By the end of 2025, most US roofing contractors were flying drones and ordering aerial measurements, and AI use inside the trade climbed from 29% to 40% in a single year. Yet only 4% had AI built into their core business software. The picture that emerges from the two largest roofing-industry technology surveys is a trade digitizing quickly at the edges, through drones, aerial data, and outside AI tools, while its central systems change more slowly. This report ranks how far each technology has spread across US roofing businesses, quantifies the pace, and explains what is pulling adoption forward.
Headline finding: roofing is digitizing at the edges, not the core
The clearest signal in the 2025 data is a split. Point tools that sit at the visible edge of a roofing job spread fastest: drones reached 54% of contractors and aerial measurement tools 51%, per the 2026 State of the Roofing Industry Report (Roofing Contractor / myCLEARopinion, Fall 2025). Deep integration lagged far behind, with only 4% of roofing and exteriors firms running AI built into their CRM, per the ServiceTitan 2026 Roofing & Exteriors Market Report (Thrive Analytics, n=1,018). The trade is adopting tools faster than it is rewiring workflows around them.
How fast is the roofing trade adopting technology?
Adoption in 2025 ranged from 74% for back-office business software down to 4% for AI embedded in a CRM. Ranked by share of US roofing contractors using each technology, the gradient runs from mature office software at the top to emerging AI integration at the bottom, with drones and aerial measurement sitting in the middle at just above half the trade. The table below ranks each technology and names its source.
| Rank | Technology | Share of roofing contractors using it (2025) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Business process software | 74% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 2 | Enterprise / accounting software | 67% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 3 | Estimating software | 63% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 4 | Cloud computing | 61% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 5 | Customer relationship management (CRM) | 58% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 6 | Drones | 54% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 7 | Aerial measurement tools | 51% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 8 | AI (any use) | 40% | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| 9 | External LLM tools (ChatGPT, Gemini) | 25% | ServiceTitan 2026 Market Report |
| 10 | AI embedded in CRM | 4% | ServiceTitan 2026 Market Report |
Rows 1 to 8 come from the Roofing Contractor survey and rows 9 to 10 from the ServiceTitan survey. The two studies used different samples and question wording, so read cross-survey rows as directional rather than a single continuous scale. The pattern holds within each survey on its own: office and field tools are common, embedded AI is rare.
Drone adoption: more than half the trade now flies
Drones reached 54% of US roofing contractors in 2025, per Roofing Contractor’s SOI 2026, meaning an aircraft is now used by nearly as many roofing businesses as a formal CRM system (58%). The enabling credential pool grew alongside: the FAA counted 492,311 certificated Part 107 remote pilots across all industries as of December 31, 2025, up about 15% year over year from roughly 428,000, per the FAA 2025 Civil Airmen Statistics. Commercial drone flights for pay, including paid roof inspections, require that Part 107 certificate.
The operational case is speed and safety. A drone can survey a typical residential roof in under five minutes and capture imagery accurate to within about 98% of on-roof measurement, according to vendor and industry reporting, without a person climbing a ladder. That matters in a trade where falls remain a leading cause of injury. For the mechanics of a drone inspection, see our guide to how drone roof inspections work, and for hardware choices, our ranked list of the best drones for roof inspection.
Aerial measurement: the office side of the same shift
Aerial measurement tools reached 51% of roofing contractors in 2025, per Roofing Contractor’s SOI 2026, tracking drone adoption closely because both replace the same manual task: getting an accurate roof size without climbing. Services such as EagleView, GAF QuickMeasure, Hover, Roofr, and Nearmap deliver a measured report from satellite, aerial, or smartphone imagery, often within an hour for a single-family home. EagleView’s roof measurements were independently confirmed at 98.77% accuracy, per Roofing Contractor.
Aerial measurement and drones differ in who captures the image. Aerial services work from pre-flown or satellite imagery the contractor never has to capture, so no pilot certificate is needed. A contractor-flown drone captures fresh imagery on site and does require Part 107 for paid work. Many roofing businesses now run both: aerial reports for fast desktop estimating and a drone for close-up condition documentation. Our comparison of drone roof inspection software covers how these capture-and-report workflows fit together.
AI adoption jumped 38% in a single year
AI use among roofing contractors rose from 29% in 2024 to 40% in 2025, an increase of 11 percentage points, or about 38% in relative terms, per Roofing Contractor’s SOI 2026. It was the fastest-moving technology category the survey tracked year over year. A further 36% of contractors said they were discussing AI implementation over the next two years, while only 9% reported no plans to adopt it at all.
Most of that AI use sits outside core roofing software. In the ServiceTitan survey, 25% of roofing and exteriors firms used external LLM tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini, but only 4% used AI features built into their CRM. Contractors were therefore roughly six times more likely to open a separate AI app than to have AI working inside the system that runs their business. Adoption skewed toward younger firms and mid-market contractors in the $10M to $50M revenue band, with older businesses more cautious.
| Metric | 2024 | 2025 | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI use among roofing contractors | 29% | 40% | +11 pts (about +38% relative) | Roofing Contractor SOI 2026 |
| FAA Part 107 remote pilots (all industries) | ~428,000 | 492,311 | +15% | FAA 2025 Civil Airmen Statistics |
What is pulling adoption forward: labor and speed
Two pressures explain why roofing is digitizing now. The first is labor. In the AGC and NCCER 2025 workforce survey reported by the NRCA, 92% of construction firms that were hiring reported difficulty finding qualified workers, and Roofing Contractor’s SOI 2025 found 61% of commercial and 38% of residential roofers struggling to hire. Tools that let one estimator measure and document more roofs per day directly ease a labor squeeze. Reported labor costs rose about 14% in the SOI 2026 data.
