Construction Management is the highest circulation construction-based publication serving the UK built environment.
Digital Construction
Benetics launches AI-based voice assist for construction workers
Katie Coyne Contributing Editor
Onsite voice assist based on OpenAI helps construction workers document tasks
Benetics has developed AI-powered voice assistance technology for contractors and construction professionals.
Contractors can speak into the Benetics AI while on a job site and it records, transcribes, organises and then documents what is said.
It creates an action plan including checklists, assigning team members to tasks, photos and due dates. Benetics said it can cut admin time by up to 80% and that it integrates with a range of other software.
This is not a paywall. Registration allows us to enhance your experience across Construction Management and ensure we deliver you quality editorial content.
Registering also means you can manage your own CPDs, comments, newsletter sign-ups and privacy settings.
Tobias Haendler, chief marketing officer at Benetics, said: “Our mission is ‘how can we make things easier for people on the construction site?’
“People on site don’t want to write. This is a huge problem for the people in the office because writing is usually the way of documenting stuff.
Natural conversation
“So we don’t want people to type in what’s going on. On the upper right corner of the app there is a microphone button, which you press and you can have a natural conversation – a regular conversation that everyone on site can do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7R-BZs_XtE
The voice assist helps make documenting tasks while on site
“Even with my European accent our voice assist will pick the conversation up and give a task a title.”
Haendler said users can assign the task to someone and even request that others are notified (as explained in the video above).
The app can translate the task list into more than 30 different languages, which was requested in customer surveys Benetics carried out during development.
Currently, the LLM used is based on OpenAI, though Benetics is constantly monitoring the impact of different LLMs as they develop at a rapid pace.
The app has already been rolled out in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, and latterly USA. It was officially launched in the UK at LondonBuild.
Haendler added: “We experimented in this first phase in developing the voice AI agent, with different LLMs - the large language models.
Benchmarking
“We're doing benchmarking in the background as all of the LLMs are improving so fast. We are building up a solution and bringing the construction-specific requirements so that it really works for the people on site in terms of vocabulary and other factors.
“Right now, it’s open AI technology behind it. In different areas of Benetics, because the voice assistant is just one of the AI solutions we’ve been integrating, and so in others, we are using Google Gemini.
“This is why on the website we say ChatGPT, because this is also something people understand.”
Haendler said UK companies are already trialling the app and that the company has tried to make the business model straightforward. Businesses pay £20 per user for the app, which includes all features. It can be trialled before purchase.
This is not a first step towards a paywall. We need readers to register with us to help sustain creation of quality editorial content on Construction Management. Registering also means you can manage your own CPDs, comments, newsletter sign-ups and privacy settings. Thank you.
