Newcastle brothers launch Dutyholder.ai to help organisations manage asbestos risk

Brothers Paul and David King, software entrepreneurs based in Newcastle, have launched Dutyholder.ai, an AI-powered platform to help organisations manage the asbestos risks recorded across their buildings.

Built by their existing company, Flow Software Solutions, the platform uses AI to pull information out of long asbestos survey reports and convert it into online registers. This helps property managers spot risks, decide what to deal with first and give contractors the details they need before starting work.

Its target customers are councils, universities, housing associations and other property owners, and asbestos managers and compliance professionals around the UK are already using it.

Asbestos remains a major problem in Britain. Figures from the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee put the number of non-domestic buildings reported to contain it at around 300,000, while research commissioned by Mesothelioma UK found that the UK economy loses £1.3bn a year to asbestos-related diseases among people who used to work in schools and hospitals.

Paul King, who co-founded both Flow Software Solutions and Dutyholder.ai, said: “The industry has been crying out for innovation like this. Organisations can have a huge amount of asbestos information spread across reports from different suppliers. Bringing that together, keeping it up to date and making it available to the right people takes a huge amount of time.

“We built Dutyholder.ai to make managing and remediating asbestos risks easier, from creating the register to understanding what needs attention across an estate.”

QR codes and human oversight

Contractors can also reach asbestos registers, floor plans and original reports by scanning site-specific QR codes, and building managers get a record of who has viewed the information.

David King, Flow’s co-founder, said human oversight was still essential when AI is used to manage asbestos information.

“AI gives us a way to reduce the manual work involved in extracting and organising survey information. That makes it much easier to get started with a useful online register. The goal is to help organisations become compliant and quickly understand the scope and size of their risks, so they can prioritise them effectively,” he said.

“Proper oversight remains essential. Surveyors and duty holders need to check the information, understand the context of their buildings and decide what action to take. Our aim is to give them a system that makes those responsibilities easier to manage.”

Growth plans

The launch follows seven years of compliance software development at Flow. Its surveying software already has business customers in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

The company employs 10 people at its enlarged Bank House headquarters in Newcastle and expects annual recurring revenue to top £1m within six months.

Flow intends to create a team dedicated to Dutyholder.ai and is looking for strategic partners to support its next phase of growth.

Paul King added: “Dutyholder.ai is an important next step for Flow. We’re building on our surveying-software experience to serve a new group of customers while continuing to develop the business here in Newcastle.

“We plan to build a dedicated team around Dutyholder.ai and are actively looking for strategic partners. We’re very proud of our roots and committed to continuing to grow here.”