11 November 2020News

New Liberty Mutual app harnesses AI to address workplace safety

Liberty Mutual Insurance has launched a new app called ErgoValuator that helps policyholders more effectively protect their workers and bottom lines from overexertion injuries.

Overexertion injuries cost employers more than $14 billion annually and typically happen when workers handle materials or equipment. The app allows Liberty Mutual's risk control consultants to better assess the likelihood of a task injuring a worker by recording a video of the task being performed and asking a few simple questions.  Videos can also be sent from employers to Liberty Mutual consultants for quick analysis.

By superimposing a wireframe skeleton over the image of the worker, the app shows how the current task stresses that individual and reports the percentage of the population that can safely perform the task as currently designed. Employers can then adjust the task to improve safety standards.

Liberty Mutual built the app in partnership with Kinetica Labs, which specialises in computer vision and artificial intelligence for occupational safety.  The ErgoValuator app blends the insurer's safety research experience with Kinetica's object recognition and machine learning software to address an issue that Liberty Mutual described as “the biggest single source of workplace injury and costs.”

James Merendino, vice president and general manager of risk control at Liberty Mutual, said: "Reducing injuries require employers systematically identify risks, evaluate options and implement best practices, which can be time consuming.”