Safer Futures: AR and AI in Safety Training with Jill Schaefer and Mulango Akpo-Esambe

Today we’re speaking to two superstars on the KPA team Mulango Akpo-Esambe, and Jill Schaefer. Mulango is KPA’s Creative Services Manager within the Product and Content team. With 20 years of experience in motion design, 3D animation and illustration, he specializes in creating, engaging, interactive content that brings elements of safety, training and education to life. Mulango is passionate about pushing creative boundaries to find new ways to connect with and captivate end users. He’s also a father of three and has published a children’s book with his wife.

Jill Schafer is KPA’s Director of Content Management. She has 20 years of communications experience ranging from PR to marketing and product leadership. Jill is a writer at heart who has spent her career teaching and storytelling on important topics like safety, compliance, energy efficiency, healthcare and education. Words, powerful graphics, pizza, triathlons, and creativity motivate her. Thanks for being with us today, guys. 

Both: Yeah, thanks. Happy to be here.

[00:01:13]
So, I know I gave you a topic and you guys collaborated on how we could best bring this to our listeners and the main theme was around training, content, innovation, AI, and AR. So what exactly are we talking about today? 

Mulango: Yeah, I think that there’s a lot of buzzwords that are being floated around out there when it comes to training and content technologies. There’s AR, VR, AI, MX. In my opinion, the two biggest innovations happening in training and content right now would be AI and AR. I think those are exciting.

Jill: Yeah, I agree. That’s exactly right. I mean, it’s not that traditional types of training or content are dead, but that they’re being enhanced with these two prescient technologies. I did research, as I always do for any of these types of discussions, and Forbes has an HR council and they were citing that AR training has allowed for more engaging training and that it’s increased employee confidence and reduced training costs, so that’s cool.

[00:02:20]
That’s fascinating that these technologies are kind of enhancing rather than replacing traditional training. I think a lot of people worry that when new stuff like this is introduced that it’s going to completely obliterate jobs, but it sounds like it’s doing more to actually help people in those jobs. So, brings me to my second question. How do augmented reality elements contribute to learning in these safety experiences? 

Mulango: Yeah, when it comes to augmented reality specifically, or AR, it usually refers to interactive content or content that is kind of being enhanced. So think of it as something that brings the material to life.

An example would be if there’s a document associated with fire prevention. We could use AR to help highlight key points such as being aware of your surroundings. Or even embed animations with image recognition that launches video or leads some to other content that could be very valuable, such as infographics and other kinds of content.

So, I think it’s a big step from the passive classroom session. And it starts to help as a personal trainer when you’re actually in the field. I think of it as a portal to quickly get tips and information about key safety elements and aspects.

So I see three big things when it comes to AR applications for training and content: One is quick visual learning. Reminders, while they’re in the flow of work.

Two is reinforcement, which I think is huge for reinforcements of compliance without being overly preachy.

And three, it’s just digital updates. Being able to quickly replace things on an image or a document without having to physically send out new things constantly. They just have it right there and it could just be digitally updated remotely.

Jill: And then I would add, you are also seeing combinations of old tech and new tech. So for example, you can place stickers with QR codes on them, on equipment in chemical storage areas. Then once people scan that code, you gain immediate access to interactive inspections, safety data sheets, handling tips; things that are immediately going to help keep you safe.

[00:04:51]
Absolutely. I think those applications are super practical and definitely ways to bring the digital into the real world and enhance those experiences. Because without a QR code on a chemical storage area, someone might have to go find a binder and figure out what they’re supposed to do to store these certain chemicals or where they’re supposed to be, rather than being able to pull it up on their phone immediately.

So, what specific industries or job functions are we seeing the biggest improvements in safety outcomes when it comes to this sort of AR training? 

Mulango: I would say specifically when we relate it to augmented reality or AR, currently at KPA we’re looking to integrate these into web-based solutions that basically embed new capabilities so that people can use their phones or tablets to access instead of logging into another app.

So anywhere where there’s a safety poster, a document, a sticker, a wallet card, that’s really great for AR in training. The idea is not to distract though.

An example would be, again, with the QR code, if we’re triggering it for PPE requirements. So before somebody goes out on site, with the QR code they can access an image or information.  And then they would be provided with the required PPE for whatever they’re about to engage in. Or again, videos as another example that highlight three points of safety. Or you also have audio options that speak different languages out loud. So for people with ESL audiences or employees, this would be great for. I think there’s a lot of possibilities.

Jill: Yeah. And to your question, Kat, I’d say there isn’t a particular industry that’s being swept by AR and AI. You know, it’s happening across the board. The overall trend is more virtual and AI driven training, and it’s going to persist because it’s cost effective for employers.

