In high-stakes industries, like defence or healthcare, teams want to adopt artificial intelligence tools but have a key question: can they be trusted when it matters most?
That is the problem Halifax-based ResolveHD has set out to solve.
For CEO and co-founder Chris Crowell, they’ve taken the opportunity to build an AI platform that’s reliable, transparent and usable in environments where choices need to hold up under scrutiny.
“What we’ve really focused on is this idea of governed AI in high-consequence environments that support an organization’s ability to make great decisions,” says Crowell.
From data challenges to a new foundation
Crowell’s path to co-founding ResolveHD was shaped by years working at the intersection of technology and healthcare, where progress was often slowed by one persistent issue: the data itself.
“One of the big barriers to effective digital transformation was data quality and data interoperability,” says Crowell. “Put shortly, the data was often a mess.”
Organizations were collecting large volumes of information, but much of it remained fragmented and difficult to use.
ResolveHD was founded to address that gap. The company uses AI to securely automate the ingestion and organization of unstructured data, helping provide plain-language answers which are tailored to each organization’s own standards.
AI infrastructure organizations can rely on
As they built the platform, Crowell, along with co-founders Louis Beaubien and Rickey Pannell, began appreciating their value was not only delivering a high-quality decision, but also providing the basis of how it was arrived at.
ResolveHD’s platform functions as an infrastructure layer, creating traceable, auditable intelligence that connects outputs back to source data — including who interacted with it and how it was used.
“Probably right isn’t good enough for us,” says Crowell. “You can trace or even audit, from source to prompt, how a decision has been made.”
They also emphasize having a human in the loop, who can review decisions when necessary. That thoroughness allows organizations to move faster while staying confident their decisions are grounded in evidence.
Proving value in real‑world environments
ResolveHD has tested its platform in real-world environments where speed and accuracy are critical.
One of their pilot projects included working with emergency responders, helping them detect mayday signals, and improving how quickly they could send help.
“It turns out when people say mayday, sometimes it’s hard to hear, people are panicking, they’re breathing heavy, there’s often background noise,” says Crowell. “Could we improve human response time to a mayday signal? Turns out we can.”
The company has also worked with Nova Scotia Health on analyzing quality of care for local stroke patients. Their platform compares what happened during treatment to established standards, helping identify where additional training or resources might be needed.
A Canadian-built AI tool, keeping data in-house
As organizations adopt AI more broadly, there is increasing focus on data sovereignty and how to retain ownership of their data.
ResolveHD is aligned with that shift. They’re a Nova Scotia-based company helping organizations use AI within their own systems, without sharing sensitive data to third-party platforms. They can also ensure only the appropriate people have access to the data they need.
The ResolveHD Blue Nose Marathon team
“We can support you working organically in the environment you want to work in, but with that secure, auditable, governed type of approach laying over it,” says Crowell.
Growing into the role of CEO
While building this platform, Crowell says he’s learned a lot from his role as a leader. Now that they’ve crafted the vision for their company, he has honed how to effectively describe the value they can bring.
“Simplicity is hard. It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever get to,” says Crowell.
Founded only in 2023, ResolveHD is now growing steadily, with a team of 12 and plans to continue expanding. They’ve prioritized building a tight-knit culture. Led by co-founder Rickey Pannell, their team trained for and ran the Blue Nose Marathon together this year, and they host group potlucks.
“My job, honestly, as CEO of the company is to make sure that I am removing barriers for other people to be just at their amazing best,” says Crowell.
Building toward meaningful impact
As their team and their presence expand, they’re successfully building a growing number of partnerships, particularly in Canada’s defence sector, with the goal of improving healthcare and force readiness.
Crowell appreciates that operating in these environments gives them new chances to show their platform can work and make a tangible impact on people’s lives.
“We want to make a difference for driving healthcare, improving patient outcomes, and improving productivity in healthcare here in Nova Scotia, across Canada and beyond,” says Crowell.
