Story · AI Systems · Hospitality & Entertainment

Technicians Get Answers in Seconds, Not Hours: An AI-Powered Maintenance Knowledge Assistant

Industry: Hospitality & Entertainment

Platform

Microsoft Azure + LLMs

Approach

RAG with full source traceability

Integration

Enterprise ticketing (CMMS)

The Challenge: Knowledge Trapped in Thousands of Pages

How Sphere transformed thousands of pages of engineering drawings, manuals, and procedures into a conversational, fully traceable knowledge platform for a world-class hospitality and entertainment operator — built on Microsoft Azure with retrieval-augmented generation.

The client operates a portfolio of world-class hospitality and entertainment destinations. Maintaining these complex facilities requires technicians to access vast amounts of engineering documentation — drawings, equipment specifications, maintenance procedures, technical manuals, and historical operational knowledge.

Much of this content lived in scanned drawings, technical diagrams, and unstructured documents that traditional document management systems couldn’t meaningfully search. The result:

Excessive time spent locating information across multiple systems

Heavy dependence on tribal knowledge from senior technicians

Slow onboarding for new team members

Constant context switching between documentation and ticketing tools

The Solution: A Technician Knowledge Assistant Built on Azure

The mandate: give technicians immediate, trustworthy answers — with every answer traceable back to approved source documentation.

Sphere designed and delivered an AI-Powered Technician Knowledge Assistant combining document intelligence, computer vision, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and workflow automation in a single technician experience.

Intelligent Document & Drawing Processing
An AI extraction engine processes engineering drawings, scanned images, diagrams, and manuals — automatically correcting orientation, enhancing quality, extracting structured knowledge, mapping equipment-to-location relationships, and preserving source traceability for every insight.
AI-Powered Knowledge Layer
Extracted content feeds a centralized repository with vector-based semantic search, context-aware retrieval, equipment metadata relationships, and governance controls — so technicians find answers by meaning and intent, not exact keywords.
Conversational Assistant
Technicians simply ask: “How do I replace the actuator on AHU-12?” · “What are the troubleshooting steps for this HVAC alarm?” · “Where is the shutoff valve for this equipment?” Every response is grounded in enterprise documentation with source citations attached.
Integrated Ticketing — One Workflow
Sphere integrated the assistant with the client’s enterprise maintenance ticketing system, letting technicians create, view, and update tickets without ever leaving the assistant — eliminating system switching entirely.

Solution Architecture

How It Works: End-to-End on Azure

A six-layer Azure-native architecture processes your documentation and delivers answers — fully within your cloud environment, with no data ever leaving your tenant.

Document ingestion flow: Source Systems → Ingestion → Storage → Processing → AI → Knowledge & Data

Question answering flow: Users → Application → Knowledge & AI → Application → Response with citations

Data Ingestion

Azure Functions, File/API intake, bulk loader — ingesting PDFs, drawings, and raw files from any source

Raw Storage

Azure Blob Storage as the landing zone — immutable, governed, and traceable

Processing

Azure Durable Functions + dedicated VM handle heavy document and drawing processing with computer vision

AI Intelligence

Azure AI Foundry managed models deliver multi-modal interpretation, extraction, reasoning, and answer generation

Knowledge Layer

Vector-indexed retrieval store + Azure MySQL for metadata, users, audit records, and feedback loops

Application

Technician Chat, Source Viewer, Admin Console, and Usage Reporting — one interface, zero system switching

The Outcomes

Following implementation, the client unlocked measurable operational improvements:

60–80%

Search time

Reduction in time spent searching for technical information

20–30%

Productivity

Increase in technician productivity

30–50%

Onboarding

Faster onboarding and ramp-up for new technicians

Faster

MTTR

Issue diagnosis and reduced mean time to repair

Why Sphere

Beyond the numbers: critical institutional expertise is now captured and accessible, reducing knowledge-loss risk from turnover and retirement — and grounded, citable answers ensure consistent maintenance execution across teams and shifts.

Sphere combines deep expertise across generative AI, document intelligence, enterprise search, knowledge management, cloud architecture, and systems integration — delivered with our Precision-Driven Engineering methodology and a speed-to-value engagement model.

See What Your Documentation Could Do

Frequently Asked Questions

An AI Technician Knowledge Assistant is a conversational platform that transforms engineering drawings, manuals, procedures, and maintenance records into searchable, citable knowledge. Technicians ask natural-language questions and receive answers grounded in approved source documentation via retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Retrieval-augmented generation grounds every response in retrieved enterprise documents rather than the model’s general knowledge. Each answer includes citations back to the source drawing, manual, or procedure, so technicians can verify the information before acting on it.

Yes. Sphere’s extraction engine uses document intelligence and computer vision to correct orientation, enhance quality, and extract structured knowledge from scanned engineering drawings, diagrams, and legacy documents.

No. Sphere deploys an Azure-native architecture entirely within the client’s own Azure tenant, with enterprise-grade security, governance, audit logging, and access controls.

Sphere’s fixed-scope, speed-to-value model typically delivers a working pilot on a priority document set within weeks, then scales ingestion and integrations (including CMMS/ticketing) from there. Book a free assessment for a timeline based on your documentation landscape.

Organizations around the world trust us

Hear from

our clients

Hear from our clients

Lee Ebreo

VP of Engineering at Credit Ninja

These things would not have been achievable if we did not build our own in-house system and if we did not partner with Sphere to help us achieve our goals.

Selah Ben-Haim

VP of Engineering at Prominence Advisors

Our experience with Sphere and their team has been and continues to be fantastic. We keep throwing new projects at them, and they keep knocking them out of the park (including the rescue of a project that was previously bungled by another vendor).

Ben Crawford

Senior Product Manager at Enova Financial

I would expect to be delighted. It's been a really positive experience, working with Sphere, and I would expect you to have the same.

Mark Friedgan

CEO at CreditNinja

Sphere consistently prioritizes the needs of their clients, demonstrating both agility and teamwork. As an offshore team, they have been an integral part of our organization and we plan to continue growing with them.

René Pfitzner

Co-Founder at Experify

Sphere provided excellent full-stack development manpower to augment our team and help push our product forward. They are easy to work with, tech-savvy and proactive.

Bruce Burdick

Chief Information Officer at Integra Credit

We've been working with Sphere and its excellent consultants since our founding. I've found that they are true partners in the success of our business.

Jemal Swoboda

CEO at Dabble

The resources and developers that Sphere Software provides are skilled and have the required technical expertise, but more importantly, they have helped us build a culture of excellence within our team.

Arthur Tretyak

Founder and CEO at IntegraCredit

With Sphere, we were able to migrate in half the time it would take to train an additional FTE… and for a fraction of the cost. Our experience with Sphere has been exceptional.

Lee Ebreo

VP of Engineering at Credit Ninja

These things would not have been achievable if we did not build our own in-house system and if we did not partner with Sphere to help us achieve our goals.

Selah Ben-Haim

VP of Engineering at Prominence Advisors