The Ultimate Guide to Digitally Assisted Road Inspection

AI can’t solve everything just yet — your human skills count

Written by Glenn Brouwer | Apr 11, 2024 12:17:04 PM

The Ultimate Guide to Digitally Assisted Road Inspection, Blog 5/5

Since ChatGPT and other systems brought AI applications to the general public, AI has been seen as a necessity for many of the challenges we face in our professional and personal lives. But AI is not yet the answer to everything...

For starters, AI can be very helpful for road inspectors. But humans need to be in the loop to apply their experience, improve the data, and get the quality insights we really need. That’s why you need a system that combines infrastructure knowledge with human road inspection experience and AI. This can still be challenging, but we add ‘focus’ to these ingredients.

Now the system can offer you a digital inspector powered by the latest technology (like AI). It gives road inspectors all the information they need to take maintenance action at the right time, adding years to the life of our road assets and sustaining the network well into the future.

|  Never compromise the irreplaceable value of human oversight

By integrating AI-Assisted Visual Inspection (AVI), INSPECH Assessment addresses a key challenge in inspection: harnessing the power of AI without compromising the irreplaceable value of human oversight.

The INSPECH Platform Subscription Service isn’t just a tool; it’s a transformative bridge that enables road inspectors to perform their duties with unparalleled efficiency, enriched knowledge, and unwavering precision.



AVI is designed to enhance the skills of road inspectors and improve the overall inspection process, however, it’s up to the human inspector to accept or reject the recommendation. So it’s not a black box AI solution. At least at INSPECH it is not, and since we are the only ones offering it, we can tell you about the unique benefits.

|  INSPECH UNIQUE BENEFITS

  • Optional AI-Assisted Visual Inspection capability
    With this feature, you can choose whether you want our digital inspector to make recommendations to you, but you don’t have to. Ours is not a black box AI solution that makes automated (and often inaccurate) predictions, it is rather a transparent AI where you as the inspector always remain the conductor of the inspection you deliver to your consumer.
  • Ignore AI as you like (or accept, or modify)
    Despite the fact that a computer can see data more consistently, accurately and quickly than a human (it also never gets tired and is very good at processing lots of data), the human road inspector can accept, modify or reject the AI-driven recommendations of the digital inspector.
  • But humans won’t be ignored
    “The human in the loop” is also a unique differentiator, as the published inspection from INSPECH Assessment is always checked by a real road inspector.
  • High accuracy, low in boredom
    AI is very good at handling a lot of visual data, so make use of that. To us humans, working with repetitive, monotonous visual data can be very “boring” and accuracy will fall after a very short time.

|  A new standard for collaboration

INSPECH is a collaborative platform that optimizes road inspection processes and improves overall road maintenance efficiency. It serves local authorities, road owners/operators, contractors, public-private partnerships (PPPs) and road agencies.



INSPECH is designed by road inspectors, for road inspectors. This intrinsic focus on the needs of the inspection process drives a deep understanding of the challenges and nuances that inspectors and asset managers face on a daily basis.