Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the way we work, communicate, and solve problems across nearly every industry. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into the workplace, understanding both its opportunities and challenges is essential for researchers, educators, employers, and workers alike.

In her latest Substack article, Artificial Intelligence at Work, Dr. Pouran Faghri, SCERC Advisory Board Member and Adjunct Professor in the Environmental Health Sciences Department at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, explores how AI is reshaping job tasks, enhancing productivity, and creating new opportunities for innovation. The article also highlights the importance of maintaining human expertise, ethical decision-making, and workforce readiness as AI adoption continues to expand.

For occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals, AI offers exciting possibilities to improve workplace safety and worker well-being. AI-powered technologies can help identify workplace hazards, predict injury risks, monitor environmental exposures, and support more effective safety training through data-driven insights. At the same time, these advances raise important considerations surrounding burnout, worker privacy, algorithmic bias, human oversight, and the changing nature of work.

As AI continues to shape the future of work, preparing the next generation of OSH professionals will require a thoughtful balance between technological innovation and protecting worker health and safety. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and responsible implementation, AI can serve as a powerful tool to create safer, healthier, and more resilient workplaces.

We encourage you to read Dr. Pouran Faghri's Substack article Artificial Intelligence at Work to learn more about the opportunities and implications of AI for the workforce and the future of occupational safety and health.

Artificial Intelligence at Work
https://drpouranfaghri.substack.com/p/artificial-intelligence-at-work

About Dr. Pouran Faghri, MD, MS, FACSM

Dr. Pouran Faghri is an Adjunct Professor in the Environmental Health Sciences Department at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and is on the advisory board of the Southern California Education and Research Center (SCERC). Her area of expertise lies in assessing workplace physical and psychological stressors and evaluating their impact on health outcomes. Dr. Faghri has developed and assessed multiple participatory intervention models to enhance employees' mental and physical well-being in various work environments and job conditions. She played a crucial role as a site PI for the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW), which is a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Centers for Excellence in Total Worker Health®, evaluating the intersection between work and non-work risk factors for employee health and safety. She collaborated with Healthy Work Campaign researchers to develop a validated diagnostic and intervention tool called Healthy Work Survey to assess employees’ mental health, including burnout, and offer interventions for organizations to mitigate the problem.