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Uncertainty about the future has long been a common source of stress. In recent years, part of this anxiety has related to the impacts of new technologies, including artificial intelligence. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey on how Americans view AI found that 50 percent of respondents were more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, up from 37 percent in 2021. In comparison, 38 percent of Americans reported being equally concerned and excited about AI use in 2025. Just 10 percent were more excited than concerned. Many survey respondents worried that AI use could negatively impact people’s abilities to think creatively, form meaningful relationships, make difficult decisions, and solve problems.

Tom Koulopoulos, a futurist, author, inventor, professor, and entrepreneur, finds some concerns about AI reasonable. “AI and automation are expanding capability,” Koulopoulos wrote in an email to AIHA staff, “but they also raise new questions about accountability, trust, and oversight.” Yet he remains hopeful that occupational and environmental health and safety professionals can address fears about AI, as well as other likely aspects of the future workplace.

OEHS professionals must prepare for increased automation and AI use, adapt to the needs of a new generation of workers, and anticipate other changes. In his closing keynote at AIHA Connect 2026, Koulopoulos will give attendees a glimpse at possible futures of work.

“This keynote isn’t about predicting a single future—it’s about preparing for multiple plausible ones,” he wrote.

The Changing Role of OEHS Professionals

Koulopoulos’ professional background has allowed him to observe how technology, work, and human behavior intersect. He is the founder of the think tank Delphi Group and a founding partner in Acrovantage Ventures, a firm that invests in technology startups. He is also a lecturer at Boston University and an author of 14 books on innovation in the workplace. “For more than four decades,” he wrote, “I’ve worked with organizations across all industries to help them anticipate disruption and redesign how work gets done.”

To him, it is less important to anticipate the impact of any single technology on the workplace than to understand how people respond to change. “Whether it’s digital transformation, automation, or AI, the real challenge is rarely technical,” he continued. “It’s organizational, cultural, and imminently human.” Koulopoulos has come to view the future of work as something already unfolding, rather than a distant prediction, and he sees OEHS professionals as occupying a space on the front lines of this change. “As work evolves, [OEHS professionals’] role becomes not just more important—but more strategic.”

Koulopoulos explained that traditional OEHS hazard models will no longer be sufficient as work systems become more automated and data driven. OEHS professionals will not only have to anticipate, recognize, evaluate, and control chemical and physical hazards, then confirm these controls are effective. They will also have to evaluate risks relating to algorithms and systems, cognitive load and decision fatigue, human trust in and interaction with AI, the unintended consequences of efficiency-driven work design, and higher levels of systemic uncertainty.

Although AI may improve access to information, human judgment will become no more abundant. Therefore, in Koulopoulos’ view, professional expertise will no longer be enough to control risk. “The ability to interpret signals, anticipate second-order effects, and act with foresight becomes essential.”

“OEHS is becoming a bridge between technology, ethics, and human well-being,” Koulopoulos wrote. “The work is expanding from protecting people from systems to protecting people within systems.”

An Automated Workplace, A Younger Workforce

Koulopoulos aims for his keynote to prepare OEHS experts and leaders for changes in the nature of work. He will discuss how automated work systems increase risks due to effects on human decision making, interactions between automated systems, and human collaboration with machines, in addition to physical hazards.

However, not all changes will be due to AI and automation. Koulopoulos will also cover the new expectations of Gen Z and Gen Alpha as they come to make up more of the workforce. This generational shift, he believes, “will challenge every aspect of the industrial age model built on economies of scale.”

He hopes that attendees will leave the session prepared to ask better questions about the design of work and systems, as well as with a focus on anticipating risks rather than reacting to them. He aims for them to see themselves as strategic advisors who can help their organizations understand that “healthier work is also smarter work.” Above all, he hopes they will return to their jobs with a broader perspective and more confidence in their roles.

“The future of OEHS isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing differently,” Koulopoulos wrote. “And the professionals who thrive will be those who can translate complexity into clarity and uncertainty into action.”

Tom Koulopoulos’ closing keynote session will take place from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Central time on June 3rd, 2026. AIHA Connect 2026 will occur June 1st through 3rd at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, with certain sessions and events to be streamed online. To learn more about the opening and closing sessions, view the agenda, or register, visit aihaconnect.org.