Do occupational health and safety tools that utilize artificial intelligence have a measurable impact on worker injury or illness? Findings from a systematic review.

BACKGROUND

Artificial intelligence (AI) holds promise as a tool that can be used by practitioners in the field of occupational health and safety (OHS). This study aimed to identify AI applications specifically used for OHS and examine their impact on worker morbidity or mortality outcomes.

METHODS

We conducted a comprehensive systematic review. We searched six databases to identify published quantitative studies of OHS AI applications across the hierarchy of controls that were published between years 2018 to 2024. Title/abstract and full-text screening was conducted to identify eligible studies which were then assessed for quality and risk of bias and synthesized.

RESULTS

Of the 1255 articles identified by our search, only two met eligibility criteria; one of which was appraised as medium quality and the other as low quality. The one medium quality study identified by our review was an AI-based chatbot health promotion tool which was shown to improve musculoskeletal symptoms. Our systematic review shows that we are at the early stages of understanding the role AI can play in OHS and it may be premature to recommend the wide-spread use of AI for health and safety practice within workplaces.

CONCLUSION

There is a critical need for future research to unpack how considerations taken in the development and adoption of workplace AI tools for OHS can determine their effectiveness in addressing worker injury or illness.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

PROSPERO CRD42023414422.