AI vision-powered safety: your ROI accelerated

Unforeseen safety incidents are costing industrial manufacturers as much as $50 billion per year.

According to a 2022 Forbes study, the impact of unplanned downtime, often from unforeseen safety incidents, can cost industrial manufacturers as much as $50bn annually¹. Across the global economy, a Siemens report of the same year concluded that unplanned downtime wiped out 11% of the yearly turnover of all Fortune Global 500 companies (increasing from $864bn in 2020 to a staggering $1.5tn a year by 2022²). With this trend continuing apace, the 2025 estimate is expected to easily surpass $2.5tn.

Perhaps even more alarmingly, the International Labour Organization (ILO) benchmarked that safety incidents alone are responsible for a loss of 4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) globally³. In this paper we outline that far from these trends further eroding margin, AI Vision – and specifically the viso HSE Suite – have already turned the tide for early-adopters of this technology. Aggregated research from several leading consultancies and global trade organizations indicates real-time monitoring with AI Vision can already reducing workplace accidents by 25–40% and resulting machine downtime by up to 20-30%.⁴

How AI Vision became the foremost development in eliminating downtime costs and safety risk AI Vision applications enable computers to ‘see’ and interpret the world around them through both images and videos, simulating human understanding. When these applications are used to power safety monitoring systems it becomes possible to detect unsafe behavior in real-time.

How AI Vision became the foremost development in eliminating downtime costs and safety risk

AI Vision applications enable computers to ‘see’ and interpret the world around them through both images and videos, simulating human understanding. When these applications are used to power safety monitoring systems it becomes possible to detect unsafe behavior in real-time.

Worker safety monitoring – ensuring compliance with safety protocols – using vision-based Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and behavior monitoring is increasingly effective:

• Installing cameras at critical entry points to detect helmets & vests.
• Monitoring restricted zones and dangerous equipment with CV to detect unauthorized access or risky behaviors
• Using pose estimation to detect slips, trips, or fatigue-related postures

The business case for vision-powered safety

Industrial Health and Safety leaders face tightening regulations, skilled labor gaps and pressure to hit “zero-harm” targets while increasing throughput. Traditional, manual audits are time-consuming and leave blind spots that lead to losses being incurred. AI Vision delivers significant savings.

Hard dollar savings

• > $50k average direct + indirect cost per OSHA recordable injury – every accident prevented flows straight to EBIT.
• > 25 hours of production lost per critical incident Automated event evidence cuts root- cause analysis time dramatically.
• > $4.1bn in fines and downtime paid by manufacturers in 2024 alone: clients using Vision AI reduced that exposure by up to 70%.
• 8–12% annual reduction in workers compensation and liability premiums once verifiable KPI improvement is reported to insurers.

Strategic savings

• Up to 80% of near misses go unrecorded in manual systems, hiding the true risk profile and limiting strategic decision-making. Capturing these events turns blind-spot data into targeted training
• Reducing manual safety walks and CCTV reviews by up to 90%, frees supervisors for coaching and continuous improvement.
• A proven zero incident record has become a top three scoring criterion in major project tenders, giving adopters a decisive edge.

The viso Health & Safety Suite closes this visibility gap by capturing safety-relevant events and flagging them in real time. The insights enable targeted training adjustments, which are the primary driver behind the rapid reductions detailed on the following page.

Why traditional controls are falling short

Because manual checks are sampled, not continuous, they are prone to human bias. As safety walks happen only once per shift (and in many cases less), several hours, days or weeks can pass with no oversight. Hazards emerge and disappear, near misses slip through the cracks, and workers often modify their behavior in the inspector’s presence, so the snapshot never truly reflects everyday risk.

Regulatory and compliance pressures are also significant. Strict safety mandates require auditable proof that risk controls are active: manual inspections remain time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Market competitiveness and client expectations have seemingly never been higher. Safety performance has now become a decisive and increasingly mandatory criterion in large project tenders. Lagging indicators and siloed data are no longer viable to win contracts. Firms that can demonstrate an always-on, technology enabled, zero incident record secure a tangible competitive advantage.

How the viso Health & Safety Suite closes the gap

24/7 computer vision capture records every unsafe act in real-time, precisely as it happens, eliminating blind spots between inspections.