GIRI: ‘technology must prioritise error reduction’

GIRI’s latest best practice report focuses on technology’s role in reducing errors in design and construction. In the conclusion, the organisation states: “The case studies in this report demonstrate that technology is already helping construction teams reduce errors, rework and coordination failures. However, they also underline how much further the industry still has to go.

“A critical next step is to make error reduction a first-order objective of technology adoption, rather than a secondary benefit. This is particularly true for AI. While AI is increasingly being applied to efficiency and automation, its greatest value in construction may lie in reducing human and systemic error – by detecting inconsistencies, highlighting missing information, anticipating clashes and supporting better decision-making.

“Software providers and AI firms have a significant commercial opportunity to prioritise error reduction explicitly in their product roadmaps, rather than treating it as an implicit outcome.”

GIRI notes that assurance will need to keep pace with AI’s development curve. “As technology – and particularly AI – becomes more embedded in safety-critical and high-hazard environments, assurance must keep pace. Reducing errors in construction also means reducing the risk of errors introduced by the tools themselves. We are increasingly taking the message that safe AI for construction can unlock productivity gains into government and infrastructure stakeholders.”

The report includes 13 mini case studies from companies including Lanes Group, McLaren Construction, Kier and Morgan Sindall that are deploying (and benefitting from) technology from the likes of SymTerra, Complete Competence, Glider and Sablono.

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