Dive brief:
- Skanska USA last month unveiled a generative AI chatbot it calls Sidekick to help the company’s employees tap into the company’s collective expertise on projects and issues, the company told Construction Dive.
- Based on the same technology as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, users can ask questions of the large language model, to which it responds with answers based on a collection of internal data that will remain within Skanska’s proprietary cloud, according to the company.
- The product is intended for internal use by Skanska employees and will not be sold commercially, the company told Construction Dive. The company has been using the chatbot across its entire company since December.
Diving knowledge:
Will Senner, Skanska USA’s data solutions leader, told Construction Dive that the company’s emphasis on chatbot security came amid high-profile breaches at other corporations, including Samsung data leak on ChatGPT.
The team’s goal in designing the model was to allow users to ask questions without the fear of accidentally leaving sensitive information in the public domain.
“We wanted to focus on getting a tool available to our people where we could provide a safe environment,” Senner said.
The company said employees across all sectors and projects in the market are leveraging it on jobs and projects. It also plans to develop functionality and add more features and use cases as time goes on.
Skanska is not the only company that has studied emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence: the tools have dominated the attention of the builders all over the country
Besides, organizations such as builders and associated contractors and companies like DPR Construction share Skanska’s cautious approach to using technology. DPR recently issued a report that advocated careful application of AI in construction.
