AI is changing the workplace safety and compliance game. When it comes to building trust in your business, safety is paramount. Whether you are taking steps to address health risks, compliance guidelines or crime, customers and staff are taking notice. But keeping your business safe and secure is no longer solely about keeping criminals out.
The days of simply plugging in a security camera or putting up a fence are long gone. Artificial intelligence (AI) is here – and when paired with video it opens a world of new capabilities for keeping the workplace safe and secure. But before we dive into how AI helps, let’s take a look at how AI works.
AI is really “analytics on steroids.” It can analyze enormous amounts of information (like a video feed) and detect and take action on things that would normally require human intelligence. It also can “learn” as it processes more and more data (just like a human “learns” by studying for a test), so it becomes more precise as time goes on. So, for example, in the context of video, AI can tell the difference between a person, a dog, and an empty box blowing down the street.
It can also take action if the thing it’s analyzing meets a set range of criteria – if the dog walks into your parking lot at 2 a.m., the AI won’t care. If a person walks into your lot, it can set off alerts that trigger alarms and lights to scare the person off. AI has gone from “futuristic” to part of our everyday lives — from robotic vacuums to Amazon Alexa and gene sequencing, AI is changing the world.
Enhancing Workplace Safety with AI
Let’s take a closer look at three ways in which AI can help you build trust in your business by ensuring a safe and secure environment through smart video surveillance.
#1 Detect and Deter Crime
A traditional standalone video camera can record and store a crime in progress, but this type of passive monitoring does not stop crimes in progress. AI-enabled video cameras are a whole new ballgame. The software can be trained to spot suspicious behavior like someone who comes onto your businesses’ property after hours.
The system can spot who shouldn’t be there and (as is the case with Pro-Vigil’s system) generate alerts to people monitoring the video, or even automatically trigger lights, sirens and recorded announcements to scare off would-be thieves. AI also enables these smart video cameras to understand sounds – the difference, for example, between glass breaking and a flag flapping.
#2 Monitor Workplace Compliance
Many industries have strict workplace safety guidelines they have to follow to comply at the federal, state and local levels. It is not possible to manually watch over every employee and customer to make sure all of the guidelines are being met.
For example, think about a construction site. How do you make sure every worker has a hard hat on when you might not even be on the site for hours or days at a time? Or in a warehouse, how do you make sure that forklifts and other pieces of machinery are being operated in a safe manner? Now, imagine if business owners and management could take advantage of AI technology and smart surveillance to help. Not only can they pull up remote monitored video anywhere, anytime, but when AI is built into the system, the software can be trained over time to recognize when best practices are not being followed and alert the appropriate managers. Imagine having AI handle compliance checks for you — the productivity and safety benefits are obvious.
#3 Detect and Mitigate Health Risks
In addition to safety compliance guidelines, there are now also health guidelines around social distancing, occupancy constraints and personal protective equipment (PPE). AI can be applied to these guidelines as well. It can automatically count heads, determine whether or not people are staying six feet apart, and even determine if they’re wearing masks or other PPE.
And, when paired with thermal imaging software, AI-enabled cameras can even identify people who are running “hot.” When one considers the only alternative is to have staff manually monitoring people and enforcing all of these guidelines, it’s easy to see how AI-enabled video surveillance can help minimize the costs and potential disruptions caused by new health guidelines.
Artificial intelligence is enabling workplace safety on a level we haven’t seen before. To find out how AI can keep your business safe, and how Pro-Vigil’s own remote monitored surveillance solutions can help, please contact us today.
