{"id":35317,"date":"2026-05-07T04:49:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/how-3-builders-are-using-ai-for-safety\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:49:27","slug":"how-3-builders-are-using-ai-for-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/how-3-builders-are-using-ai-for-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"How 3 builders are using AI for safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226\" alt=\"-\"><br \/>\n        Listen to the article<\/p>\n<p>            <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">5 min<\/span><\/p>\n<p>    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/text-to-speech.divecdn.com\/newspost\/819491\/2026-05-06_13.45.36\/ai-safety-skanska-turner-balfour-beatty.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\">feedback<\/a>.\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Artificial intelligence isn\u2019t just for back office tasks anymore. It increasingly can help make jobsites safer, experts say.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/construction-safety-week-2026-all-together-major-contractors\/818959\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Construction Safety Week<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>, which runs through Friday, provides contractors with an opportunity to pause work and double down on safety. This year, those conversations will feature more references to AI.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Indeed, builders including Skanska, Turner Construction and Balfour Beatty are already using AI to <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/ai-safety-construction-data\/752094\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>keep workers safe<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Skanska\u2019s safety planning helper<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Building onto the generative AI boom, Swedish builder Skanska has leveraged its own homegrown solutions, known as its Sidekicks, on its jobsites.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The contractor <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/sidekick-skanskas-ai-construction-chatbot\/709350\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>revealed its initial Sidekick<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span> in February 2024. On release, it was capable of generating answers to help workers with project questions based on a well of Skanska\u2019s proprietary data.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>In 2025, the contractor introduced its Safety Sidekick, a generative AI tool that <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/ai-granite-skanska-safety-award-innovation\/746909\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>plumbs Skanska\u2019s EHS Manual<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>, OSHA construction standards and supplemental safety documentation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Currently, Skanska mostly leans on the Safety Sidekick for planning, but it still has reactive use cases, said Brian Karas, national environmental health and safety director for Skanska USA Building.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cIt doesn&#8217;t leap out your phone and tell you to get off the ladder, but it definitely gives us a leg up in terms of learning from this wealth of information,\u201d Karas said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>To that point, the Safety Sidekick uses data from the company\u2019s jobsites to improve planning and learn from past events. This is on top of a vetting process, where members of the builder\u2019s EHS team review the information and make sure it\u2019s accurate, valuable and timely, Karas said.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>That review process also helps protect against so-called \u201challucinations,\u201d where AI tools generate answers that are not based on any real fact or data.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Mitigating those false outputs meant training the tool to respond \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d when it does not have the answer, said Will Senner, Skanska USA\u2019s data solutions team leader.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cYou know, I won&#8217;t sit here and definitively claim that we have it 100% perfect, but I think we did a really good job at minimizing potential erroneous answers,\u201d Senner said. \u201cMaking sure that the tool will respond to say, \u2018I don&#8217;t have information about that,\u2019 if it&#8217;s a question that is not in its knowledge base, as opposed to trying to make up an answer that sounds plausible.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Turner Construction\u2019s SafeT Coach<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>New York City-based Turner Construction, on the heels of its <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/turner-partnership-openai-startups-tech\/804765\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>partnership with OpenAI<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>, has made a tool available that the rest of the construction industry can now also use on jobsites across the country, the contractor shared on Monday.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Known as SafeT Coach, the generative AI tool is trained on Turner\u2019s environmental, health and safety database and <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/turner-construction-ai-safety-tech-gpt\/819069\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>gives builders plain-language answers<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span> to questions. The current version was built in OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT environment, while the next will be in Google\u2019s Gemini, which will give builders the ability to select whichever tool they prefer. There will also be two versions, one for internal Turner use and one for external use.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>One superintendent, according to the news release, used SafeT Coach to ask whether a vertical shaft qualified as a permit-required confined space. SafeT Coach, in response, generated a decision flow chart, a start-of-day permit checklist and policy citations, which helped the superintendent have a safety conversation with a trade partner\u2019s safety manager.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Since the initial pilot, SafeT Coach has logged more than 25,000 interactions with Turner staff, trade partners and field teams.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Balfour Beatty\u2019s smart alarm<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>London-based infrastructure builder Balfour Beatty knows how dangerous roadside jobsites can be \u2014 for last year\u2019s Safety Week, the firm <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/balfour-beatty-safety-work-zone-highway\/747538\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>recognized traffic as construction\u2019s fifth fatal risk<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>On those jobsites, heavy equipment operators have a lot to worry about, said Jason Sikora, construction manager for Balfour Beatty&#8217;s infrastructure work in the Southeast.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cSo, the operator has to worry about the GPS telling him what to do. He&#8217;s got to worry about the traffic next to him. He&#8217;s got to worry about the people on the ground, the other equipment moving around, like a roller,\u201d Sikora said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\"storylines-carousel-wrapper hide-small show-large\" id=\"desktop-carousel\"\/>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>That\u2019s where Balfour Beatty makes use of equipment manufacturer Caterpillar\u2019s Cat Detect system. Amid all that movement, the system uses intelligent cameras to track people who go near heavy machinery. If they get too close, the system sounds the alarm.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The sensor, Sikora said, is based on speed and movement, with scaling alarms that heighten as a person gets closer to the machine. It\u2019s like a regular backup camera, Sikora explained, that can differentiate between a person and an inanimate object. When a person breaks into preset ranges, an alarm, visual indicator or both will activate.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>For the people on the ground, there may also be an alarm affixed to the equipment to get their attention, a big help on a roadside jobsite where the noise of passing traffic, heavy equipment and other distractions may drown out one source of noise.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>With that in mind, however, Sikora was still adamant that the person was ultimately the focal point for making safety decisions. He echoed a sentiment he\u2019d heard that a human brain was the best computer in the world.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cSo we want to give the person in that seat all the information we can, and they&#8217;re going to make the right choice,\u201d Sikora said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/ai-safety-skanska-turner-balfour-beatty\/819491\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This article was originally posted at Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Listen to the article 5 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. 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