Can AI plan technicians' schedules? We tested it on two weeks of jobs.
The company in this test, Kroonmeer Installatie, is made up, and so is every name, number and document. Real work runs on your own data, and you check everything before it counts.
Yes, for a valid plan from written rules. For 8 technicians at a made-up company, our AI placed 151 of the 151 jobs that could fit, broke none of 10 hard rules and flagged the 9 that couldn't fit, each with the right reason. It took 17 minutes. The plan was valid, but not the shortest possible on driving.
What it got
- 8 technicians' skills, areas, certificates and days off
- 140 job requests from a web form, emails and phone notes
- 20 maintenance visits falling due
- 11 other messages, including changes and cancellations
Build a two-week schedule, draft a confirmation for each job and list what can't fit and why. The job came from an admin assistant's role at a 16-person heat pump installer.
The results
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Jobs placed that could be | 151 of 151 |
| Jobs that couldn't fit, flagged with the right reason | 9 of 9 |
| Changes and cancellations applied | 9 of 9 |
| Confirmation drafts right | 151 of 151 |
| Hard rules broken | 0 |
| Cancelled bookings still planned | 0 |
A script scored every line against an answer key the AI never saw. How the tests work.
What it missed
- Nothing we scored.
- Driving wasn't scored, and it wasn't the shortest plan. Its schedule has 4,010 minutes of driving. Our reference plan, which isn't the best possible either, has 3,875.
Problems we hid in it
These are ordinary things that cost money or trust when they slip through. This is a selection.
| What we hid | What it did |
|---|---|
| Refrigerant work that needs a certified technician, mentioned only in the notes | Certified technician planned |
| "Maintenance" ticked on the form, but the notes say no hot water and no heating | Planned as an urgent repair |
| A day off emailed by "Sem", with three staff called Sem | Right person worked out from the address |
| A refrigerant job where the customer is only home on the one day no certified technician works | Flagged as impossible |
| A part arriving after the customer has left | Flagged as impossible |
| The same web form sent twice, 3 minutes apart | Planned once |
| A contract visit cancelled by phone | Not planned |
| A property manager correcting the address on file | New address used |
| A phone note with no name, address or appliance | Flagged as missing information |
What this test doesn't show
The rules were all written down and the plan was made once. A real planner also deals with the job that overruns at 11 in the morning, and this test doesn't cover replanning during the day. This was also one run, on one made-up company, and we wrote the test ourselves.
Would this work on your admin?
Send us the job ad you're hiring for, and we'll send back a free one-page breakdown of what we'd take off the role.