Can AI Replace Ergonomists? What You Need to Know Before You Buy the Hype

Okay, so AI is popping up everywhere, right? But what does this for us in the ergonomics world? This episode takes a look at these new AI-powered risk assessment tools – are they a game-changer or just another shiny object?

We'll break down the costs (spoiler: they can be a bit of a surprise) and what these tools can actually do. We'll also look at how some businesses are already seeing results.

We'll also talk about how your hard-saught after expertise still is invaluable. This isn't about robots taking over; it's about figuring out how this tech fits into what we do. So, if you're just curious or seriously thinking about AI, be sure to listen to this episode.

Are you a healthcare professional curious about how office ergonomics assessments could fit into your services? I’ve got you covered with some valuable (and free!) resources at www.ergonomicshelp.com/free-training.

Transcript

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Hey there. Welcome to the Business of Ergonomics podcast. Today in the show we're diving into a pivotal topic that is potentially reshaping our ergonomics field. Let's dive into artificial intelligence. Welcome to the Business of Ergonomics podcast. I'm your host, Darcy Jeremy. I'm a board certified professional agonist with over 15 years of experience delivering ergonomics programs to employers of all different types. In this podcast, I share what other healthcare professionals are already doing and being with ergonomics assessments. And how to land those clients that you dream of. Without further ado, let's jump into this episode right now. one of my favorite things to do is dive into the issues that's really taken a toll on our profession. One of the things that we are looking at today is artificial intelligence. Are you an early adopter of AI ergonomics risk assessment tools? Or are you more on the sidelines? Just trying to figure out if this is the right tool for you, if it's worth its cost. Hello? Have you seen how much these are? We're gonna look at that more and whether or not this is a good financial decision and business decision for you to move on with. There's a lot of angles that I wanna bring to the table here and what this means for you and your future. Imagine your practice five years from now. Will AI be a silent partner or will you be playing catch up? What's driving your projection? I want you to really consider No matter where your role has been. In the ergonomics field, no matter what you'd be doing, I think we can all agree that the shift is undeniable. And this isn't theoretical, it's impacting client expectations and service delivery. AI is now capable of analyzing movement and ergonomics with precision thanks to computer vision and sensor technology. Academic rigor reinforces this trend with studies applied ergonomics that is validating AI's efficacy. Now, when I'm looking at ai, I am considering two aspects here. Is AI a revolutionary tool or a looming threat? This is straight up a crucial moment for ergonomics professionals. And we're gonna look at various aspects to what's going on with AI ergonomics risk assessments today, and how to navigate it. Before we dive in to the context for today, I want you to take a moment to reflect here. What's your initial gut reaction to AI in ergonomics? Why are you considering this? Let's ground ourselves in the current landscape. A recent report from the Insurance Journal highlights the rapid adoption of AI safety solutions by small businesses, showcasing real ROI through reduced injury rates and increased efficiency. This isn't just theoretical, it's impacting our clients' decision making.. I had every intention to take a deep dive into all of the AI ergonomics risk assessment tools out there. I was so naive. I thought all of these companies were gonna be posting all their value propositions and what they bring to the table and the ergonomics risk assessment tools that they use and their cost on their website. So it's easy for people like me ergonomics consultants to come and compare and contrast between a bunch of different ones to make the best solution for what their needs are. And much of this information was locked down, so it was very hard for me to give you a really good approach to each of these tools because there was a lot of trade secrets and some use things like NIOSH and Liberty Mutual Snack tables, but others use their own tools that they made up. The best thing that I can do for you here is that give you some broad. Conclusions that I came to after looking at a bunch of different tools. So it can give you some context to when you're looking at these tools because I think that the best thing for you to do is to actually go out there and get as many demos as you possibly can on these tools. But what I did see is that some of these tools are getting customers really awesome results. However, take that as a grain of salt because hello, these companies are marketing themselves. Of course, they're gonna say that they're getting customers awesome results. Some have certified professional agonists on staff. Many are being used by well-known organizations. The vast majority just use your smartphone and don't require any sensors. The prices are legit, locked down. They're not easily found. But what I did see is that they are way more expensive than I was expecting, even though I knew that they were gonna be expensive because I talk to ergonomics consultants all the time. It might be extremely valuable at scaling your ergonomic services, but that would probably mean you have to charge your clients higher prices because using these tools are almost hundreds of dollars for every assessment. Which is a lot of money. So it just needs to be in our bottom line that these are being paid for Some of these tools. Seem to be marketed to ergonomics and health and safety experts, but