We’re partnering with Screwfix to help the nation’s tradespeople nail admin and grow their businesses using AI.

Source: Google Date: 2026-07-16 URL: https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/were-partnering-with-screwfix-to-help-the-nations-tradespeople-nail-admin-and-grow-their-businesses-using-ai/

Summary

Google and UK retailer Screwfix are running in-store AI training sessions across the UK, teaching tradespeople to use Gemini for admin work — turning handwritten notes into client proposals and rough sketches into 3D renderings. Google cites survey data that 86% of construction workers already use AI on the job but only 16% extract significant value, with 54% unsure where to get guidance.

Implications

• Voices/power: a consumer-AI vendor going physically into retail stores to close an adoption gap is a distribution strategy, not a product one — it targets the “know AI exists but don’t know how to use it” majority rather than power users.
• Physical AI/robotics (adjacent): the target audience is manual trades, but the tooling itself is still administrative/generative AI, not embodied automation — a reminder that “AI for tradespeople” mostly means paperwork, not robots on site yet.