“It may be a cliche, but you really do get out what you put in – and we grabbed at the chance,” remarks Harry Yates of Build Prompt, a participant of the sixth round of the HS2 Accelerator in 2024.

The company won the ‘Best Use of AI’ category at the Digital Construction Awards in London this summer for its development of an automated handover tool for building projects. Following the successful trial on HS2, the company has secured a deal with HS2 delivery partner EKFB.

“We made the most of the opportunity, established good relationships within HS2, understood their problems from the ground up, and have been focused on supporting them and ensuring they have everything we promised,” he adds.

“The HS2 Accelerator was great and Connected Places Catapult did a good job of bringing everything together to provide opportunities that wouldn't normally be put in front of you.”

Build Prompt’s innovation involves using AI to extract key information from data to help engineers to focus on where they need to place their effort. The tool was trialled on handover data submitted by EKFB – a joint venture on HS2 – and it is claimed that processes that could previously take two weeks can be reduced with Build Prompt to just 35 seconds.

Another participant of the Accelerator who was shortlisted for the same category was start-up firm DMRC Technologies, which developed two cost validation tools for trial on HS2.

The first is called ‘allo’ (short for allocation) and is in use by the EKFB joint venture. It allows site operatives to log the number of hours worked and the exact nature of a job using a mobile app or laptop, so that subcontractors can be paid promptly within 26 days.

A second solution is an AI enabled technology called ‘Metamesh’ which can audit hundreds of thousands of ledger entries and perform validation for allowed and disallowed costs within hours.

Chief operating officer Raj Chawla said the accelerator programme provided DMRC with a “freedom to operate” and trial new technology with less “bureaucracy and restriction”.

“We've approached other organisations and it's quite difficult to innovate, but when you have a champion who is pushing innovation through, like we did on HS2, it makes life easier.”

Raj Chawla, DMRC Technologies

Following the trial, Raj’s company has also secured a contract with EKFB. “Because our tool was successful and yielding results, they decided to use it on other similar assurance processes within their business,” he said.

A third company in the running for the ‘Best Use of AI’ award who also took part in the HS2 Accelerator was Morta, which creates connected data hubs to help companies automatically track progress on projects.

Morta helps organisations create connected data hubs for their projects; doing away with spreadsheets and allowing organisations to plan, track and report information by integrating with other software systems.

Morta is being used by Kier on several of its construction projects across the country. Co-founder Mo Shana’a says the HS2 Accelerator provided useful business coaching from “a range of consultants who were really helpful in business, marketing and finance”, as well as opportunities to network with other small firms.

Another of the HS2 Accelerator alumni to make a shortlist at the Digital Construction Awards (for ‘Digital Innovation in Productivity’) was Buildots. It uses automated AI progress tracking to analyse photographs from site; showing exactly how far a project has progressed, and provide predictive analytics to understand if delivery is keeping pace with the ambition.

Company director Tommy Cooke explains that its platform helps to mitigate against delays and looks for opportunities to gain time on projects by working smarter. “If you've completed a phase of work and the system deems that an area is available for the next opportunity, you can get a head start, and work with trades to accelerate the programme.”

Tommy said the value from taking part in the HS2 Accelerator is yet to be realised. “The accelerator put us in touch with different innovation teams on the project, such as the Align joint venture, and we are hoping to start work soon at Old Oak Common with the BBV (Balfour Beatty Vinci) joint venture.

“The accelerator allowed us to use our product outside of its normal comfort zone, which is buildings, which we wouldn't have been able to do without an initiative like this.”

Tommy Cooke, Buildots

Innovating to succeed

All four SMEs agree that innovation is crucial in rail. “Rail is a critical part of the national infrastructure; it has to be built with the precision of robots, but it is built by and large by humans,” says Harry Yates of Build Prompt. “Innovation is important because consistency is absolutely critical; and figuring out where inconsistencies are occurring – or could occur – further down the line is where AI comes in.”

Raj from DMRC Technologies adds: “Innovating in the rail sector opens the door to companies working on infrastructure projects like HS2 to export rail technology globally. There are many large countries of the world which have terrible railway infrastructure, where there is an opportunity for technology to be used.”

Mo from Morta adds: “A lot of taxpayer money goes into railways, and we need to have the certainty that projects are being delivered efficiently, and that we know we're going to get what we need. Any innovation that supports the planning, tracking and governing of schemes is really important.”

Tommy from Buildots says that introducing new systems to railways can help to “take a level of subjectivity” out of project delivery, and “allow a better understanding of where construction projects are” in terms of activities achieved on site, and what needs to happen next to maintain progress on a programme.

Find out about the companies taking part in cohort seven of the HS2 Accelerator

Read about three female founders whose companies proved their worth on HS2.

Read about the work of other alumni from the HS2 Accelerator: Andrea Charlson of Madaster UK, and Paul Duddy of Hypervine.