Artificial intelligence is reshaping occupational health and safety more rapidly than regulatory frameworks can accommodate. The International Labour Organization’s April 2025 report, Revolutionizing Health and Safety: The Role of AI and Digitalization at Work, confirms that AI-powered systems, smart wearables and predictive analytics are reducing hazardous exposures and preventing accidents across industries. For Ireland, where the Health and Safety Authority recorded 58 work-related fatalities in 2025, a 61 per cent increase on the previous year, the imperative to act is sharply defined.

AI in occupational health and safety represents the most significant structural opportunity for workplace risk reduction in a generation, though its gains will be fully realised only where adoption is matched by human-centred governance. The ILO report documents real progress: robots eliminating exposure to hazardous tasks, sensors detecting environmental risks in real time, and predictive analytics identifying incidents before they occur. Three dimensions define the challenge ahead: scaling those gains, managing the new risks AI introduces, and equipping Irish workplaces to capture both.

The productivity of AI as a safety tool is well established operationally. The ILO report highlights that smart wearable devices can monitor temperature, fatigue and stress, prompting timely interventions before harm occurs. Predictive analytics applied to incident data identifies high-risk operations before accidents materialise. EU-OSHA’s Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2023–2025, in which Ireland’s HSA participates, identifies AI and robotics as tools with demonstrated capacity to reduce physical strain and automate hazardous tasks.

AI does not eliminate risk; it redistributes it. The ILO report cautions that over-reliance on automation reduces human oversight, creating new categories of occupational hazard. Workers who maintain or collaborate with robotic systems face mechanical failures, ergonomic strain from poorly fitted exoskeletons, and psychosocial pressure from continuous algorithmic monitoring. Virtual reality training tools introduce risks of visual strain and cognitive overload. The EU AI Act, now in force across the European Union including Ireland, addresses algorithmic accountability but leaves occupational safety-specific regulatory gaps.

Ireland’s regulatory infrastructure is well positioned to lead but has not yet moved at the pace the technology demands. The HSA participates in EU-OSHA’s digital age campaign and has published guidance on human-centred AI adoption, yet no national AI-specific occupational safety framework exists. The 2025 fatality figures sharpen the case for moving from guidance to binding standards.

Three steps would accelerate Ireland’s transition. First, the HSA should publish a dedicated national framework for AI in workplace safety, drawing on the ILO report’s recommendations and EU-OSHA’s human-in-command guidance. Second, the HSA’s inspection function should be updated to include AI system audits in high-hazard sectors. Third, worker participation must be embedded at every stage of AI adoption, ensuring technology augments rather than replaces human safety judgement.

The ILO’s 2025 report makes clear that the question is no longer whether to adopt AI in occupational safety, but how best to do so responsibly. Ireland has the institutional foundations to become an exemplar. The task now is converting that potential into a coherent national framework before the gap between technological capability and regulatory readiness widens further.

(The views expressed by the writer are his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of BusinessRiver.)