AI must be people-first to make work safer, IOSH warns
Ruth Wilkinson said: "Without the right governance and ethical practice, and without worker voice opportunities, it can bring significant risk.”
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) stated that artificial intelligence (AI) can help make work safer and improve health and wellbeing, but only if organisations keep people at the centre of decision making.
Speaking at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Ruth Wilkinson, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH, said: “We meet at a pivotal moment. Artificial intelligence and digitalisation is already reshaping jobs, workplaces and livelihoods.
“AI can help identify harms before they can occur. It can help eliminate exposures.
“And it can help design safer and healthier systems. But without the right governance, without responsible and ethical practice, and without worker voice opportunities, it can bring significant risk.”
Wilkinson added: “The challenge before us is not whether AI will transform work – but whether that transformation will be safe, healthy, fair, and human-centred.
“AI driven time pressure, work intensification, discriminatory outcomes, intrusive monitoring, and loss of autonomy can impact both physical and mental health.
“Occupational risks generated by AI and algorithmic management must be central to global policy debates, as they directly shape the quality of work and working conditions and the effectiveness of occupational safety and health systems.”
She added: “If left unchecked, these systems risk weakening accountability and distancing employers from their responsibility for decent work and working conditions.
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