Consumers are having those experiences in their personal lives with their shopping decisions. So I’d say any hazardous industry, with people to protect, are going to be interested in training, in content advancements, sooner rather than later. And I know at KPI we certainly are interested in these enhancements.

[00:07:18]
It’s interesting to hear how broadly these technologies are being adopted. It definitely makes sense. It’s cost effective. It’s a lot faster. But I know, I also know that KPA’s being really careful about how we implement, because we know that AI’s not perfect.

There are going to be places where it’s not a hundred percent right and maybe doesn’t know all of the code for different states or regions. It makes sense that it’s expanding quickly, but I think it’s important for companies to remember too, that you have to be careful because there are real people involved and you can’t just be relying on a computer to tell you how to make sure everybody’s safe.

So, looking ahead, how do you guys see AI integration enhancing training and content over the next few years?

Mulango: Yeah, so I think with artificial intelligence, as it relates to training and content. I really think it’s something that can be used to amplify intelligence. We could use it to get smarter, finding patterns that humans couldn’t possibly understand. An example is AI researching billions of words to kind of give us the information that we need simplified.

I’ll also expand on the fact that, especially with AI, it’s very exciting to think of how the training can be tailored to what we need or certain things that we are trying to highlight.

Jill: You know, AI is here and you’re seeing it in your online experiences when you go to Google, it’s right there. And the tools can help track progress. They can recommend relevant items for you and adapt that content in real time.

So then at work, if we think about AI powered tools, it can assess individual skill gaps and career goals and preferences, and then create personalized learning paths. That’s kind of cool, right?

Because it’s meeting you where you’re at. Organizations could potentially use it to generate their own training and help deal with facility specific equipment and processes.

I think there’s room for us to steer it, how we want it to go and what we want it to do. And like you were alluding to Kat, ethics and accuracy are two big things that we have to solve for.

You know, Bill Gates recently made a kind of shocking prediction during his appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon when he was promoting his book. He said that in the era that we are just starting, intelligence is rare. Like referring to a great doctor or a great teacher. And then he said with AI over the next decade, that will become free or commonplace. With great medical advice and great tutoring. So he was suggesting that we may not even need humans for most things, which I hope is not exactly one hundred percent true.

But I can see AI’s potential with training and content. Like if it knows the risks and the incidents and the type of accidents that are happening at your facility, what laws apply to you, what are the things that are trending, then I think it has this potential to get the right training in front of people so that they’re not going to get hurt.

And of course, Google’s Gemini AI, which you see when you do searches, is very Pollyanna-ish about AI potential. It says it’s “going to reshape training by personalizing the learning, automating tasks and providing data-driven insights.”

And that would lead to more effective, engaging, and accessible training programs. Ao again, if it can adapt to individual learner needs, it can offer that tailored content and those customized learning paths which could be exciting.

[00:11:23]
Yes. And I love that you asked AI, “Hey AI, hey, how are you going to change the world?”

That’s great. And you know, it makes sense. It is pulling the information that it has in terms of if we’re using it right, and putting the human aspect in there, to where we can get it right and make sure that we’re on the right path.

I’m sure that’s correct. Honestly, you know what, I’m going to put my money on the AI’s prediction.  And hopefully a little less on the Bill Gates’ one, although it is very thought provoking to think about once an AI does have all of the annals of medicine, how could it diagnose you?

Who knows? Maybe WebMD telling you you have cancer is in the past, and you’ll be able to get a real diagnosis with a WebMD AI soon!

But that makes me wonder though, what kind of drawbacks are there to AI and AR when it comes to these high risk jobs? 

Mulango: Yeah, so I’ll say that when it comes to the specifically high risk jobs, maybe I’m being bullish on this but I see AR helping more than harming, specifically with this question. So let’s say there’s a chemical spill: So instead of pulling out that binder like we talked about before, and searching through the policies and trying to find somebody who’s experienced this before, you can instantly just pull out your phone or tablet and, scan the QR code. Or go to a poster and pull up this information very quickly.

And I think that’s where, again, I might be being bullish with AR and not seeing the drawbacks but I would say they’re pretty limited.

When we go to AI, I probably take a bigger stance on the drawbacks for AI. Specifically with the negligence and the trusting. I think with AI I would take the stance that it’s not a one-stop shop yet. You probably do want to have a second reference; either that’s somebody with experience or with real-life training, or somebody who can approve with clarity and affirm that the action or task is correct. I’d say that there’s probably still a ways to go before I trust AI a hundred percent.

