Short answer
PainPal is a free AI digital workmate that gives workers private, practical guidance on aches, strains and musculoskeletal injury risk. BetterWorx, a subsidiary of Construction Health and Safety New Zealand (CHASNZ), launched it in December 2025 for construction workers, and it now serves workers in any industry on the web, iOS and Android. Levy Street worked with BetterWorx on PainPal.
- Conversations are private and never shared with employers.
- Responses draw on BetterWorx’s Work Should Not Hurt programme and expert review.
- Employers get anonymised insight into which tasks and tools cause pain.
- PainPal is not a medical device and does not diagnose.
- Product owner
- BetterWorx, a wholly owned subsidiary of Construction Health and Safety New Zealand (CHASNZ)
- Launched
- 4 December 2025, with New Zealand Certified Builders
- Platforms
- Web, iOS and Android
- Model
- Free for workers; paid employer tiers with anonymised insights
- Levy Street’s role
- Worked with BetterWorx on the product
The problem PainPal addresses
In construction, aches and strains are often treated as part of the job until they become an injury and time off work. Workers rarely want to raise discomfort with a supervisor, and getting expert ergonomic advice on site is hard. CHASNZ’s response was a tool workers would actually use: private, in their pocket, and in the language of the trade.
What PainPal does
A worker describes the task, the tool, their trade and what hurts, by text or voice. PainPal replies with practical, evidence-informed steps: how to change the task, set up the tool, warm up, rest or adjust, and when the symptoms mean they should see a professional.
- For workers
- Free, private conversations about pain and discomfort, with practical next steps.
- For employers
- Paid tiers with anonymised insight into the tasks, tools and environments causing discomfort, to target prevention.
- Expert basis
- Built on BetterWorx’s Work Should Not Hurt programme; CHASNZ states that every response is reviewed by experts.
- Safety net
- Extra support from ergonomic specialists when symptoms suggest something serious.
Design choices for a sensitive domain
Health-adjacent AI needs tighter boundaries than most business tools. The principles behind products like PainPal are the ones we recommend for any AI chatbot that gives guidance people may act on:
- Scope it narrowly. Guidance on work-related discomfort, not diagnosis.
- Escalate early. Recognise warning signs and send people to a professional rather than keep chatting.
- Keep privacy absolute. Individual conversations never reach the employer; only aggregated, anonymised patterns do.
- Review the content. Expert review of responses and the underlying guidance, with evaluation that tracks accuracy over time.
- Speak the user’s language. Tradies need short, practical answers, not clinical prose.
Where it fits in construction
PainPal is one example of AI that supports health and safety work without replacing the people responsible for it. Our guide to AI for New Zealand construction covers other workflows, including a site safety knowledge assistant built on approved company documents.
Written by the Levy Street team in Wellington. Last updated 19 October 2026.