AI-driven transformation comes to Pest Control

PORTLAND, Maine –  Microshare CEO Ron Rock urged an audience of Pest Control industry leaders to embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a driver of efficiency and business innovation or face seriously diminishing returns and stiff competition “from those who get it.”

“The time is now, no excuses,” Rock declared during an AI panel at this summer’s Associated Pest Services summit in this beautiful New England seaside town. “It has become so quickly entrenched in people’s day-to-day working lives that you cannot avoid it, and the industry’s giants will weaponize it soon enough.”

“In enterprise software, where I got my start, so called ‘Expert Systems,’ are extremely powerful, complex to build and maintain, but also prohibitly expensive,” Rock said. “They’re called the Expert Systems because you needed to be an Expert to use them. But AI changes the game. Everyone is this room can use AI right now, almost for free. There is no excuse not to just do it, today. And just watch how it changes your organization and the way customers and even potential buyers view your organization.”

The August 5 panel, moderated by Pest-End Owner and COO Courtney Carace, also included Pest Rangers President Jeff King and Todd Leyse, CEO of Adam’s Pest Control, each of whom agreed that embracing AI and other technological innovations will be a key to remaining competitive in the fast growing and evolving industry. “We’re a pretty technical company,” said Leyse, whose Minnesota-based PCO is using EverSmart™ sensors in one of his most important customer sites. “We’ve serviced some of these sites for decades, so we know them very well. The sensor data is helping confirm things we might suspect, the frequency of activity, the time of day, things like that. And that really helps us.”

Tom Jackson, Microshare’s chief data strategist, has worked closely with Leyse and the team at Adam’s – as well as a half dozen other large PCOs – to help them harness the power of EverSmart™ AI capabilities. EverSmart software note only  reports rodent activity but also filters out false positives and bundles multiple events into a single “incident” to reduce alert fatique and make its data more actionable and practical for technicians.

“Reducing the number of alerts and providing guidance on incidents is a great example of how we can do just that,” Jackson said. “I’m excited to see the industry embracing these AI enhancements.”

Rock’s ten-year-old software firm has transformed a number of industries with AI-driven algorithmic data products, including airport terminal operations, warehousing and commercial cleaning at hospitals, stadiums and other large infrastructure. He told listeners that time is now for Pest Control to apply these powerful tools to its labor intensive challenges.

“Historically, (remote monitoring) sensors focused just on the actual hardware, and didn’t contemplate integration into the PCO business model of user management and cost savings,” Rock said. Citing large PCO clients who have installed EverSmart systems to transform their operations, Rock extolled the value of the intelligence that a truly flexible and accurate system can bring.

“In every aspect of business, we see a shift from systemic routine processes to demand-based action,” Rock said. “The rewards are obvious, providing a better level of service, when its’ needed, with overall lower cost. Our goal is to bring this same mental framework to Pest Control.”

Rock told the story of Elis Pest Control in Ireland, a division of the huge Elis services conglomerate, where some 40,000 EverSmart™ instrumented bait boxes and sensor have been deployed. “It completely transformed their business. They were able to raise their prices because they’re now a 24/7 service. Their revenue and margins went up. Their fuel costs feel, making them more sustainable,” he said. “And they’re winning more customers and enormous recognition throughout the giant Elis corporate ecosystem.” Indeed, Elis, which markets its remote monitoring solution as Elis Connect, recently decided to roll EverSmart™ technology out across its European divisions. (View the Elis Connect | Powered by Microshare™ video). 

Associated Pest Services brings together family-owned and -operated PCOs that are among the finest regional pest management firms in the world, employing thousands of pest management professionals, with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. “One key to our mutual success is how we openly share ideas promoting Integrated Pest Management techniques and methods to mutually improve our businesses,” the group says in its mission statement. “This commitment to the industry shows in how we deliver the best Integrated Pest Management, with that local, caring service level consumers and business have come to expect from family run companies.”