Jill: And I think too, the way that AR or AI is done, it may not necessarily be engaging. It might not stand out in someone’s mind.  I think a lot of companies especially want to claim it, but the quality matters. People still need to retain what they learn. And that might be a challenge for us in training and who are content architects. We’re okay with that challenge, but I think, like Mulango was saying, we can’t be so dependent on the technology that we’re missing the trees for the forest, so to speak.

I will also say too in the regulations themselves, there may be mandates about the need for onsite training. You might still have to have a written program and allow for employees to ask questions and receive answers in a live environment. So AI-powered teaching assistants can offer real-time support, but again, there’s that accuracy aspect. Are they knowledgeable about the company’s exact policies or the types of clarifications that are needed?

So I’d say a varied training approach is typically going to be best.  You can have employees taking the online courses, micro-trainings, serving as a refresher, and even tailgate talks or other types of training initiatives can make a lot of sense.

[00:15:24]
Yeah, that’s definitely a good point in terms of needing a balanced approach. I think that’s probably going to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks for companies that want to push AI out right now is making sure that they are being careful about how they do it and how it’s actually pushed out there to make sure that there isn’t a lot of inaccuracy or things that could put someone in danger.

Because when we talk about safety and you’re using a computer to tell you what to do, it could mean that someone gets injured. So, we definitely want to be careful about that.

So with any training program, obviously measuring effectiveness is crucial. So what metrics should organizations track to evaluate the ROI and effectiveness of their safety programs?

Jill: I think the metrics for training and content effectiveness are straightforward and they’re not too different than what they have been. So, what is going on at your organization? How much are you spending on incidents or accidents? Have there been employee injuries or God forbid any employee deaths?

And you know, it becomes easier and more proactive to run your training and content programs with software. You don’t want to use Excel as your source of truth. Any manual process is just going to make things clunky. So you and your employees, with software, can receive automatic notifications, task reminders. There’s tracking to help ensure that people are actually taking the training when they’re supposed to. And then other strategies like quiz questions or adaptive learning can understand what employees are not quite understanding, like what they need help with. And then it could produce the necessary and customized lessons.

The training industry, which is sort of like a neutral organization about learning trends and credentials. I mean, they’re indicating that AI driven analytics can also provide indications as far as like, are things being effective? What’s the impact? Therefore helping demonstrate some of that ROI.

In the end it’s about your safety record at your facility, what’s going on, incidents, accidents, injuries, the costs, and what you might want to do with that in terms of training.

Mulango: Yeah, I totally agree. So how do you track an accident that never happened? Just having a QR link or an image with tracking data can definitely help evaluate what things are being used or viewed by the end user. I think with the enhanced posters, the question becomes more: how can we use that information on the backend to help enhance the training and the content material in the future that makes it more engaging for the end user?  The return on investment, it’s more of like a long-term play into safety and knowledge for the employees.

So, again as an example, if we have AR content that gives quick information about the type of fire and the fire extinguishers to be used in that emergency, I think the goal is to help prevent the situation from getting worse, and that in itself is a pretty great victory.

[00:18:53]
Absolutely. I think you guys are spot on with this in terms of this this is not something that’s going to be like: change this thing and you’ll make more money. Instead you make this investment to make sure that your teams are safer. And in the long run, that’s going to mean less turnover, people that are better trained, people that feel safer in their jobs, which we’ve talked about on a previous episode, the psychological safety climate of a job and how when people feel safe on the job, they’re more likely to return more quickly after an injury.

So I think if you think about it in that way, yeah, you’re going to be saving money. It may not be immediately tangible, but it’s going to make a difference in the long run.

So in terms of learning, how is the psychology of learning different now? How has it changed and how do you design training to match those emerging preferences that we’re seeing? 

Mulango: Yeah, so I spent over almost 20 years working on motion graphics and incident recreations, near-miss training, and we designed this stuff to go into trainings to help captivate the learners and keep them engaged and learn the topics and situations that they could possibly run into.

We were always trying to create this content to make it hit home, and with that approach, for the most part, it definitely helps to add things that help reinforce the learning so that it’s engaging and that it makes someone come back and learn more and see more and experience more.

Jill: I came across a Time Magazine article and it was indicating that people are concerned about their attention spans. And then it cited a University of California Irvine study that was done in the 2000s where people were using an electronic device and then the researchers were tracking how often those people’s focus shifted to something new and that happened about every 2.5 minutes back then.

And then they repeated it now. They found that the average is now about 47 seconds. So I don’t know if it’s necessarily indicating that our attention spans have shifted, but we’re definitely changing what we’re focusing on. It’s the proverbial multitasking, which some have also said is a myth, but  as we’re scrolling on our phones or jumping around from one app to the other, we may have fractured focus.

