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Safety professionals stopped fearing AI and started asking how to use it — here's what changed in a year

At ASSP Safety 2025 in Orlando, three Benchmark Gensuite executives fielded a very different set of conversations than the year before. The booth traffic shifted from job-security anxiety to hands-on questions about implementation — a signal about where safety AI adoption is actually headed in 2026.

published

July 28, 2025

Originally covered by

ISHN

TOPIC

AI adoption

As covered in

ISHN

Read the original article

━ Overview

ISHN caught up with three Benchmark Gensuite executives on the show floor at ASSP Safety 2025, where a single theme dominated every conversation: the tone at the booth had changed entirely from the year before. This page expands on that shift — what’s actually driving safety professionals from fear to active investigation, and what the current adoption curve suggests about where the field is headed next.

━ Benchmark Gensuite Perspective

The AI conversation in safety has moved from "will it replace me" to "how do I start"

A year makes a real difference when an entire professional community is working through a new technology at the same time. Twelve months ago, EHS professionals walking the ASSP show floor were largely unfamiliar with what AI could actually do for their programs, and unfamiliarity tends to default to caution about job security. That caution hasn’t disappeared, but it has been crowded out by a more practical question: what are the safety departments around me already doing with this, and am I falling behind? Rising familiarity with everyday generative AI tools — many safety professionals are already using them to draft procedures like job safety analyses — has quietly built the baseline trust needed for that shift to happen.

What hasn’t changed, and shouldn’t, is the expectation that a trained professional reviews AI-generated outputs before they inform a safety decision. That expectation is exactly why adoption is accelerating rather than stalling — teams that are already stretched thin have little appetite for tools that add review burden without reducing it, and the ones gaining traction are the ones that measurably lighten administrative load so professionals can spend more time in the field, where safety outcomes are actually won or lost.

━ Featured executive

Natasha Porter Photo
Chief Customer Officer - Benchmark Gensuite

Natasha Porter is Chief Customer Officer and Co-Founder of Benchmark Gensuite, where she leads the global organization responsible for partnering with and supporting the company’s subscribers worldwide. Over the last 30 years, she has helped shape Benchmark Gensuite’s growth from its earliest days into a global SaaS leader. Beginning her career as an EHS practitioner, Natasha saw early on the opportunity for technology to transform how organizations manage safety, risk, and compliance, an experience that continues to shape her approach to customer success and innovation today.

Today, Natasha is a recognized innovator at the intersection of AI, technology, and workplace safety, leading initiatives that help organizations strengthen risk management, compliance, and operational performance while creating safer, smarter workplaces. She is the lead inventor of the patented PSI AI Advisor, which applies machine learning to identify and prioritize incidents with the potential for serious injuries and fatalities.

Natasha also plays an active role in advancing the future of AI in EHS, working alongside industry leaders to translate emerging technologies into practical, high-impact solutions. She received the ASSP President’s Award for her leadership of the ASSP AI Task Force and contributions to advancing workplace safety through AI.

Originally covered in

ISHN

July 28, 2025

Read original article

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Frequently Asked Questions

About AI attitudes among safety professionals

Are EHS professionals still worried AI will take their jobs?

Job-security concerns have eased significantly. Most workplaces are already understaffed with little slack to cut, and there is a widespread understanding among safety professionals that AI-generated outputs still require review by experienced practitioners using judgment and critical thinking. The conversation has shifted from displacement fear to practical implementation questions.
Roughly one-third of safety professionals are still observing and learning about AI, another third are actively exploring or piloting AI projects, and the remaining third are already implementing AI systems in their programs. Adoption is expected to accelerate, with roughly half of professionals projected to be actively implementing AI within the next year.
Several forces are converging: personal familiarity with generative AI tools is building baseline trust, understaffed teams have strong incentive to adopt tools that reduce administrative burden, and competitive pressure is rising as senior leaders increasingly ask their safety departments what they are doing with AI.
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