Can AI and Human-Centered Safety Work Together?

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Brent Sutton, a safety coach, author and practitioner with over 20 years’ experience, who focuses on worker engagement and operational learning in safety systems.

With the rapid adoption of AI in the workplace, Brent explores how this technology will impact human-centred approaches to safety management.

After assessing the evolution of Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) and evaluating some of its recent criticism, he argues that ethical AI tools are actually well-suited to help EHS professionals operationalize this philosophy.

However, intent is key. Brent acknowledges that AI can just as easily be used to enforce more traditional approaches to safety due to its advanced monitoring and control capabilities.

This delicate balance between operational learning and people blaming is the key theme: will AI be used in a sufficiently humanistic way to enhance HOP practices?