But I’m not demoralized by that. I think with compelling content, like the things that Mulango has created, the employee interviews, the stories, and ways that seemingly boring safety topics become meaningful, I think that can still hold on to learners and beat out the distractions.

Content ultimately functions to keep them safe. You know? And just from some of the client surveys that we’ve done at KPA, I understand that people are demanding an easy and straightforward way to complete their training and interact with content. So as much as possible, the goal is to create the easy button with training and content, make sure that it’s relevant, it’s compelling, and that there’s multiple ways to reinforce the same principles, but in different ways.

[00:22:15]
Absolutely. I can see how, being able to have different ways to enforce these things will help it stick in your mind. I think there’s also some research about moving things from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. And one thing that’s good for that is sleep.

So I’m going to vote for a nap after a training session. [Laughs] Not because you’re tired. Not because you’re bored of the training, but because you want to store that memory; the training was so good, you want to immediately put it in your long term memory.

So another thing that I think I’ve heard from a lot of our listeners in terms of things that they’re concerned about is budget constraints. So, what are some cost effective ways that you can incorporate more sophisticated safety training, for organizations that have more limited resources?

Jill: You know, I think some people are experimenting with a more bare bones approach. They’re backing off of training, or they think they might not need the software apparatus to help them. But that’s like rolling the dice and hoping for the best.

So even if federal regulatory pressure is dialed back at this point, there’s still state action and different types of penalties, and also, wouldn’t you feel better as a person if your employees are still getting home safe?

So having an online learning management system is crucial, and there are ways to do it, and save money. For example, you can check with your insurance provider. They might be a KPA client and they may have access to use our risk management center, which has training content and other sorts of capabilities.

You don’t want to guess. The training should be recommended for you based on the risks associated with your industry. Use that reporting: who’s completing training, who isn’t, which departments are having trouble, and then process the facts and numbers that are relevant for your facility, and then level up from there utilizing software. That’s going to help you ultimately save money in the end.

[00:24:36]
Thinking about this, we’ve already talked about the fact that there’s an ROI to it that’s not immediate. It’s definitely going to be a long-term investment. And I think touching back on not only the cost, but the fact that we talked about some of the accuracy, some of the ethical pieces, might be a little cloudy as of right now. So what advice would you give safety professionals who are still skeptical about moving away from the traditional hands-on training methods that they believe to be the tried and true?

Mulango:  Yeah. I definitely say don’t be worried! It isn’t so much of jumping in blind, but, I don’t think it takes away from the hands-on training. If anything AR and AI can be designed to work with your on-time training to help enhance and reinforce what’s being taught and learned.

So these are all quick access points for repetition of key indicators. We want people to grasp that and it can honestly save their lives when that situation matters.

[00:25:40]
Absolutely. Those things are super important and I really thank you both for your insights on this topic. I think we were able to really dive deep and explore how AR creates interactive safety experiences, and how AI can personalize training. Along with the ways to measure effectiveness through improved safety metrics. So thank you so much for sharing your expertise on these blended new technologies that can help keep employees safe.

Is there anything that you guys want to share before we fully wrap up here? 

Jill: I think we’re entering an exciting time for virtual training and content. Interactivity and personalization have always been the sweet spot for content and we still want to keep people safe and make that emerging technology relevant and valuable. I don’t take those directives lightly. I want to make sure my stuff is accurate and high quality.

I remember listening to a podcast that featured author and investigative reporter, Gary Rivlin, and he said: The weird thing about AI is that it seems to know everything, but it doesn’t understand a thing. And at KPA, I’d say we’re specializing in reading between the lines, interpreting what matters, and guiding employers on how to do what you need to do.

Mulango: Yep. Couldn’t have been said better. I think we should embrace the future. There’s a lot of things on the horizon that can really move safety and training to new heights. And honestly, it’s exciting to be creating content in this current moment in time. There’s many things that we haven’t even touched on, but the future looks bright and very engaging if people are willing to embrace it and move forward.

[00:27:22]
I think you’re right. It sounds like we’re going to have to do another episode on AI. But, as you said, Jill, AI is here and, Mulango, you’re saying embrace the future. I think you’re right. It is inevitable. It’s here. It’s going to continue expanding. You might as well get on the train and make sure that you are doing things right rather than trying to catch up when it’s already implemented and you don’t know what the right thing to do is.

So, again, thank you guys so much for being part of this episode. Mulango and Jill have provided a list of sources for you guys. We’re going to list those in the show notes. Thanks so much for being the ever prepared and studious guests. You guys are the best. Thanks.