Abstract

The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in the United States faces a scarcity of skilled labor workers. Previous efforts in academia and industry have investigated various approaches to improve worker productivity. Voice-based systems present opportunities to improve worker productivity, but their us-ability and applicability in unstructured and noisy occupational settings such as those inherent in construction projects has not been explored. This study describes a prototype Voice-based Intelligent Virtual Agent (VIVA) and evaluates its impact on construction worker productivity. A usability study was conducted involving 20 students to evaluate VIVA's support on workers' performance and cognitive workload. The results corroborated perfor-mance gains with VIVA. Results from workload demonstrates that intervention through voice assistance does not impose cognitive burden on workers. The proposed solution provides a novel use of voice-based agents, in a dynamic and noisy occupational setting, compared to the conventional use of voice assistants in stationary or structured settings.