Site visit reports by voice with AI: from voice note to reviewed report

After every site visit someone has to write up what was seen and what was agreed: who was there, how the work is going, what needs correcting, who is responsible and by when. It is usually done in the afternoon, from memory and with the photos on the phone, and the report reaches the contractor and the client one or several days later.

With AI, the technician dictates during the visit or on leaving the site, the phone turns the voice note into text and the AI organises it into a report using the practice's template. The technician reviews it, corrects whatever is needed and signs it. The report can go out the same day, and nobody writes it from scratch.

How it works, step by step

1. Dictate on site. During the walk-round or at the end, a voice note on the phone: attendees, the state of each work front, incidents, instructions and agreements. Photos are taken from the same app and are linked to the moment in the audio when they were taken.
2. Turn the audio into text on the phone itself. Transcription happens on the device, without sending the audio to any server and without needing coverage, which helps in basements and on sites with no signal. Only the text reaches the server.
3. Organise the report with the practice's template. The AI distributes what was dictated into the sections of the report: project and visit details, attendees, state of the works, incidents, instructions, agreements with owner and deadline, and open items. The template fixes the structure and the wording that never changes. The AI only organises and writes up what was said.
4. Cross-check with the previous visit. Open items from the previous report appear in the new one, so you can mark which have been resolved and which remain open.
5. Review and sign. The technician reads the draft, corrects and signs. Whatever the AI did not understand well (a name, a reference, a figure) is flagged as doubtful so that it is not taken as correct.
6. Send and file. The signed report goes to the contractor and the client and is stored in the file for that project, next to the previous ones.

The same method works for the site manager's or foreman's daily report. In construction cost control with AI (in Spanish) we explain how a report dictated at the end of the working day becomes hours, work fronts and materials allocated to each project.

What changes day to day

You save the time spent writing up and, above all, the delay: the report arrives while the agreements are still fresh, and the contractor knows the same day what has to be corrected. The visit, the decisions and the signature remain the technician's.

Some already use it for more than the report. A Seattle contractor, Kolmo, prepares a detailed quote for a job from voice notes and photos taken during the visit and hands it to the client in under a minute, as GeekWire reported in October 2026.

What it does not replace: the official site books

The site visit report is a working document. In Spain, the official site books have their own rules:

• The Libro de Órdenes y Asistencias (orders book), where the project director and the construction director record their instructions (articles 12.3.c and 13.2.d of the Spanish Building Act, the Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación).
• The Libro de Incidencias (health and safety incidents book), used to monitor the health and safety plan (article 13 of Royal Decree 1627/1997).

The AI can prepare the wording of an instruction from what was dictated, but the entry in each book and the signature belong to the technician, in that book's format. And if a decision is not in the voice note, the report does not add it.

Noise, names and sites with no coverage

• Noise. A machine nearby makes transcription worse. The practical thing is to dictate at the end of each area or from a quiet spot; a lapel microphone also helps.
• Names and references. Companies, people and references such as "column 12" or "second-floor slab" are recognised better with a project glossary: participants, subcontractors and the project's naming. The app uses it to correct the transcription.
• No coverage. Because the audio is transcribed on the phone, you can dictate in a basement. Sending waits until there is a connection.

Privacy: the audio never leaves the phone

A site voice note contains voices, names and sometimes third-party data. That is why the audio is transcribed on the phone and not uploaded anywhere: only the text reaches the server, where it is processed on infrastructure in the European Union and is not used to train models. Each person sees only the projects assigned to them, and the processing is governed by a data processing agreement. Details in where is your company's data processed? (in Spanish).

At Tecnea we use this same on-phone transcription engine for the minutes of our own meetings.

How it is rolled out and what it costs

It starts with a real project:

1. The practice's or company's report template, plus a few good reports as reference.
2. The project glossary: participants, subcontractors and the project's naming.
3. Tests on real visits, comparing the time to prepare the report before and after, including review time.

At Tecnea, the proof of concept starts at €850, full development ranges from €5,000 to €20,000 and the monthly fee starts at €250 (what each amount includes, in Spanish). For a practice, site reports usually come within an AI document assistant for architecture and engineering (in Spanish), alongside project descriptions, technical reports and certificates. More use cases for the sector in AI for construction companies and developers (in Spanish).

Frequently asked questions

Can a site visit report be made from a voice note?

Yes. The technician dictates, the phone turns the audio into text and the AI organises the content in the report template. The technician reviews and signs the result, so the report remains theirs.

Does it work on any phone?

On-device transcription needs a recent phone that supports it. If the phone does not, the audio can be transcribed on a server in the European Union and deleted afterwards. This is decided in the proof of concept.

Can it write directly in the orders book?

No. It can prepare the wording of the instruction, but the entry and signature in the Libro de Órdenes y Asistencias belong to the project director or the construction director.

Does it also work for the contractor's site manager?

Yes. The same system covers the daily report and the minutes of site meetings, each with its own template.

If you would like to try it on one of your projects, tell us how you do your site reports today.

This article is informational. Tecnea develops custom AI applications for architecture practices, engineering firms and contractors, so we have a commercial interest in the topic. What it says about the site books summarises Spanish regulations and does not replace the legislation or the judgement of the project management team.

Sources

1. Ley 38/1999, de 5 de noviembre, de Ordenación de la Edificación (articles 12 and 13): boe.es
2. Real Decreto 1627/1997, de 24 de octubre, on minimum health and safety requirements on construction sites (article 13): boe.es
3. GeekWire, "Seattle software engineer turned general contractor built an AI guide to the patchwork of permit rules" (2 October 2026): geekwire.com