When we recently partnered with a global engineering firm for their HSEQ Team Day, we explored an important question currently facing safety leaders: How do we move from being perceived as the "controllers of risk" to becoming "enablers of opportunity and innovation"?
The question was framed around the integration of data, technology and innovation into the safety function, but the answer lies not in data and technology itself, but in the mindset we bring to responsible innovation.
The Safety Professional's Paradox
Safety professionals are trained and then employed in organisations to deeply understand hazards and risks and forecast everything that could go wrong in our enterprises. We're experts at identifying unintended consequences and implementing controls. But this very strength can become our greatest limitation when it comes to innovation.
If safety teams are perceived primarily as gatekeepers, something problematic happens: innovation accelerates around us while we're left behind. The rest of the organisation explores new technologies and ways of working, while we struggle to keep pace. Is this because we're too comfortable focusing on constraint rather than possibility?
The Evolution of Digital Safety Roles:
Through our work with organisations globally, we're observing a clear pattern in how digital transformation unfolds in safety teams. This evolution happens in three distinct stages:
Stage 1: Digital Assistants - Safety professionals gain tools that act as a "second brain"—digital note-takers for meetings, voice recorders for site observations, and automated documentation systems. The technology captures information in the background while humans focus on the interaction and decision-making.
Stage 2: Task Automation - Digital agents begin executing complete workflows. An agent might take your incident photos, witness statements, and audio notes, then automatically generate a timeline and 5-Why analysis. The safety professional's role shifts from creation to review, refinement, and strategic interpretation.
Stage 3: Orchestrated Multi-Agent Systems - Multiple AI agents work sequentially across complex workflows. One agent identifies duplicate contractor incidents in the incident database, another drafts the correspondence, and a third routes the follow-up action. Safety professionals focus on strategic oversight while agents handle execution and coordination.
This progression mirrors what we're seeing across leading organisations worldwide, albeit in the early experimentation phase.
The Real Opportunity: Designing Better Work
While AI is transforming how safety professionals work, we shouldn't lose sight of technology's ultimate promise: fundamentally redesigning work to be safer, healthier and…better.
Whether it's using drones to eliminate working-at-heights exposure, deploying computer vision to monitor hazardous plant interaction, or applying voice technology to capture richer risk insights, we have an unprecedented ability to remove people from the line of fire and reduce cognitive load.
The hierarchy of controls hasn't fundamentally changed, but technology has expanded what's possible at all levels.
The Essential Ingredients for Success
Based on our work with pioneering organisations worldwide, successful digital transformation in safety requires:
1. Mindset First - Shift from "what could go wrong" to "what could go right"—while still maintaining appropriate risk awareness. Become strategically optimistic.
2. Data & Technology Literacy - You don't need a tech background (I started as a physiotherapist). But you do need basic working knowledge of connectivity, data flow, and how these systems operate. You can't stand on the sidelines anymore.
3. Service-Led Thinking - Position HSEQ as a service provider to the organisation, not just a compliance and control function. When you help the business thrive while improving safety, you become a valued strategic partner.
4. Problem-Focused Strategy - Don't chase shiny objects. Start with clear problems to solve and demonstrate value. Experiment strategically, scale what works, and discard what doesn't.
5. Collaborative Partnerships - This can't be done alone. Build relationships with ICT, operations, technology vendors, and learn from peers who've gone before you.
A Word of Caution
Here's what we've learned from hundreds of technology deployments: Don't fall in love with the gadget. Fall in love with the trend.
The specific tools will evolve and change—some will even disappear (as we've seen with certain AR/VR platforms). What matters is understanding the mega-trends shaping our industry and positioning your organisation to leverage them strategically.
Artificial intelligence and agentic AI are here to stay. Voice as an interface for safety systems is here to stay. Computer vision for risk monitoring is here to stay. The specific vendors and platforms? Those will continue to evolve.
Navigating what’s next
The most successful ingredient we've seen across organisations isn't a particular technology or strategy; it's the willingness to shift mindset. To see ourselves not as gatekeepers but as strategic enablers of safer, better work.
The organisations that thrive with digital safety transformation won't be those with the most technology-enabled processes. There'll be those with safety leaders who embrace curiosity, who experiment strategically, and who fundamentally believe that technology can help humans flourish while organisations thrive.
That's the future of HSEQ. And it starts with how we think, not just what tools we use.