AI platform streamlines ergonomic and hazard assessments

Natural health products company Blackmores Group has integrated Soter Analytics’ SoterAI platform into its safety processes — observing that the solution reduced aspects of its administrative workload by 50–70%, streamlined ergonomic and hazard assessments, and strengthened the safety culture across the company’s operations. “We needed to automate tedious compliance checks,” Blackmores Group Director of WHS Andrew Wilson said, noting that previously manual updates took excessive time and effort.

With SoterAI, safety documents are uploaded directly, the technology designed to enable compliance gaps to be instantly identified, ensuring that teams using it remain ahead of regulatory changes without being bogged down by manual research. “We now have absolute confidence that our compliance status is continually up to date, providing peace of mind for the whole organisation,” Wilson said.

SoterAI is also designed to improve safety by streamlining ergonomic assessments. It works by teams capturing short video clips of manual handling tasks, which SoterAI then analyses, marking high-risk postures. “Workers could visually understand their risks immediately, which drastically sped up training and improvements,” Blackmores Group Head of WHS Judd Lalich said.

The solution is also designed to be beneficial for hazard identification. Using smartphone technology, it is engineered to identify potential safety hazards from simple workplace images or video snippets, then suggesting practical corrective actions. “It’s like having an expert alongside you, prompting you to consider risks you might overlook,” Lalich said; with the solution also said to elevate frontline workers’ safety engagement — empowering non-specialist staff to actively contribute to workplace safety.

Helping with the generation of safety training materials and communications is another benefit the team identified in using the technology. “We previously spent hours or days creating detailed safety talks; now the AI does the heavy lifting, allowing us to focus on finalising content and delivery,” Wilson said.

Features of the technology include AI-generated visuals that clearly illustrate risks, making safety hazards easily comprehensible. “Workers and managers instantly grasped risk scenarios, making our safety conversations clearer and more impactful,” Lalich said.

The team also noted that the technology was beneficial in the cultural acceptance of AI. “Seeing AI in action transformed skepticism into enthusiasm,” Lalich said. “Employees now view AI as a powerful safety ally rather than a threat.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Ekkasit Jokthong. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.