Jennifer Bagley, CEO, CI Web Group | The Jeff Crilley Show

On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, Jeff sits down with Jennifer Bagley, CEO of CI Web Group, to talk about what AI really looks like inside the home services industry. Jennifer has spent two decades working with contractors and trade businesses, and she shares how many of these companies are still years behind in adopting new technology....

Show Notes

AI isn’t replacing plumbers, roofers, and HVAC technicians—but it is changing how they run their businesses. The companies that adapt are pulling ahead fast.

In this episode, Jeff Crilley talks with Jennifer Bagley, CEO of CI Web Group and a nationally recognized expert in AI enablement for contractors and service-based businesses. For nearly 20 years, Jennifer has helped trade companies modernize their marketing, operations, and growth strategies. Now she’s leading the charge in bringing practical AI tools to an industry that has historically lagged behind digital trends.

In this conversation, they discuss:
- How one HVAC company eliminated most paid ads and hit record sales with a 25% net profit
- What an AI-enabled website and “agentic” marketing network actually do
- Why younger technicians are embracing AI faster than industry veterans
- How business owners can start using AI in both marketing and operations

Jennifer also shares insights from her podcast, Catalyst for the Trades, including stories of contractors leveraging AI to outperform seasoned competitors.

Learn more at:
https://ciwebgroup.com
https://juststartai.io

What is The Jeff Crilley Show?

Jeff Crilley is a former news reporter, who spent more than 25 years in newsrooms across the country. He’s an Emmy Award winning journalist, who decided to make the jump from news in 2008, when he founded his own PR Firm, Real News Public Relations.

Today, the firm has more than 100 clients, and Jeff continues to tell the stories of interesting people he meets along the way.

These are those stories.

