireplace.

Following the acquisition, Viridien will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Watson’s and will be branded as Viridien by Watson’s. Customers should continue to expect a seamless and premium experience, with the same high standards of product selection and exceptional customer service delivered by both Watson’s and Viridien.

Building on this most recent expansion, Watson’s continues to evaluate and pursue multiple avenues for growth across the U.S. “We see significant opportunity to continue scaling Watson’s through new store development and strategic acquisitions in both our existing and new markets,” said Mueller.

Founded in 1968, Watson’s is one of the nation’s largest retailers of home recreation products, offering outdoor furniture, spas, pools, saunas, billiards, indoor furnishings, and more.

Assisting in the acquisition were Cincinnati-based partners Katz Teller, Clark Schaefer Hackett and Charlotte-based partner Stump & Company.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About Watson’s
Since 1968, Watson’s has grown from a pool store in Cincinnati to one of the nation’s largest retailers of home recreation products and home furnishings. Their stores feature outdoor furnishings, indoor furnishings, game tables, pools, spas, and more, all under one roof. Watson’s mission is to bring families together for fun, relaxation, and a break from the stress of daily life. Their vision is to bring creativity to the home furnishings and leisure industries, by providing leadership with cutting-edge products, innovation, and world-class customer service. For more information visit www.watsons.com.

About Viridien Patio + Fireplace
Viridien Patio + Fireplace is a Carolinas based specialty retailer founded in 1981 that has evolved from a single fireplace store into a regional leader in premium outdoor furniture, outdoor kitchens, and fireplace products. Formerly known as The Fire House Casual Living Store, the company rebranded as Viridien in 2022 to reflect its focus on elevated outdoor living, design expertise, and customer-centric service. www.viridien.com