The second pressure is speed to the customer. In the ServiceTitan survey, 67% of contractors replied to leads within four hours, and faster measurement feeds faster quotes. Aerial and drone data let an estimator produce a scaled roof model without a second site visit. Insurance work reinforces the trend: industry vendors report drone-assisted inspections can shorten claim processing, though the exact reduction varies by carrier and job and should be read as a vendor estimate, not an audited figure.
The integration gap: fast tools, slow systems
The 2025 data describes a maturity gap, not a technology ceiling. Roofing contractors readily add a drone, an aerial subscription, or a chatbot because each is a self-contained tool with an obvious payback. Rewiring the CRM, estimating, and production stack so those tools share data automatically is slower and costlier, which is why AI-in-CRM sits at 4% while standalone AI use sits at 40%.
That gap is where the next wave of adoption is likely to land. In the ServiceTitan data, 21% of contractors already cite AI and automation capability as a top reason for choosing software, and the report frames the shift as contractors moving from basic CRMs toward end-to-end systems. For where CRM adoption stands and which platforms lead, see our ranked review of the best roofing CRM software. For a parallel adoption curve in a different roofing category, our solar roofing adoption statistics track how quickly homeowners take up rooftop solar.
Methodology
This report synthesizes published figures from four primary or near-primary sources: the 2026 State of the Roofing Industry Report (Roofing Contractor, research partner myCLEARopinion Insights Hub, fielded Fall 2025, respondents 69% residential, 22% commercial, 9% mixed); the ServiceTitan 2026 Roofing & Exteriors Market Report (research by Thrive Analytics, n=1,018 roofing-focused companies, fielded October 14 to 31, 2025); the FAA 2025 Civil Airmen Statistics for Part 107 remote pilot counts; and the AGC/NCCER 2025 construction workforce survey via the NRCA for labor context. Adoption shares are reported as published. The 2024 Part 107 figure is derived by applying the reported 15% year-over-year growth to the 492,311 total. Relative AI change is computed from the two published percentages (29% and 40%).
Limitations
Several limits apply. The two roofing surveys used different samples, sampling frames, and question wording, so the ranked table mixes sources and should be read within each survey rather than as one calibrated scale. Self-reported adoption tends to overstate active use, since a contractor who owns a drone may not fly it regularly. The FAA Part 107 count covers all industries, not roofers specifically, so it bounds the credential pool rather than measuring roofing directly. Market-size projections for construction drones vary widely by firm and are excluded from the core dataset. Vendor accuracy and time-savings figures come from the providers themselves and are labeled as such. Numbers reflect the 2024 to 2025 window and will move as new surveys publish.
Frequently asked questions
What share of roofing contractors use drones?
About 54% of US roofing contractors reported using drones in 2025, per the 2026 State of the Roofing Industry Report (Roofing Contractor / myCLEARopinion). That places drones just below CRM systems at 58% and slightly ahead of aerial measurement tools at 51%, making an aircraft one of the more common technologies in a modern roofing business.
How many FAA Part 107 remote pilots are there?
The FAA counted 492,311 certificated Part 107 remote pilots as of December 31, 2025, across all industries, up about 15% from the prior year, per the FAA 2025 Civil Airmen Statistics. Part 107 is the certificate required to fly a drone commercially, including paid roof inspections, so this figure reflects the broad pool of legal commercial operators, not roofers alone.
Is AI adoption growing among roofing contractors?
Yes. AI use among roofing contractors rose from 29% in 2024 to 40% in 2025, per Roofing Contractor’s SOI 2026, the fastest year-over-year gain of any technology the survey tracked. Most of that use is external tools such as ChatGPT rather than AI embedded in roofing software, where adoption was only 4% in the ServiceTitan 2026 survey.
What is aerial roof measurement and how many contractors use it?
Aerial roof measurement delivers a scaled roof report from satellite, aerial, or smartphone imagery, so a contractor can size a roof without climbing it. About 51% of US roofing contractors used these tools in 2025, per Roofing Contractor’s SOI 2026. Common providers include EagleView, GAF QuickMeasure, Hover, Roofr, and Nearmap, with EagleView measurements independently confirmed at 98.77% accuracy.
Do you need an FAA license to fly a drone for roofing work?
In many cases yes. Flying a drone for paid roofing work, such as inspections or measurements sold to a client, generally requires an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate in the United States. Rules can vary by operation and airspace, and purely recreational flying follows different requirements, so operators should confirm current FAA guidance for their specific use.
How accurate are aerial and drone roof measurements?
Independent testing confirmed EagleView aerial roof measurements at 98.77% accuracy, per Roofing Contractor, and drone-captured measurements are commonly reported as accurate to within about 98% of on-roof figures by industry sources. Accuracy can vary with roof complexity, imagery age, and obstructions, so contractors often verify critical dimensions on site for steep or heavily shaded roofs.
Reviewed by The Roofing Brief Team. Last reviewed July 2026.