内容来源：https://news.microsoft.com/source/emea/features/how-kier-groups-louisa-finlay-is-using-copilot-to-drive-safety-and-productivity-in-the-construction-industry/

内容总结：

英国基建企业基尔集团推行人工智能应用初见成效。两年前，这家总部位于索尔福德的企业决定引入AI技术，希望借此提升生产力和安全水平，但部分高层管理人员因业务繁忙且不熟悉新技术而表现出犹豫。集团首席运营官路易莎·芬利表示，她愿意充当“提出蠢问题的那个人”，但也承认对高层而言，公开表现无知确实令人担忧。

为鼓励尝试，集团举办了一系列“即时提示挑战赛”活动，让员工分组测试AI辅助工具。一组仅凭自身知识回答问题，另一组则借助微软Copilot AI助手作答。此外，集团还通过趣味性提示引导员工使用AI，例如让参与者请Copilot回顾其邮件、会议纪要和协作记录，并分析他们最像某部电影里的哪个角色，同时由AI指出其领导力优势和盲区，并提供未来一年的改进建议。

芬利表示，这种小组同伴学习模式反响热烈，让人们不必担心“不够聪明”，可以坦然提问。自那以后，Copilot的使用量迅速增长。基尔集团拥有约1.1万名员工，业务涵盖学校、监狱等多种建筑项目，并设有规模快速增长的基础设施服务部门。目前约四成员工使用微软365 Copilot，其余员工使用Teams Premium获得高级AI会议功能。

在安全管理方面，集团正开发AI代理以收集整理安全数据，辅助人工分析潜在风险，并对施工现场照片及无人机视频进行智能识别，减少高处作业需求。芬利强调：“AI支持员工日常工作，但必须有人类掌控，我们称之为‘人在舵位’。”IT部门还在研发能加快响应速度的AI代理，同时保留人工干预通道，数据安全存储于微软Azure云平台。集团还计划在设施管理领域运用AI预测水泵、电梯等关键部件维护需求，保障运营连续性。

芬利认为，虽然AI和机器人技术潜力巨大，企业仍需持续引进毕业生和学徒，从基层学习行业技能并监督日益由AI处理的常规工作。她将员工AI培训列为首要任务，认为小组学习优于个人在线课程。下一步，集团将加强内部经验分享，营造“安全环境”供员工互相学习，并采纳员工提出的AI应用新思路。一位患阅读障碍的现场经理来信感谢芬利，称Copilot对他而言是“游戏规则改变者”，这让芬利倍感欣慰。

她说：“借助Copilot和AI，我们希望人们明白，这是让员工自己解决问题，而不是被动接受技术。如今我们最看重的技能是好奇心，以及勇于尝试新事物的态度——‘这是什么？我能试试吗？’”

中文翻译：

两年前，Kier Group plc决定拥抱人工智能——在同事和同行的些许帮助下。

这家英国建筑与基础设施公司的管理层对AI在提升生产力和强化安全实践方面的前景感到兴奋。但“一些领导者比较 reticent（沉默寡言），因为他们非常忙碌，而且这是新技术，”Kier的首席运营官路易莎·芬利表示。

“我很乐意做那个问‘傻问题’的人，”她说。“但如果你是一位高级领导者，这可能相当令人担忧。”

为了鼓励尝试，高管和同事们被邀请参加一系列“提示词马拉松”活动，鼓励他们用AI来检验自己的知识。一个团队被要求独立回答问题，而另一个团队则被要求使用微软的Copilot AI助手回答同样的问题。

另外，Kier通过向公司内多位意见领袖和领导者提出有趣的提示词来鼓励AI的采用。参与者要求Copilot审阅他们过去六个月的电子邮件、会议文档和协作记录，然后识别出他们会是某部最喜欢的电影中的哪个角色。选择参与的同事让Copilot识别出参与者的领导优势和盲点——并获得有助于他们在未来12个月内变得更高效的建议。

“那之后的参与度令人惊叹，”芬利说。通过在小型同行群体中开展培训，提示词马拉松“让人们感到舒适，不必担心自己不是房间里最聪明的人，知道提问和不知道答案都是可以的。”她表示，自那以后，Copilot的使用“迅猛增长”。

Kier拥有约11,000名员工，总部位于英格兰索尔福德，距离北部工业重镇曼彻斯特不远。该公司承建从学校到监狱的各种建筑，并拥有一个快速增长的基础设施服务部门，负责建造和管理大型水利和核能项目。约40%的同事使用Microsoft 365 Copilot；其余人使用Teams Premium，该版本为Teams聊天和会议功能增加了高级AI特性。

使用AI代理支持安全

芬利在Outlook、Excel、Teams和PowerPoint中使用Copilot。在日常工作中，她可能会让Copilot对电子邮件进行优先级排序、开展研究或起草职位描述初稿。她还依赖Copilot来“串联各种信息，给你提供原本得不到的洞察。它几乎为我每天做的所有事情增加了价值。”下班后，她用Copilot帮助规划旅行行程、制作测验题来娱乐家人和朋友。

Kier还处于开发一系列AI代理的“早期阶段”。其中一个正在开发中，用于帮助收集和组织可分析的安全数据，以协助监督该代理的人类处理潜在风险区域和其他前瞻性行动。另一个正在接受Kier安全标准的训练，并与记录工地、设备和物资的照片以及Kier从其庞大建筑组合中收集的无人机视频相连接。芬利表示，无人机减少了对人员高空作业或接触危险环境的需求。

