AI in EHS: Why Most Professionals Haven’t Seen the Real Value (Yet)
- Lucas Domingues
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
When it comes to the use of AI in EHS (Environment, Health & Safety), one thing is clear: we’re just getting started. The potential is enormous — yet most safety professionals remain unclear on where and how to use it properly to maximize results.
That’s why I often hear the same comment again and again:
“I tried GPT, but I didn’t see the real value yet.”
And to be fair, this isn’t surprising. While some approach tools like ChatGPT expecting a magic bullet, most are simply confused about how to prompt AI effectively.
The truth is simple: if your instructions are vague, shallow, or contradictory, you can’t expect much more than what’s known as GIGO — garbage in, garbage out. AI is powerful, but like any tool, it performs best when guided with clarity, context, and structure.
Why Prompting Matters
Think of prompting as the way you frame a conversation. If you walked up to a consultant and said: “Help me with safety,” you wouldn’t get much value.
But if you asked: “Help me redesign our incident reporting process for a 500-person construction site using a mobile-first approach,” you’d unlock targeted, actionable insights.
AI works the same way. Prompting isn’t about fancy tricks — it’s about asking the right questions, in the right way, with the right level of detail. And for safety professionals navigating the digital transformation of EHS, this is quickly becoming a core skill.
Practical Next Steps for Safety Professionals
If you’ve dabbled with AI but felt underwhelmed, here are three ways to start building real value:
👉 Explore Google Career Certificates – Check out their free course Start Writing Prompts Like a Pro. It’s a simple way to level up your understanding of prompt engineering.
👉 Join OpenAI’s Livestream – Prompting with Purpose: Best Practices and Techniques for ChatGPT (Oct 3, 8:00–9:00 PM BST). A great way to learn directly from the source.
👉 Be part of the Safety 4.0 Academy – My upcoming course, Safety 4.0 – Leading Safety in the Digital Age, will be the world’s first IOSH-approved and CPD-certified program of its kind.
We’ll go beyond AI prompting to cover the full spectrum of SafetyTech — from AI and IoT to wearables, drones, predictive analytics, and more.
Final Thought: Don’t Fall into the GI/GO Trap
Generative AI in safety is here to stay. But its value depends entirely on how we, as professionals, choose to engage with it. If we stick with shallow instructions, we’ll keep getting shallow results.
That’s why in the next issue of my newsletter, Safety Beyond Compliance, I’ll dive deeper into the GI/GO problem, share my framework for prompt engineering, and show you exactly how to turn AI from a novelty into a practical SafetyTech tool for safer, smarter workplaces.
We’re just getting started — and those who learn to master this skill now will be the ones shaping the future of EHS.
Do you feel confident to write prompts that actually produce results?
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If you need help, don't hesitate to contact us for a discovery call with Lucas, founder of CEO of Shield360.
Thank you Stay safe, stay ahead.