Surveying Your Artificial Intelligence Readiness
There are three questions you must ask before implementing AI into your safety program.
- By Lorenza Ordonez
- Jun 30, 2025
AI is top of mind for every company as they look to increase efficiencies and amp up productivity. Recent research has found that 77 percent of businesses across sectors are currently using or exploring how to use AI in their organization. However, safety professionals are just starting to scratch the surface of the impact AI can have in a safety setting.
A survey conducted by Gallup found that only 6 percent of U.S. employers linked AI innovations and a demonstrated improvement in safety within their organization. But that number is sure to increase, and do so rapidly, as recent emphasis programs in ergonomics, heat stress, and forklift safety are driving further interest and adoption of AI and related technologies such as video analytics, sensors, wearables, and robotics. These innovations can deliver on the need to achieve safety compliance and improve worker safety.
And yet, for all the promise of AI, it’s important to recognize that it is not a silver bullet. Like any technology investment, it takes careful planning and consideration to ensure that it does not become something that sits on the proverbial shelf, underutilized or misutilized within the safety ecosystem. Understanding what factors are needed to make AI innovations impactful and meaningful to your safety program is paramount.
Before embarking on an AI journey, here are three questions to ask yourself:
What Is Motivating You to Consider Adding AI?
When it comes to safety innovations and technology investments, companies are often motivated by one of two factors. The first is that the organization is experiencing a spike in safety-related incidents and wants to better understand why these scenarios occur. The second is a company that is looking proactively to get ahead of any potential hazards and mitigate risk by uncovering unknown issues lurking in their operations that otherwise may go unseen. Both scenarios can benefit from AI and other connected safety technologies, as these advancements provide real-time insight and the high-speed communications needed to address risks, but each scenario may need a slightly different approach and a unique mix of solutions.
For organizations looking to address a spike in incidents, identifying and understanding the patterns of incidents is critical, and that’s where AI applications shine. The ability to analyze trip hazards and spills and assess ergonomics and PPE compliance can highlight where problems repeatedly occur and start to uncover why they are happening. Video analytics and AI-driven alerts can play a key role, identifying issues in real-time and alerting safety professionals to the need for mitigation. This technology can be further coupled with data analytics applications to help make sense of all the safety data, offering pointed direction on where to focus efforts to eliminate recurring hazards.
For organizations looking to proactively address potential hazards, robotics and AI can provide the clarity that is needed to uncover potential risks. Robots can be utilized to execute visual measurements, conduct thermal inspections, and toxic atmosphere monitoring—all of which enable organizations to address issues before they start. This proactive capability is incredibly valuable, as many businesses are looking for ways to get ahead of specific known risks, such as the effects of heat stress on their employees. According to the International Labour Organization, the increase in workplace injuries from heat-related stress has increased by over 33 percent. By combining AI, wearables, and robotics, organizations can better monitor the health and safety of their team in real-time, and even send in robots to do more hazardous, heat-sensitive tasks.
Understanding your organization’s goals will help set the stage for how you consider implementing AI into your safety program.
What Is the State of Your Safety Environment Today?
Take a good look at the technology systems you have in place. Do you still have systems that need to be modernized? Do your current EHS investments “talk” to each other? Are you utilizing everything you have on hand, or do you have technology tools sitting idle?
If your company is like most, it probably has silos of safety applications across the organization. However, AI relies on your existing systems to provide data feeds and communicate back and forth to draw out insights and identify opportunities for enhancement. This level of connectivity is truly the lynchpin to the entire safety ecosystem. Without it, you not only lose out on maximizing your existing systems but also stifle any meaningful impact AI can provide.
To deliver on its promise, AI and all your safety technologies—camera feeds, analytics, wearables, sensors, even existing platforms—need to be connected to one integrated platform or system that can “see” all of the necessary components. This approach is a significant shift from how platforms are implemented and utilized within safety today. All too often safety professionals must contend with multiple platforms for discrete functions. For example, managers may need one platform for specific hazards such as gas detection, and use another for safety reports, and yet another still for worker management. That inefficiency slows down many safety functions before AI even comes into the picture.
Integrated platforms that are agnostic can eliminate that burden and ensure all the pieces of the safety puzzle can be seen from one unified location. Then AI can be layered on top of that foundation to provide insights, streamline efficiencies, and reduce safety risks.
Do You Have the Resources to Process All Improvements—Not Just Technology?
AI and connected safety innovations can offer a meaningful way to improve safety and reduce risks across your organization. Do you have the dedicated time and resources needed to respond, coach, and train your employees so the issues and risks AI uncovers can be addressed? Simply implementing the technology is not enough; it needs to be supported by a foundational EHS program, the right process and procedures, and a strong safety culture that provides proper training, coaching or modifications to processes to minimize or eliminate hazards. This is especially critical as AI is in the spotlight, and the ability to showcase value and ROI to the safety program will be required.
Applying the promise of AI to a safety setting is incredibly exciting, as this technology has the potential to amplify your ability to mitigate business risk, manage evolving compliance demands and protect your critical workforce. But before jumping in, take the time to understand your goals, the landscape of your existing technology investments, and the maturity level of your safety culture to ensure that your AI endeavor is set up for success.
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This article originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.