“AI正在支持我们员工的日常活动，但我们强调他们必须掌控全局。我们称之为‘人类掌舵’，”芬利说。

IT部门正在开发一个AI代理，旨在加快响应时间，同时仍允许人们在需要时快速直接与人工通话。数据安全存储在微软的Azure云平台上。

“我们努力让人们轻松实现高效和安全，”芬利说。

Kier还计划在其设施管理业务中部署AI，帮助预测复杂建筑部件（如水泵或电梯）何时可能需要维护，以支持运营的连续性。

培训同事自信地使用AI

虽然芬利认为AI和机器人在提升整个建筑业务的效率和生产力以及使工地更安全方面具有巨大潜力，“我们仍然需要引进新的毕业生和学徒”，让他们从头学起这门手艺，并监督越来越多由AI处理的日常性工作。

对公司全员进行AI使用培训是芬利的首要任务。她认为，相比于个人独自完成的网络研讨会或其他计算机培训课程，人们在小型同伴学习小组（如提示词马拉松）中能学到更多、也更享受。

下一步包括在公司内部分享更多同事的故事，以便人们在“安全的环境中”相互学习，并回应员工就工作中应用AI的新方式提交的想法。芬利特别欣慰地收到了一位恰巧有阅读障碍的工地经理的电子邮件，感谢她推行AI，并告诉她使用Copilot对他来说“改变了游戏规则”。

“借助Copilot和AI，我们希望人们明白，这是关于人们自己解决自己的问题。这不是强加给他们的，”芬利说。

“如今我们能要求每个人具备的最大技能就是好奇心，以及愿意尝试新事物的态度，”她补充道。“你知道，‘这是什么？我能试试吗？’”

英文来源：

Two years ago, Kier Group plc decided to embrace AI – with a little help from work friends and peers.
Executives at the UK construction and infrastructure firm were excited by AI’s promise to boost productivity and enhance safety practices. But “some leaders were reticent because they were very busy and it is new technology,” says Louisa Finlay, chief operating officer of Kier.
“I will happily be the one that asks the silly question,” she notes. “But if you are a senior leader, that can be quite worrying.”
To encourage experimentation, executives and colleagues were invited to a series of “prompt-a-thons,” where they were encouraged to test their knowledge against AI. One team was asked to answer questions on their own, while a second team was asked to answer the same questions using Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant.
Separately, Kier encouraged AI adoption via fun prompts posed to multiple influencers and leaders throughout the company. Participants asked Copilot to review their emails, meeting documents and collaborations over the past six months and then identify which character they’d be in one of their favorite films. Colleagues who chose to participate enabled Copilot to identify participants’ leadership strengths and blind spots – and receive advice that would help them become more effective over the next 12 months.
“The engagement following that was amazing,” says Finlay. By conducting the training in small peer groups, the prompt-a-thon “allowed people to feel comfortable not being the cleverest person in the room, knowing it’s OK to ask questions and not know the answers.” Since then, she says, Copilot use has “taken off.”
Kier has roughly 11,000 employees and is based in Salford, England, not far from the northern industrial hub of Manchester. The company builds everything from schools to prisons and has a fast-growing infrastructure services division that builds and manages large-scale water and nuclear energy projects. About 40 percent of colleagues use Microsoft 365 Copilot; the rest have Teams Premium, which adds advanced AI features to the Teams chat and meeting functions.
Using AI agents to support safety
Finlay uses Copilot within Outlook, Excel, Teams and PowerPoint. On any given day, she may ask Copilot to prioritize emails, conduct research or start the first draft of a job description. She also counts on Copilot for “joining the dots and giving you insights you wouldn’t get otherwise. It adds value to nearly everything I do day to day.” When not at work, she uses it to help plan travel itineraries and make up quizzes to entertain family and friends.
Kier is also in the “early stages” of developing a series of AI agents. One is being developed to help collect and organize safety data that can be analyzed to help humans overseeing the agent to address possible risk areas and other forward-looking actions. Another is being trained on Kier safety standards and links to photographs documenting job sites, equipment and supplies, as well as drone video Kier collects from its vast construction portfolio. Drones, says Finlay, reduce the need for people to work at height or interact with
“AI is supporting our people in their day-to-day activities, but we stress that they must be in control. We call it “Human at the Helm,” says Finlay.
IT is developing an AI agent that is designed to speed up response times while still allowing people to quickly speak directly to a human as needed. . Data is securely stored on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
“We’re trying to make it easy for people to be productive and safe,” says Finlay.
Kier is also looking to deploy AI in its facilities management business, to help predict when complex building parts, such as pumps or elevators, might need servicing to help support continuity of operation.
Training colleagues to use AI with confidence
While Finlay believes AI and robotics have huge potential to boost efficiency and productivity across the construction business, and make job sites safer, “we still need to bring on new graduates and apprentices” to learn the trade from the ground up and supervise more routine work that is increasingly being handled by AI.
Training colleagues throughout the company to be comfortable using AI is a top priority for Finlay. She believes people learn more and enjoy small group peer learning sessions, such as prompt-a-thons, over webinars or other computer-based training sessions that individuals do on their own.
Next steps include sharing more colleague stories inside the company, so people can learn from each other in a “safe environment,” and responding to ideas submitted by employees about new ways to apply AI at work. Finlay was particularly gratified to receive an email from a site manager who happens to be dyslexic thanking her for rolling out AI and telling her using Copilot was “game changing” for him.
“With Copilot and AI, we want people to know this is about people solving their own problems. It’s not being done to them,” says Finlay.
“The biggest skill we can ask from everybody these days is curiosity and being willing to try new things,” she adds. “You know, ‘What is it? Can I try it?”