Agentic AI: Redefining Workplace Safety & Sustainability
Artificial Intelligence is transforming industries, but one of its most impactful frontiers is workplace safety and sustainability. On a recent episode of EHS on Tap, R. Mukund, CEO of Benchmark Gensuite, explained how Agentic AI is shifting the role of technology from simple automation to true empowerment — helping enterprises manage risk, compliance, and worker well-being more effectively than ever before.
Unlike transactional AI, which enables quick responses to targeted prompts, Agentic AI can serve as a digital co-worker: interpreting data, adapting to context, and guiding actions in real time. This shift, as Mukund emphasized, represents not just automation but the transformation of the activity itself.
What Is Agentic AI for EHS?
When most professionals think of AI, they think of large language models like ChatGPT — excellent for targeted Q&A and for supporting their tasks. But Mukund defines Agentic AI as the next step in the continuum: an AI that doesn’t just respond but collaborates. It serves as a partner in fit-for-purpose activities, continuously learning from data, making sense of complex inputs, leveraging a knowledge base and reasoning framework, and supporting humans in the loop.
“Can you create a digital co-worker that has an objective and is driving a specific function? That’s the potential of Agentic AI,” Mukund explained.
This distinction is crucial for safety and sustainability leaders: while AI in request response mode is very valuable, Agentic AI scales human capacity in environments where trained professionals are few and risks are many.
Agentic AI in Action: Real Use Cases
Benchmark Gensuite is already deploying Agentic AI across critical EHS workflows, turning theory into practice:
- Risk AI Tool – Synthesizes hazards, near-miss reports, and incident patterns to provide early warnings and prevention strategies at scale. Instead of manually sifting through thousands of reports, safety leaders can pinpoint the most urgent risks by geography or operation.
- Permit Management Agent – Automatically extracts, analyzes, and tracks compliance requirements from regulatory permits. This reduces tedious manual reviews, ensures consistency across sites, and minimizes the risk of overlooked obligations.
- Chemical Safety Agent – Breaks down complex chemical safety information into actionable insights. What once required years of expertise can now be supported by AI, helping teams assess and mitigate risks in minutes.
Together, these agents handle the “data grind” — processing and interpreting vast datasets — so professionals can focus on fixing problems rather than compiling information.
Explore all our AI Agents and learn how they can integrate across your EHS platform.
Empowering Underrepresented Workers
One of the most powerful promises of Agentic AI is its potential to close safety gaps for underrepresented workers. Traditional safety programs often rely on lived experience or years of training — resources that not every worker has equal access to. As Mukund explained, this can leave underrepresented groups more vulnerable in high-risk environments.
Agentic AI analyzes risks holistically and without bias, spotlighting issues like ill-fitting PPE or underreported hazards. By scaling visibility across the enterprise, it ensures that risks affecting all employees are surfaced and addressed — creating a safer, more equitable workplace.
Why Now? The Urgency of Agentic AI for Workplace Safety
Several industry forces make Agentic AI especially relevant today:
- Regulatory pressures are intensifying, with stricter reporting and compliance requirements.
- Labor shortages leave safety and sustainability teams stretched thin.
- Digital transformation is accelerating, and organizations that fail to adopt AI risk falling behind competitors.
In this environment, Agentic AI is not a luxury — it’s a necessity. By extending human capacity, it helps organizations keep pace with growing responsibilities while maintaining safety, compliance, and sustainability standards.
Adoption Curve: From Transactional to Integrated AI
Mukund highlighted that Agentic AI is still early in its adoption curve. Much like onboarding a fresh graduate who builds capability over time, these AI agents are learning and improving with enterprise use. Organizations are already pre-booking agents like Benchmark Gensuite’s Permit Management Agent and Chemical Safety Agent, recognizing their potential to fill urgent capacity gaps.
The shift underway is clear: from transactional AI (prompted queries) to integrated AI that enhances daily operations across global teams. This evolution mirrors how safety leaders have always advanced — from paper to digital, and now from digital to intelligent.
Sustainability Impact: Beyond Safety
While most early examples of Agentic AI focus on worker safety, the implications for sustainability are just as significant. Agentic AI can:
- Automate Disclosure Response with tools like Responsio, ensuring consistent, accurate responses to investor and customer requests.
- Enhance sustainability reporting, generating summaries, flagging anomalies, and surfacing trends instantly.
- Support predictive environmental risk alerts, helping leaders address potential impacts before they escalate.
By extending its role beyond safety, Agentic AI strengthens organizations’ ability to meet sustainability goals and regulatory expectations.
The Bigger Picture: Agentic AI Within Genny AI
It’s important to note that Agentic AI is part of Benchmark Gensuite’s broader Genny AI ecosystem. Genny AI includes:
- Helpers: Streamline reporting, auto-fill forms, and summarize documents.
- Assistants: Analyze large datasets to deliver insights and predictive alerts (e.g., PSI AI Advisor for preventing serious injuries).
- Agents: The Agentic AI tools — acting as digital teammates that execute tasks on behalf of users.
While Helpers and Assistants are already saving enterprises thousands of hours and millions of dollars, Agentic AI represents the next leap forward — where AI doesn’t just support decisions but actively and tirelessly drives workflows.
Learn how EHS & Sustainability professionals are implementing AI in their daliy operations.
ROI: Real Results, Real Transformation for EHS Programs
Organizations using Benchmark Gensuite’s AI tools have already reported $20 million in cost savings, 97% closure rates on safety issues and thousands of hours saved annually and counting.
With Agentic AI, the ROI is expected to grow further. By flipping the time equation — from spending 80% of the time compiling data to 80% implementing actions — Agentic AI empowers professionals to act where it matters most.
The Agentic AI Roadmap for EHS Leaders
Agentic AI is redefining workplace safety and sustainability — not as a replacement for professionals, but as a partner. By embedding intelligence into daily workflows, enterprises can reduce risks, ensure compliance, and build more equitable, sustainable operations.
As Mukund highlighted, AI in EHS is moving from transactional to integrated. Benchmark Gensuite is leading that charge, making Agentic AI real — not vaporware — and empowering safety and sustainability leaders to stay ahead of what’s next.
Want to see how Agentic AI can transform your workplace? Explore Benchmark Gensuite’s AI solutions and discover how digital co-workers can help you scale safety and sustainability across your enterprise. Request a personalized demo today.
