By Frank Baldrighi, Business Development Manager – Australia and New Zealand, Getac
As workplace accidents and staff shortages continue to commonly occur, digital transformation is essential to streamlining operational processes, driving productivity, and, most importantly, enhancing safety and security for workers.
Particularly in heavy industries, digital transformation helps to automate processes, which reduces the need for human workers to be in risky environments around heavy machinery.
Across Australia and New Zealand, spending on Internet of Things (IoT) products and services – such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud, and big data – is expected to reach $24 billion in 2026, with manufacturing, utilities, and transportation accounting for more than half (54.6 per cent) of the market share.
While IoT solutions are becoming increasingly critical for business efficiencies, they aren’t the only innovative solutions that have emerged as crucial deployments for heavy industries. More organisations than ever are investing in voice recognition software assistive technology to enhance their operations, increase efficiencies, and, ultimately, improve safety across job sites for workers in rugged industries.
Assistive technology in tough environments
Voice recognition as a tool has emerged from a primarily home-based utility to permeate – and enhance – rugged industries, by increasing the speed, accuracy, efficiency, and most importantly, the safety of operations.
On a fundamental level, it lets workers operate machinery, access data, and communicate hands-free, among other uses, reducing the potential for accidents on job sites. There are multiple uses for voice recognition software assistive technology across rugged industries to enhance safety and efficiency in operations, including in the utility, transport and logistics sectors.
Utilities
One of the biggest uses for voice recognition software assistive technology in utilities is its capacity to alert utility providers with updates on service interruptions and on-site safety. Primarily, this ensures frontline workers can quickly access key information while still easily and efficiently performing their tasks hands-free.
This is achieved by embedding on-demand AI via voice into rugged devices and tablets, which ensures technicians cancomplete hands-free references with their rugged mobile devices without sacrificing safety. For example, field workers can access relevant information via voice commands to complete activities, while navigating freely on utility poles.
Transportation and logistics
A key application for voice recognition software assistive technology in transport and logistics is the improvement of the safety of long-haul fleet delivery by empowering drivers to give commands or ask questions without diverting their attention from the road ahead, much like a consumer-grade GPS.
For example, drivers can use voice-activated navigation to access directions or receive updates on traffic conditions to reduce traffic waiting times, increase delivery throughput, and enhance driver safety by avoiding road incidents. From a logistics perspective, workers in warehousing or distribution centres can improve speed, accuracy, and safety by using speech recognition to verbally confirm product picking.
Transportation and logistics environments can be overwhelmingly busy and full of competing noises. When it comes to voice recognition software assistive technology, solutions enhanced with noise reduction technology are essential in optimising voice-controlled solutions in a realworld environment.
Elevating worker safety and productivity
Voice recognition software assistive technology’s popularity has grown in many industries, including those operating in rugged environments like utilities and transport and logistics, by enhancing operations and improving safety.
Businesses that continue to explore the applications of voice recognition software assistive technology across their operations will continue to uncover efficiencies without sacrificing worker safety.
Combining voice recognition software assistive technology with other IoT solutions allows businesses to take safety and efficiency to the next level, eliminating the need for select workers to be onsite and empowering other workers to operate at a distance, or more safely, depending on their roles.
As voice recognition software assistive technology continues to evolve, savvy businesses that make the leap today to new and innovative solutions will reap the benefits, as will their workers. Automation and innovation isn’t just for thefuture of rugged technologies; it’s for the now.
This sponsored editorial is brought to you by Getac. For more information, visit www.getac.com
