How Building Product Manufacturers Can Teach AI About Their Business

September 12, 2025

Artificial intelligence isn’t magic—it’s only as good as the information you give it. For building product manufacturers, this creates a clear challenge: AI doesn’t automatically know your business, your customers, or the nuances of siding, roofing, windows, adhesives, or any other specialized product line. If you want AI to deliver real value—whether in marketing, sales, customer service, or product development—you need to teach it.

Let’s break down how.

Why Building Product Manufacturers Need to Inform AI

AI models are trained on enormous amounts of general data, but they lack the proprietary knowledge that makes your company unique. Without that, they’ll default to generic answers that could apply to anyone. That’s not useful for selling high-performance siding to contractors in the Midwest or marketing premium decking to coastal builders.

Here’s the thing: AI thrives when it’s given structured, relevant, and context-rich information. For manufacturers, this means:

Accuracy – ensuring AI provides correct specifications, installation guidance, and brand positioning.
Relevance – making sure AI understands your audience: builders, contractors, distributors, architects, and homeowners.
Differentiation – teaching AI what makes your product better than the competitor’s.

McKinsey notes that companies adopting AI at scale see significant gains in sales and marketing efficiency when the tools are properly aligned with their business data . The flip side? Poorly trained AI leads to misinformation and lost trust.

How to Inform AI of Your Business

Here’s a step-by-step framework manufacturers can use to train AI on their business:

1. Organize and Share Core Documents

AI needs to “read” your business before it can represent it. This includes:

Product specifications and technical sheets
Installation manuals
Warranty documents
Brand guidelines
Marketing collateral (brochures, ads, case studies)
Customer FAQs

By compiling this into a central, structured knowledge base, you’re giving AI the language, terminology, and product expertise it needs.

2. Define Audience DNA

Not all customers are created equal. Draper DNA emphasizes the importance of Audience DNA—demographics, psychographics, and segmentation. Feeding AI this data means it can tailor messaging for contractors versus homeowners, or architects versus distributors.

Example: AI-powered chatbots can answer technical questions differently for a homeowner (“Is this deck safe for my kids?”) than for a contractor (“What’s the live load rating?”).

3. Layer in Brand DNA

AI should never sound like a generic assistant. By training it on your Brand DNA—tone, messaging pillars, key differentiators—you ensure it communicates in your voice. That means reinforcing your premium positioning, sustainability story, or performance edge in every AI-generated touchpoint.

4. Keep Data Updated

Building products evolve—new SKUs, updated certifications, discontinued lines. AI can’t keep up unless you continuously refresh its knowledge base. Treat AI training like product training for your sales team: ongoing, not one-and-done.

5. Establish Guardrails

AI should only deliver answers backed by your data. This prevents hallucinations (AI making things up) and protects your reputation. By setting rules and monitoring outputs, you ensure AI stays accurate and aligned with your business.

Draper DNA: Your AI Guide in Building Products

AI isn’t plug-and-play. It requires strategy, curation, and industry expertise. That’s where Draper DNA comes in.

We speak fluent building products. We know what information matters to your customers, what differentiates you from competitors, and how to package your Audience DNA and Brand DNA so AI becomes a true asset—not a liability.

Think of us as the translator between your manufacturing expertise and AI’s capabilities. We help:

Build knowledge frameworks AI can actually use.
Align AI outputs with your brand and audience.
Monitor and refine performance so your AI stays sharp.

In other words, we don’t just help you adopt AI—we help you teach it your business.

Final Word

AI is quickly becoming a standard tool across marketing and sales. The manufacturers who win will be the ones who feed AI the right data, the right voice, and the right customer insights. Left alone, AI is generic. Informed properly, it becomes a competitive advantage.

Draper DNA is here to make sure your AI speaks your language—and your customers’.