Voice recognition accuracy at 94.6%

'Smart safety training' also standardized

Daewoo Engineering & Construction conducts on-site safety training using an AI real-time translator. [Daewoo E&C]
Daewoo Engineering & Construction conducts on-site safety training using an AI real-time translator. [Daewoo E&C]

Daewoo Engineering & Construction announced Tuesday it will introduce an AI real-time translator to standardize its "smart safety training" program, improve operational efficiency and help foreign workers better understand safety instructions.

Daewoo E&C will expand the AI real-time translator to all its domestic construction sites to strengthen on-site communication. The system translates a supervisor's Korean safety briefings into the foreign worker's language in real time, delivering the output simultaneously as on-screen text and audio. The company designed the tool to work across a range of settings — from smart safety training venues to general meeting rooms and on-site classrooms.

A pilot run showed the system's Korean voice recognition accuracy reached 94.6%. Building on that result, foreign workers showed an overall improvement in their awareness and understanding of safety-related content, and the number of repeated safety announcements fell, significantly reducing on-site confusion caused by language barriers. The results also eased the burden of repetitive briefings and improved meeting efficiency.

Daewoo E&C began rolling out the standardized AI real-time translator across all domestic sites this month. The move aims to ensure that essential safety rules and work instructions are conveyed accurately to foreign workers, closing safety gaps caused by language barriers.

Daewoo Engineering & Construction employees conduct tablet-based smart safety training at the construction site of the G-Town development project in Gwacheon. [Daewoo E&C]
Daewoo Engineering & Construction employees conduct tablet-based smart safety training at the construction site of the G-Town development project in Gwacheon. [Daewoo E&C]

The company's "smart safety training" system is a digital platform that conducts new-hire and periodic safety training for on-site workers using tablet PCs. The entire training process — from registering worker information and checking health status to generating post-training reports — has been digitized, reducing the paperwork burden on site managers and improving practical efficiency.

The smart safety training system is integrated with SMARTy, Daewoo E&C's unified safety and health management platform, enabling automatic management of training data. The pilot showed data-sync reliability of 99 percent or higher. The standardized rollout is expected to significantly cut paperwork and administrative burdens at construction sites, allowing site managers to focus more fully on their core safety management duties.

A safety and health official at Daewoo E&C's headquarters said the smart safety training system and AI real-time translator are "practical on-site support solutions that reduce unnecessary administrative work while ensuring safety information is delivered accurately to workers." The official added that the company would "continue to actively adopt smart safety technologies with proven on-site effectiveness to steadily raise the level of safety management."

Going forward, Daewoo E&C plans to gather feedback from the field to further refine the systems' capabilities. The company also intends to run pilot programs for a range of other smart safety technologies — including AI-enabled CCTV and smartphone-based location tracking — before rolling them out to sites in stages.

Daewoo E&C has also partnered with the Korea Institute of Disaster and Safety to strengthen safety management at construction sites. The two sides will jointly pursue research and development for accident prevention, safety education and professional training programs.


hss@heraldcorp.com