AI Has Typed Your Report. Are You Actually Finished?

AI typed it.  Now what?

AI can produce a transcript remarkably quickly. What it can't necessarily produce is the report you actually want to send to your client.

There is a difference.

If you dictate a report and run the recording through AI or speech-to-text software, you can have pages of text on your screen within minutes.  That is undoubtedly useful. We aren't going to pretend otherwise.

But then comes the less exciting bit.

Has it heard everything correctly?  Has it understood the surveying terminology?  Are your instructions sitting in the middle of the report as though you intended your client to read them?  Is the document in your company template?  Are the headings, tables, photographs and numbering where they should be?

And, most importantly, who is going to sort all that out?

Don't spend an hour preparing it for us

We occasionally come across the assumption that if a surveyor has used AI to produce the first draft, they need to correct and tidy it before sending it to BackupTyping.

You don't.

In fact, if you spend an hour listening back to the recording, correcting the transcript and tidying the document before sending it to us, we've rather missed the point.

Send us the unchecked AI transcript together with the original audio.

We can listen to your recording, check the transcript against what you actually dictated and format the document into your usual company template at the same time.

If something isn't clear on the recording, we'll query it rather than taking an inspired guess.

AI can make very convincing mistakes

One of the problems with AI transcription is that an error doesn't necessarily look like an error.

A misspelt word is easy to spot.  A perfectly ordinary word that happens to be the wrong word can sail through a quick read without attracting any attention at all.

The same applies to figures.  Fifteen and fifty are both perfectly respectable numbers.  Only one may be the number you actually dictated.

Property terminology adds another layer.  BackupTyping has specialised in work for chartered surveyors since 1999, and our typists have previous senior level experience within chartered surveying organisations.  That doesn't make us surveyors, but it does mean an odd looking piece of surveying terminology is more likely to make us stop and listen again.

That human check still matters.

What about your instructions?

Surveyors don't always dictate pristine paragraphs of report wording.

You might say:

“Put that under External Elevations.”

“Insert photograph 17 here.”

“Actually, scrap that last sentence.”

“New paragraph.”

A human typist knows those are instructions.

AI doesn't always get the memo.

If an instruction has ended up sitting cheerfully in the middle of your report, we can deal with it when checking the transcript against the recording.

Use AI.  Just don't create another job for yourself

We aren't anti-AI.  If a piece of technology saves a surveyor time, use it.

What doesn't make much sense is using technology to save 30 minutes and then spending an hour correcting, formatting and generally wrestling with the result.

The way reports are produced is changing and the way you use BackupTyping can change with it.

You can still send us ordinary audio for transcription, just as clients have done for years.  Or you can send us the AI output and original recording and let us take over from there.

 

Already have an AI-generated report sitting on your screen waiting to be checked?  Send us the transcript and the original audio. You don't need to tidy it up for us first. 

Call BackupTyping on 020 7096 1663 or email if you'd like to discuss what you need.

Transcription services for chartered surveyors

AI Can Help Surveyors Prepare Reports. Experience Still Matters.

There’s a great deal of discussion about how AI will change the surveying profession.  Some people are enthusiastic and others are understandably cautious.

We’re interested in how it can make the everyday work of preparing property reports easier.  But there is one important distinction worth making.

Producing a report and providing professional surveying advice are two very different things.

What AI Can Help With

AI-assisted tools can help surveyors organise notes, prepare initial drafts, transcribe dictation and gather information.

They can also help with repetitive administrative tasks that would otherwise take up valuable time.

For a busy chartered surveyor, that’s potentially very useful.

However, AI-generated information still needs checking.  We’ve explored the practical side in Using AI for Survey Reports? Here’s Where Human Support Still Saves Time.

The Surveyor’s Experience Is the Valuable Part

A client instructs a chartered surveyor because they need professional advice.  They want someone who understands buildings, recognises defects, interprets evidence and can explain the implications of what they’ve found.

That requires training, knowledge and experience.  AI can help organise the information, but it cannot take professional responsibility for the report.

An apparently convincing piece of AI-generated text isn’t necessarily accurate.  The surveyor still needs to assess the findings, verify the information and approve the final document.

Where We Fit Into the Process

Our role is different again.  We don’t write surveying reports or provide technical advice.  We take the material supplied by the surveyor and prepare it into the required document.

That might mean transcribing an audio recording, formatting an AI-assisted draft or producing a detailed building survey in the client’s existing template.

Our experience with property terminology and specialist documents helps us identify wording that may need clarification, but where a technical decision is required, we refer it back to the surveyor.

Using Everyone’s Skills Properly

There’s an opportunity here to make report production more efficient without compromising professional standards.

The surveyor provides the expertise.  AI can assist with drafting and administrative tasks.  BackupTyping can take care of transcription, formatting and document production.

 

If you’re introducing AI into your report-writing process and need help with the finished documents, contact BackupTyping on 020 7096 1663 or hello@backuptyping.co.uk.

AI transcription for surveyors

 

 

The Future of Property Typing: There’s Still Plenty to Do

Property typing has changed considerably over the years and we suspect the next few years will bring even more changes.

Speech-to-text is improving, AI is becoming part of everyday working life and surveyors have more ways than ever to produce their reports.

So where does that leave a property typing company like BackupTyping?

We think there’s still plenty to do.  The work is simply changing.

Getting the Words Down Is Getting Easier

For years the usual process was straightforward.  A surveyor dictated a report, sent us the recording and we typed it into their template.

That still happens every day and we’re very happy to continue doing it.

But increasingly surveyors are using speech-to-text or AI-assisted tools to prepare their first drafts.  Some of those drafts are surprisingly good.  Others need rather more attention. We’ve looked at this in Speech-to-Text in Surveying Right Now and Where It Still Falls Short.

Either way, getting the words onto the page is becoming easier.  The question is what happens afterwards.

Someone Still Has to Finish the Report

A first draft is rarely a finished report.  It might need headings, tables, photographs, page numbering, corrections or formatting to match the firm’s existing templates.

Some reports need very little attention while others need considerable work before they’re ready to issue and that work still takes time.

We already have clients who use speech-to-text to produce their drafts before sending them to us for property report formatting and document production.

They use the technology that works for them and we take care of the part they would rather not spend their afternoon doing.  Our article Using AI for Survey Reports? Here’s Where Human Support Still Saves Time explains that approach in more detail.

Where We See Property Typing Going

We expect traditional audio transcription to remain part of our work, particularly for detailed reports and clients who prefer dictating.

But professional document production is becoming increasingly important.  Whether we’re working from an audio recording, an AI-generated draft, a scanned document or a collection of notes, the objective is the same: produce a clear, accurate and properly formatted document.

We have spent more than 25 years working with property professionals.  That experience doesn’t disappear because the technology changes.

There’s Room for Both

We’re not interested in telling surveyors which technology they should use.  If dictation works for you, keep dictating. If AI helps you prepare reports more efficiently, use it.

And if you’re spending too much time correcting formatting, moving sections around or trying to get a document ready to send, that’s where we can help.

Our property typing services are evolving alongside the people who use them.

 

Find out how BackupTyping can help with transcription, document formatting and report production, call 020 7096 1663 or message us at hello@backuptyping.co.uk.

dictation app for surveyors

Why Speech to Text Still Needs Human Editing in Professional Reports

 

 

BackupTyping has supported chartered surveyors since 1999 with accurate, proofread report typing and flexible turnaround options.

dictation app for surveyors