AI at work, by industry · Operators, team leaders, engineers, quality and safety staff, and operations managers
AI in manufacturing and operations: safe, lawful and under control
Where AI helps on the line, how it fails, what the HSE expects, and how to keep a person in charge of the machine.
- 2modules
- 1.5CPD hours
- 90guided minutes
- Freeto study
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About this course
AI is on the shop floor already: cameras that inspect parts, software that predicts when a bearing will fail, schedulers that reorder the day, and robots that work beside people. Each can be very good. Each also fails in its own way, usually quietly, and usually after something about the process has changed.
The Health and Safety Executive has said plainly that existing health and safety law applies to AI whatever the technology, and that it expects a risk assessment for any use of AI that affects health and safety. For firms that build or export machinery, the EU's new Machinery Regulation applies from 20 January 2027, and the EU AI Act's rules for AI used as a safety component now apply from 2 August 2028.
This course gives operators and managers the questions to ask before an AI system is allowed to affect quality, safety or the line itself, and the habits that keep a person in charge of the machine.
What you will be able to do
- Describe four common uses of AI in manufacturing and how each fails
- Explain why a change in the process can silently degrade an AI system
- State what the Health and Safety Executive expects when AI affects health and safety
- Apply management of change to an AI system
- Decide what an AI system may advise on and what it may control
- Explain how the EU Machinery Regulation and AI Act affect machinery that uses AI
- Keep the records that show an AI system was validated and is being watched
Modules
Assessment and certificate
Knowledge check after each module and a final assessment at 80 per cent, with unlimited attempts.
A digital certificate, issued the moment you have passed and paid, showing 1.5 CPD hours with a verification code. It evidences knowledge of how to use AI safely in manufacturing. It is not a regulated qualification, it does not make anyone competent to validate or sign off a safety system, and it does not replace your site's own risk assessments and procedures.
Questions
Does health and safety law cover AI?
Yes. The Health and Safety Executive has said that the goal setting nature of existing legislation means the law applies whatever technology is used. It expects a risk assessment for uses of AI that affect health and safety, with controls that reduce risk so far as is reasonably practicable, including against cyber security threats.
What is model drift?
An AI system learns from data collected at one time. When the process changes, such as a new material, a new supplier, different lighting or a worn tool, the data it now sees no longer matches what it learned from, and its accuracy falls without any alarm. That is drift.
Does the EU AI Act apply to a UK manufacturer?
It is not UK law. It matters if you supply machinery or products containing AI to the EU. After the July 2026 amendment, the rules for AI that is a safety component of a regulated product apply from 2 August 2028. The EU Machinery Regulation applies from 20 January 2027.
Can an AI system be allowed to stop or start a machine?
Only where that has been designed, risk assessed and validated as part of the safety system, by people competent to do so. An AI tool introduced to advise should not drift into controlling. The default for anything new is that it advises and a person acts.