- Soter Analytics is using AI-powered software to help prevent OSHA violations.
- Ninety companies are using the AI, which can detect violations from uploaded photos and videos.
- This article is part of “CXO AI Playbook” — straight talk from business leaders on how they’re testing and using AI.
For “CXO AI Playbook,” Business Insider takes a look at mini case studies about AI adoption across industries, company sizes, and technology DNA. We’ve asked each of the featured companies to tell us about the problems they’re trying to solve with AI, who’s making these decisions internally, and their vision for using AI in the future.
Soter Analytics is a technology company based in London that has developed AI-driven wearable devices and software to improve workplace safety. Soter works with hundreds of global companies, including Ikea, Coca-Cola, and DHL.
Situation analysis: What problem was the company trying to solve?
Many US companies across sectors must comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other industry-specific regulatory bodies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration.
Mike Goetsch, the chief product manager at Soter, told Business Insider that safety managers must be knowledgeable of these regulations and ensure their organizations and employees follow them, which can be time-consuming and taxing. The regulations can also be ambiguous and challenging to interpret.
“Safety teams have a huge workload, but they don’t have the bandwidth to tackle these problems at scale throughout a large organization,” Goetsch said.
Noncompliance can be costly for companies. OSHA penalties range from $16,121 to $161,323 per violation, depending on the seriousness and frequency of problems. Safety incidents can also lead to production losses, as companies often have to stop production when one happens, he said.
In June, Soter launched SoterGenius, an artificial-intelligence platform designed to streamline compliance and inspections for organizations.
Key staff and partners
Goetsch said the company developed SoterGenius after learning about clients’ safety-inspection and audit challenges. Internally, the company tapped its business-development and customer-success managers, as well as its financial, information-technology, security, and privacy teams, to create the platform.
AI in action
SoterGenius uses AI-driven image and video analysis, chatbots, and document analysis to automate compliance checks against OSHA guidelines and other industry-specific regulations.
Companies can upload photos and videos onto the platform, which quickly identifies violations or hazards, such as workers wearing incorrect personal protective equipment or problems with machinery, Goetsch said.
Humans can take anywhere from one to two hours to inspect workplaces. But Goetsch said Soter’s AI platform could identify hazards, risks, and violations within about 30 seconds. The tool references the policy being violated and what the penalty could be and offers suggestions for resolving the problem.
SoterGenius also includes a chatbot to answer safety managers’ questions and direct them to specific OSHA provisions. Organizations can also upload their safety policies onto the platform to compare them against OSHA guidelines for compliance.
Courtesy of Soter Analytics
Goetsch said SoterGenius could be used with any regulatory guidelines and that versions of the platform tailored to specific industries could be developed for companies. The tool is constantly updated with the latest regulations.
Goetsch told BI the AI platform removes the ambiguity and human error that can occur with applying safety regulations.
Did it work?
Soter said about 90 companies were using SoterGenius, including Delta Air Lines, Ramp Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the insurance brokerage Marsh.
While it’s too soon to share data on how the platform is directly helping companies, Goetsch said testing found that it could review and analyze a 15,000-word policy manual in 25 seconds, compared with 75 minutes for a human. Its testing found the tool has a 99% accuracy rate in analyzing photos and videos for safety compliance.
“Things that would have taken hours are now taking seconds,” he said.
For example, Goetsch said one company using SoterGenius recently purchased electric forklifts and installed charging stations. Photos uploaded onto the platform showed that the stations weren’t installed correctly and were fire hazards. Goetsch said the program helped the organization quickly identify and fix the problem, which allowed it to avoid an OSHA penalty.
What’s next?
Soter’s clients have access to SoterGenius, but Goetsch said the company was working to sign up new organizations. He said the goal was to continue advancing the technology, such as by enabling continuous workplace analysis via video streaming or safety managers wearing smart glasses.
Ultimately, he said, he hopes the technology will make it easier for safety managers or even people without a safety background to perform inspections and audits, which would ensure a safer workplace and perhaps save organizations tens of thousands of dollars.
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