Advances in technology have continued to be a catalyst for improvements in health and safety, helping protect workers, assets and the general public. However, with these rapid advancements come new challenges for various manual industries, including new hazards and risks as operations expand.
At the end of 2022, HSE Network forecasted the health and safety outlook in 2030. The most significant prediction was that technology, such as wearable sensors and body-worn observation equipment, will be prevalent across many industries.
More importantly, the prediction highlighted generative technology’s contributions to the workplace and public safety, including documenting reports, improving collaboration and providing data for continuous improvement. The aim behind connecting these technologies is to improve efficiency, providing more accurate and consistent results while minimising errors.
In the context of health and safety, connected technologies can help mitigate workplace accidents and thefts and minimise public safety risks.
Analysing predictions
Halfway through the prediction period, we’re already seeing connected technologies make a significant impact on public safety. Comprehensive systems that combine visual oversight, smart sensors and management platforms have been helping industries improve protective measures for their workers, assets and members of the public, while boosting productivity and efficiency.
However, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have been the most significant development in improving health and safety, mainly fulfilling forecasts that technology will play a greater role in reporting, collaboration and data analysis. While the prediction may not have anticipated the pace of AI adoption in manual industries, it is evident that it is becoming the binding agent for connecting technologies.
Just under half of respondents in the UK healthcare industry reported using AI for reporting and note-taking. The same percentage used it to tackle administrative tasks. The current statistics illustrate how the technology’s generative and analytical capabilities support existing hardware, helping industries become more efficient as resources become scarcer and data volumes grow.
Connected technology solutions
AI in public safety is a prime example of how connected technologies are helping improve protective measures for people and property. Emergency services have traditionally been administratively heavy, where more calls with fewer resources can affect response capabilities.
Field officers rely on accurate, relevant information processed by call handlers to take appropriate actions in incidents. However, processing accurate reports can be challenging when dealing with large amounts of data. Any missed details can be the difference in incident outcomes.
In a similar capacity, health and safety can benefit from AI-assisted connected technologies to improve detection and response capabilities. A comprehensive approach can promote quicker, more accurate action and help reduce damage in the event of a safety incident, such as incorrect PPE detection or surface hazard identification.
Protective potential
AI is no longer playing a conceptual role in workplace health and safety. Like public safety services, organisations are adopting the technology to actively process data, analyse patterns and detect anomalies that can be crucial to protecting workers, assets and the public.
Moreover, data from hardware such as body-worn cameras and smart sensors can support predictive hazard and risk identification, alerting supervisors and first responders to issues before they cause harm or damage in the workplace. Continuous information can help safety leaders by providing deeper insight into current circumstances, enabling them to identify gaps and plan for safer workplaces and public spaces.
Using connected technologies can help create a more proactive safety strategy that addresses anomalies before they become incidents and forecasts future risks to plan for more effective responses. Where continuously improving health and safety protocols face the challenge of larger volumes of data with limited resources, the connective approach can help provide a more adaptive protection strategy for people, property and the public.
The future of public safety
As operations expand into industries with heightened health and safety risks, connected technologies will become increasingly important. Increased demand for output with fewer resources may present new challenges for manual industries, where data-driven decision-making will likely play an increased role in leadership.
Furthermore, data will be important for managing safety infrastructure, as the regulatory environment is subject to change, especially with advancements in AI technology. However, as connected AI-assisted technologies help transform public safety services, manual industries are likely to follow suit.
If we remain on the predictive trajectory for health and safety in 2030, advancing technologies will be paramount to protecting people, assets and the public. AI-assisted software will help connect hardware by processing data from support devices into actionable insights, helping organisations develop a more proactive workflow in detecting and responding to potential safety incidents, therefore reducing harm and damage.
