Human excellence is rooted in some really versatile factors, and yet nothing gives a better insight into it than our willingness to grow on a consistent basis. This unwavering commitment towards growth, under all possibilities circumstances, has brought the world some huge milestones, with technology emerging as quite a major member of the group. The reason why we hold technology in such a high regard is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which guided us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface for one hot second, it will become clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component, in fact, did a lot to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and as a result, initiated a full-blown tech revolution. Of course, the next thing this revolution did was to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after reaching so far ahead, this prodigious concept called technology will somehow continue to bring forth the right goods. The same has turned more and more evident in recent times, and assuming one new construction-themed development ends up with the desired impact, it will only put that trend on a higher pedestal moving forward.

Quickbase, a a Boston-based company, has officially launched a full suite of AI capabilities called Quickbase AI, which is designed to accelerate the development of all those apps that can solve for us our construction problems. Available through the company’s proprietary platform, the stated assortment of solutions brings, for starters, a Smart Builder solution. According to certain reports, this particular solution leverages generative AI and natural language processing technology to capture user-defined descriptions of business problems, and subsequently, identify data sources and approaches that can address these problems in a befitting fashion. Next up, we have Data Analyzer, a solution meant to gauge unseen patterns across data, regardless of where that data is stored, be it in hybrid, relational or graph databases, for the purpose of predicting key outcomes. Such a feature, on its part, should be able to manufacture an integrated and simplified data user experience to discover opportunities and risks that can potentially impact a business’ performance in the short and long-term. Having referred to data analysis, there is also a dedicated Data Scanning capability in play. Basically a proactive data governance and protection tool, this one bets on machine learning to scan for detrimental patterns and outputs across silos and applications for easier and faster classification and removal, along with continuous protection.

Hold on, we are far from done. In the context of Quickbase’s acquisition of Merge Mobile earlier this year, the company will also have a chance to use the latter’s flagship product, FastField Mobile Forms, which can turn the entire data collection procedure a lot easier, while simultaneously straightening up the wrinkles around custom workflow automation as well. Owing to these features, the company will further make a point to offer users a pathway to build and deploy dynamic mobile forms that capture data from the field in real-time or even offline, if the internet connection is not available. Next up, beneficiaries can expect a framework where they will have the means to seamlessly manage tasks and trigger automated workflows for processes including inspections, work orders, on-site surveys, and safety audits. Surely, there is a lot that the flagship product in question brings to the table, but what we still haven’t mentioned is how it will enhance the presence of existing native features on our handset like phones and geolocation. This translates to the fact that citizen-developers can now create native mobile apps which understand their operating environments.

“(FastField) really addresses one of the things our customers have been asking us for for years, which is to bring no-code to building mobile solutions for everyone in the field,” said Peter Rifken, a solutions consultant at Quickbase. “So, a lot of safety workflows, incident tracking, timesheets—all the things that are so custom and specific and nuanced for construction. We’re now giving the knowledge workers in this space the ability to build really end-to-end solutions, where FastField does the field-based work, the inspections and audits, and then we bring it into QuickBase.”

Surely, the pure technological prowess is a big reason why Quickbase’s latest move is so significant, but bringing further importance here is the way Quickbase AI diverges from the industry norm. You see, construction software companies have entrusted AI, so far, just to address functions like go-no-go decisions, estimating, planning and other core processes. The AI suite in focus, however, hands us tools that nonprogrammers can use to create their own purpose-built enterprise software applications.

“We provide a lot of reference templates, reference architectures, things that are [a] starting point for—call it a safety inspection, call it a checklist, call it an installation,” Rifken said. “You want to give someone a starting point, but then you pull it up, and you add your own fields; you switch around the order; you add sections. So a lot of what our customers want is flexibility and customizability. They like to take things that are templates, that are 80% or 60%, and then add the things that are business-specific. And that’s where Quickbase really shines.”