Meet the great Jennifer Bagley. She was AI before AI was cool. Her incredible journey just ahead. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas Newsroom tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company, and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Well, there's a famous saying there are two types of people on the planet, the people who will embrace and harness AI and the people who will be replaced by AI but let me add an asterisk, there are some jobs you can't replace, you can't replace plumbers, roofers, electricians. Jennifer Bagley is in the studio, she's the CEO of CI Web Group. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Well you've carved out a really wonderful niche for yourself in the home services arena. It's an age old industry, been around for thousands of years in some cases, but they really haven't harnessed AI, have they? No, these, it's, well, I should say now some really are, which is exciting, but for the most part, no, we're a little bit behind. The traits tends to run anywhere between two and four and sometimes eight years behind the trend depending on where you are in the country. Yes. So it depends on what kind of access they have. And you were telling me before the show about one of your favorite success stories. Yes, Airworks. So Stephanie, Stephanie and her husband Kevin own a company called Airworks Solutions and these guys came to us probably three years ago and then again two years later. And then finally last year in 2025, they were really struggling. They were trying a lot of different things, trying a lot of different marketing companies and after COVID and with changes in the economy and everything really felt like things weren't moving forward In at fact, it felt like things were moving backwards. So she kind of let the reins loose and said, go do your thing. I'm gonna stay out of your way. You guys got this. And she trusted us, which took a lot. Even when there was a lot of companies that were saying, you know, don't do that and you shouldn't make that aggressive of changes in your entire digital marketing strategy. She trusted us and it really paid off, which is exciting. Alright, give us the happy ending, I mean they've experienced exponential growth. Yeah, absolutely. So we actually removed most of our marketing and advertising, we took away all of our paid ads, we removed everything that was really expensive and we implemented an AI enabled low code web platform, we supported digital marketing efforts through an agentic network with over a thousand AI agents that we're doing everything from research and content generation, content posting optimization, AI search optimization without getting too many acronyms. Sure. She just reported last week, she just had the highest sales in history, gross sales. Wow. She also reported that she just hit the highest net profit. She is operating at 25% net profit, which is almost unheard of in the industry, so Congratulations. Has to feel good. It does. You have a couple of websites. We're gonna start with the first one, which is ciwebgroup.com. We're gonna put that on the screen because you do kind of done for you AI and you also train people on how to do AI. Let's talk about CI Web Group. Absolutely. So, CI Web Group started in 2006, think right when I met you, And first in 2008, I got asked to speak for a trades group that was a diamond dealer conference, Mitsubishi diamond dealer conference. From that point on, we wound up getting picked up by the world's largest manufacturers and distributors in the trades industry and have been supporting them growing their businesses now for twenty years, we just hit our twenty years, which is cool. Well, tell me, you have the done for your solution and when you train people, how do people know which camp to go with? Do both. Do both? So, yeah. So, there are, if the technology is available to be able to implement AI, I. E. An AI enabled website, AI enabled digital marketing and so forth, utilize someone else's big investment and take advantage of that because you can rip off the band aid, can implement these AI tools and technologies and get results fast. And then there's a lot of areas of the business where there isn't really strong technologies available such as the operations side of the business, the finance side and so forth. So for them to get the benefit of both worlds, you know, take everything from a marketing and conversions and so forth and you can get that out of the way, you can implement AI enabled practices quickly and then in your business, all of the operational things, need to start learning how to leverage AI to be able to automate processes, get better access to information and data, so you can move forward faster. Well, as we said off the top of the show, some of these industries have been around for thousands of years, I'm sure they were plumbers back in the days of Moses. I can imagine some of these baby boomers saying, well, this is the way we've always done it. And what say do to that person? Your kids are gonna knock the socks off you if you don't get on board. I mean, just bought a big pack of stickers that say HVAC technician by day, AI engineer by night because the next generation they are moving and they are moving quick. I'm so proud of these guys. I now have literally people that came in and said, I'm just a blank, I'm just a plumber, I'm just a roofer, I'm just a technician that are now building full AI automation scripts, tools, technology, apps, websites, everything. Wow. It's really exciting. Yes, it has to be. You also have a very popular podcast. We're gonna put up some video on the screen. Tell us the name of the podcast and how long you've been doing it. Catalyst for the Trades and we're just hitting our four year mark. Congratulations. Yeah. It's really exciting. It's fun. And tell me the kinds of guests that you interview on the show. So most of the guests we have on the show, we've had a lot of private equity groups, we've had a lot of entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and they've talked about their journey and pros and cons and dos and don'ts and then I have a gentleman I call Following Tyler. It's this young man who's he's in the trades he has no experience in HVAC and this kid picked up an app, up AI, went into a HVAC company and he's using AI every single day and he's actually the top salesperson in there. Everyone thinks you need trade background, you need skilled trades professional and this guy is outselling everyone almost because he doesn't know and he connects with the consumer, utilizes AI and he's actually outperforming everyone. So kinda everything in the middle. Well, Jennifer, you have this beautiful smile. I can tell you love your life. What's what's the best part of leading your companies? I mean, it's watching my team evolve, like this hasn't been easy for them. Everything that they've ever done, everything they've known, I mean, even on the marketing side, I've got designers and developers and content engineers and SEO engineers that have, you know ten, twenty, thirty years in the business and they're having to reframe and rethink everything they've ever done, everything they've ever said, everything they've ever thought and utilize tools that you know, they've never touched before, and just watching them all evolve and watching them, you know, get comfortable being uncomfortable, it's really been amazing. That's beautiful. We have about two minutes left, so I I want you to look into the camera on the left and talk to that person who's been resistant to join the AI revolution. So when consumers adopt technology, you don't have a choice but to move with them as quickly as you can and there's gonna be a big difference between those who adopt and those who kind of put their head in the sand and say, I'm not me. Right? There's no stopping this train. So if you can take everything that you possibly can and commit to learning, Just get curious. The reason it's called Just Start AI is because that's all you have to do. You don't have to understand it all, but you do have to just start learning. Now's the time. Outstanding. Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us. We're gonna end with both of our websites. We're gonna start with ciwebgroup.com. There we go. And then finally, do it yourself training is juststartai.io. The great Jennifer Bagley, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank That's it for now. We'll see you next time.