Orlando — Education class speakers at this year’s National Safety Congress & Expo, exhibit vendors and those with a big picture view of trends in occupational safety and health all agree on one prediction: how safety is practiced in the workplace will change dramatically in the next 5 years.

Several drivers are at play:

Changing of the guard: A helmet vendor here talks of iron workers with 30 years’ experience refusing to wear safety helmets without brims. They’ve always worn brims. One said he’d retire if forced to wear a brimless helmet, according to the CEO of this helmet manufacturer, who spoke with the iron worker in a focus group. “Longtime workers think brimless helmets, resembling cycling or ski helmets, look ugly,” says the CEO.

As blue collar workers with 30-40-50-years of experience in fact do retire, they are being replaced by a younger workforce that, generally speaking, have no issues with new styles of safety helmets. They tend to be more health and well-being conscious and want quality protection. “When we surveyed older workers, safety was honestly the fourth or fifth priority for what they wanted in a helmet. By far the first criteria was looks. They wanted to look good in a helmet,” says the helmet CEO. (The same attitude applies to safety eyewear, which for years has taken on sleek consumer styling.)

Younger workers, again in general, are the ones wearing smart watches because they want to know how much quality sleep they are getting, and other health metrics such as heart beat rate, blood pressure and how many steps they’ve taken today, how many calories lost. They are more apt to be bikers, hikers, rock climbers, adventurers and see the need for personal protection.

AI is everywhere: One exhibitor manufactures a sensor that can be placed inside a safety helmet, on a fall protection harness and in a safety vest that connects to an app on a smart phone. Ninety percent of the workforce now brings their smartphones to work. Each worker who wears a helmet with this sensor embedded, and indicated by a symbol on the outside of the helmet shell, has loaded personal information which can include his or her name, age, occupation, work location, height, weight, safety training and certification updates, medical history, qualifications to use specific equipment such as fork lifts or working at heights and so on.

The amount of info provided by each worker is left to the worker to decide, unless dictated by company policy. It does not go to any third party or stored in the cloud. The information can be tapped by touching the sensor symbol on the outside of the helmet, either by the wearer or a co-worker, if the worker falls (most falls occur from heights less than six feet) or is caught between objects that could crush his or her head. The data is sent by the smartphone app to the safety department or other personnel for immediate emergency response.

AI technology will increase emergency response times. Increase smartphone reporting of hazards, incidents, near misses and other situations and concerns. Increase the amount of data available for analysis and predicting injury and illness trends – who is most likely to be injured, sustaining what type of injury, when the incident is most likely to happen, and where.

Soon to come to market are PPE sensors that will give safety pros aggregate information such as the percentage of safety helmets or fall protection equipment inspected in the past month, six months, year, or any time period. These new AI-generated databases will give pros a holistic overview of PPE use, condition and compliance. Overviews of entire safety management programs using any number of metrics and indicators will also be used.

The trickle-down effect: Right now AI safety and health products are being tested and used by mostly the largest high-risk companies with safety budgets that can afford a $150 safety helmet with embedded sensor. This is AI safety’s advance guard. But in coming years, as more safety pros become educated about AI applications and the learning curve levels off with greater overall awareness and acceptance of AI apps, and employee privacy concerns are addressed, AI use will trickle down from the “big boys with deep pockets” to mid-size and even smaller companies. Especially those in high-risk industries and those who must follow supply chain safety dictates from larger general contractors and manufacturers.

The question today is not if AI and changing worker demographics will transform safety and health practices, but how long the process will take. Most thought leaders see this occurring in the next five years. You only need to look back five years to 2019. Technology innovations were just beginning to come into safety, and then delayed by the pandemic years. Today technology dominates exhibit space and education sessions at conference such as the NSC. So in five years…