The Hidden Risk of Using AI for Health & Safety

For anyone who knows me, they know I love my gadgets and tech. I’m one of those who fall asleep with a VR headset on and Alexa and Siri or the likes hollering at me through the day with reminders. So, trust me, I can see the appeal of tools like ChatGPT that offer a fast, free way to generate documents.

Using AI as your in-house ‘responsible person’ for health and safety, may seem quick, efficient and appealing, but “GPT did the risk assessment for us, Your Honour” would not go down well in a court of law.

If an AI-driven system makes a faulty safety recommendation, who is legally responsible? This creates a grey area in accountability and could expose your business to legal action. Health and safety data may include personal and sensitive information (e.g., incident reports, medical data). Inadequate cybersecurity in AI tools can lead to data breaches or non-compliance with regulations like GDPR. The list goes on.

Working in the fitness industry for nearly 15 years, we’ve seen several operators start to cut corners and turn to AI to manage their compliance. While it might feel like a smart time-saver, the truth is, it’s extremely risky.

In addition, AI systems rely heavily on the quality and completeness of the data they’re trained on, which is not always correct. If data is outdated, biased, or incomplete, AI may overlook hazards or make incorrect safety assessments.

Over-reliance on AI might lead to reduced human judgment in critical safety decisions. Automated systems may miss context-specific risks that an experienced health and safety professional would catch.

If there is an accident within your business, and those documents are used in a court case, the first

If there is an accident / incident in your business or premises, and those documents  are presented to the court, the paperwork will be scrutinised as to who or how they were created. Questions will arise such as, are risk assessments, incident logs and safety procedures tailored and specific to the task, up to standard and created by  a competent and qualified person.

Should a court of law identify a document that is clearly AI-generated, they are likely to interpret this as a cost-saving measure. A sign that health and safety wasn’t taken seriously, which will not play out well in court.

Safety Needs Context

It can’t deliver engaging first aid training that is tailored to your fitness business or understand your organisation to adjust safety strategies accordingly.

That’s what consultants with decades of experience do. We bring the legal knowledge and the practical understanding of the safety and compliance of the fitness industry.

Love Tech? Use it Wisely

Now, I’m not saying don’t use AI. Being totally transparent, we use it to help organise our ideas, to draft content faster and to speed up admin. It’s an excellent support tool, with ‘support’ being the key word.

When it comes to health and safety, what protects your teams, your members and your communities is thoughtful, experienced, valuable, human input.

KODOBI

At KODOBI, we act as your full health & safety team without the full-time cost. We work with fitness businesses of all sizes to ensure everything’s not only legally compliant, but due diligence is taken as necessary. You’ll get expert guidance, engaging health & safety training, not the stuff your fall asleep at on a 3-day course at the Travelodge on the M25. We devise and implement ‘legal standard’  documentation and systems that actually work for your fitness business.

So, if you ‘want to foster an approach to safety’ (Just, kidding! That sentence was GPT). Let’s get serious about keeping your people safe and your business protected, skip the shortcuts and give us a shout

Find out more www.kodobi.com.