This is the story of a how a major marine contractor from Denmark is empowering a new generation of employees and securely leveraging AI technology to enhance business operations.
At Rohde Nielsen (RN), adaptability has always been a cornerstone of their success. The Danish marine contractor is known for their efficiency and determination to get the job done, whether dredging, trenching, or building. And against the odds, they have consistently competed head-to-head with international competition and stayed ahead of the game with their know-how and can-do attitude.
From curiosity to capability
When ChatGPT was released in 2023 and everyone, including RN employees, began testing the powers of AI, the company’s leadership was naturally eager to unlock the potential productivity benefits and further boost their competitiveness.
But the public tools available posed risks that RN couldn’t afford.
Rohde Nielsen is a Danish dredging and marine contractor specializing in coastal protection, port development, and seabed interventions worldwide.
Procurement contracts, intellectual property and financial data feeding into external models? No thanks.
And Microsoft 365 Copilot, while an amazing product and incredibly powerful, was “too much too soon”.
RN needed something easy to use and equally intelligent, but safe to use within their own environment.
With VENZO’s help, RN began developing a custom “Rohde Nielsen Copilot”. A ChatGPT-like AI assistant designed to fit RN’s specific needs, operating securely within their infrastructure. It wasn’t a one-size-fits-all solution but a branded and secure way of providing their employees with controlled access to the power of AI.
One thing leads to the next
In a popular Danish children’s story called “Malermester Klat” (Blob the Painter) a painter decides to paint his new chair red. However, things take a turn when a splatter of paint spills onto the floor, leading him to paint the floor as well. This triggers a chain reaction, where more and more items end up being painted red.
Similarly, at first, the RN Copilot project was straightforward: build a tool that assists with simple queries and workflows.
But as the technology evolved and employees began asking for more, the scope quickly expanded. They didn’t just want answers, they wanted insight.
Could the RN Copilot integrate and index data from SharePoint? Could it turn hours of manual searches into minutes? Could it handle foreign language reports and integrate complex documents?
The answer was “Yes”, but it required further changes.
And it required a new approach to data security and a gradual modernization of RN’s digital foundation.
"We wanted to provide our employees with the best possible AI-tools without compromising security. The Rohde Nielsen Copilot has been a real game-changer for us. It’s already saved us a ton of time and improved the quality of especially administrative tasks. The whole project has been an important step in modernizing the entire organization to stay ahead in our industry."
Christopher Skotte Rohde, Deputy Managing Director
A catalyst for digital change
And so, the RN Copilot became more than just a new AI tool. To unlock the full potential of the AI tool, RN and VENZO migrated on-premises data to SharePoint and established new data protection rules and governance so that the new features could be deployed and used securely.
RN and VENZO also prepared special training for selected Copilot ambassadors, particularly among the younger employees.
This has already contributed positively to RN’s reputation as a forward-thinking and modern workplace. But most importantly, the training as empowered the younger generation in RN with both new tools and new responsibilities for helping colleagues adopt the AI assistant, revealing several valuable use cases.
Useful and valuable
An example of this is streamlining contract procedure comparisons. After signing a contract, RN typically deals with over 200 procedures that need to be reviewed and compared. Previously, this involved a lot of manual comparison and repetitive work. With RN Copilot, this task is done quickly and efficiently, significantly reducing time and effort.
Another use case is enhancing sustainability reporting. RN Copilot excels at cleaning up input, updating, and refreshing content from previous years, ensuring that sustainability reports are accurate, up-to-date, and professionally presented.
Additionally, because RN operates in many different markets across the globe, the RN Copilot’s advanced spell-checking and translation services are helping ensure effective and professional communication with international clients and partners.
Continuous improvements
The employees are already looking forward to the next versions of the RN Copilot. Most recently, VENZO rolled out the ability to analyse, PDF-files, image files and handle longer, more complex documents.
But with data secure and a modernised digital foundation, RN can now also start looking into the next generation of AI, including AI agents, and its enormous potential for the future of both RN and the maritime industry.
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