there's a lot that aren't. It's clear that they're not being straightforward with the types of ergonomics risk assessment tools that they're using in their software. Some might mention NIOSH or the Liberty Mutual tables, but others are saying that they're using tools that they develop themselves, my point, if we are gonna be marketing this to ergonomics professionals, is that we wanna use peer reviewed, reliable tools so that we can be grounded and be sure that what we're doing is based on peer reviewed literature. If you're interested in any of this, I'm strongly encouraging you. To get out there and get on demos or trials, maybe you can work out an arrangement for marketing reviews or see if you can do some one-offs to see if this is something that would add value to what you're doing as an ergonomics professional, especially if you have a big project coming up And you have many ergonomics assessments that you have to do. You can imagine how much of a time saver this will be if in a minute, a dozen ergonomic analysis for you instead of the hours and hours that might be required for you to analyze ergonomics risk. So something to consider. If it's gonna give you a major time savings and not burn you out, it might be worth the cost. Yeah, but remember, I really wanna encourage you to increase your prices so that it doesn't burn you out with thinking about how much this is going to be on your bottom line. So if this is going to remove bottlenecks in your ergonomics assessment process, or maybe you're just starting out in your ergonomics career, would this be something that you could actually use to teach you how to do an ergonomics assessment? I don't know. I have some questions for you to consider. And going forward to decide whether or not AI tools might be something that would be valuable for you, honestly. Do you think that you can use AI generated data to enhance your assessments and provide more comprehensive solutions? Do you think that these can streamline or even scale your services without sacrificing quality so you could help more businesses and help more people without burning out? What would be your bottom line if you ended up using one of these tools? Would you need to increase your prices? One more thing, you could consider using AI software to validate your ergonomics risk assessments. And that could technically bring more value to your services and make you more competitive. The main thing that we're looking at with this is that we have an opportunity to adapt and thrive in this new landscape. So think about this. You offer specialized training on how to interpret AI generated ergonomic data, awesome. This positions you as an expert in both traditional ergonomics and AI powered solutions. You could provide consulting on the implementation of AI ergonomic systems. Small businesses will need guidance on integrating these tools into their workflows and always focus on that human touch. You definitely wanna provide personalized, in-depth assessments and training that AI can't replicate. For instance, when I started this episode today, I was talking about how AI and in person REBA scores were very similar and very accurate. However, the solutions that AI came up with are probably gonna be a little bit different than what a seasoned ergonomics professional in this report. The solutions talked about posture and positioning. An experienced ergonomics professional would look at first, engineering solutions, administrative solutions. Then third down the line, if there's no suitable engineering or administrative solutions, would then look at behavioral or posture solutions. Sit up straight, stretch, all that good stuff. But that should never be the main solution. And what this ergonomics report in the journal said is that the main solution was behavior solutions. AI is not the stage of replicating. It doesn't seem like the tools that they have are bringing the context and the experience that us experienced ergonomics consultants can bring to the table. So they might do a really good at identifying the ergonomics risk and where it is, however, really valuable insights and solutions that we have, that's an opportunity for you. It is such a cool time to be alive in the ergonomics field. We are witnessing a paradigm shift. Things are a lot different. Even the inventions of smartphones was absolutely revolutionary to ergonomics assessments because it made it so much easier. A video recorder to a computer. Do you know how long that took? So many steps. It is such a breeze to do that. So really, software analysis via AI just makes sense. However, as much as this makes sense, there needs to be a business case for this. Does it make sense to where you are as an ergonomics consultant? Have you done your own due diligence? if there's an opportunity for you to actually get down and dirty with these AI risk assessment tools before an opportunity presents itself, would you be able to do the future for us as ergonomics consultants is obviously still gonna be there. I actually think that there might be even more of a future for us now because the heavy lifting and marketing ergonomics is gonna be done by these AI risk assessment companies. If you can look at those complimentary services and really move with these AI companies to provide value to them and their customers, for you to interpret the solutions and provide immense value to these clients. One more thing. Did you know that my program accelerate the business of ergonomics is designed to break down barriers and give you instant access to the latest and most relevant findings in ergonomics. Every single month delivered straight to your fingertips. If you wanna dive into what Accelerate is, if it's a good match for you, all you gotta do is go to the show notes and click through and see if it's a good decision for you right now in your life. Until next time, I hope you have a great day and an even better week.