'Potential to save the industry £2.4m every hour': New Northern Ireland AI app aims to tackle £21bn cost of construction errors

A new AI and human-led app developed in Northern Ireland aims to tackle one of the construction industry’s biggest drains on productivity and financial resilience, with avoidable errors estimated to cost the UK sector around £21 billion a year.

QualiT, developed by Belfast entrepreneur Duane McCreadie, has now gone live with a platform designed to improve quality throughout the construction lifecycle by helping teams prevent defects, reduce rework and deliver projects to the required standard first time.

Built by the construction industry for the construction industry, QualiT combines practical site experience with technology to provide teams with a simple and repeatable approach to improving quality and reducing avoidable mistakes.

Research by the Get It Right Initiative (GIRI) estimates that the true cost of error in UK construction is around £21 billion each year, equivalent to approximately 21% of project value when wider waste and indirect costs are taken into account.

The figure equates to around £57 million a day, with costs arising from rework, delays, material waste and defects.

QualiT combines artificial intelligence (AI) with what it describes as human intelligence (HI), capturing frontline knowledge and turning it into consistent processes that can be applied across construction projects.

The platform is designed to support construction teams rather than replace them, using technology alongside the knowledge and experience of people working on the ground.

Founder and director Duane McCreadie has more than 20 years’ experience leading major construction projects across the UK and Ireland. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, he has worked as project director for the main contractor delivering a number of major projects, including Belfast Grand Central Station, Ulster University, Grand Central Hotel, 4 Kingdom Street in Paddington, London, and Ulster Rugby’s home stadium in Belfast.

He said: “Delivering a high-level of quality on construction projects is of critical importance, and yet it remains one of the industry’s biggest and most costly challenges. I want to make sure that our teams have the information they need, in an easy to access way when they need it.

“The idea for QualiT came from wanting to build a tool that would support the industry to turn those losses into measurable gains. Based on our early deployment modelling, our tool has the potential to save the industry £2.4m every hour by preventing avoidable errors and by capturing learnings so teams don’t repeat the same mistakes.

“QualiT allows contractors to store essential project specific information to document how decisions were made, which is necessary to keep the golden thread of information and remain compliant with the Building Safety Act.

“We have worked with a trusted and experienced group of contributors who are experts in their fields to build step by step best practice guides to support teams on construction sites.

“We have added to this functionality with the power of AI software to empower organisations to plan with clarity, build with confidence, deliver excellence and get it right the first time.”

The platform is aimed at contractors looking to strengthen quality management, retain project knowledge and improve compliance while reducing the financial impact of avoidable errors.

Companies interested in finding out more about QualiT can visit www.qualit.work or arrange a meeting with McCreadie to discuss the platform.