State of EHS+ Technology: New Cority Research Finds 95% of EHS+ Teams Using Unapproved AI Tools, No One Trusts it to Scale

Global survey of 2,000 senior leaders finds AI adoption is racing ahead of governance, trust, and system readiness

TORONTO, April 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cority, the converged platform for preventing EHS+ risks in operations, today released new research demonstrating that AI adoption in EHS+ is accelerating faster than most organizations are prepared to manage. In a global survey of 2,000 senior leaders across environmental, occupational health, safety, and sustainability functions, 95% said their teams or frontline workers are already using AI tools outside approved systems, while only 5% said AI is embedded across workflows. The findings, published in Cority’s new report, The State of EHS+ Technology, point to a widening gap between AI experimentation and the governance, data foundations, and system readiness needed to operationalize it at scale.

Access the full report here: https://www.cority.com/reports-1/state-of-ehs-technology?utm_source=newswire&utm_medium=pressrelease&utm_term=maturity&utm_content=pressrelease&utm_campaign=corityone

Key findings from the report include:

• Shadow AI is now the norm in EHS+. Ninety-five percent of leaders said teams or frontline workers are using AI outside approved systems, underscoring how rapidly AI has entered day-to-day EHS+ work without corresponding governance structures in place. The report identifies this as shadow AI and notes the added risks it introduces, including hallucinations, errors, and AI bias, in addition to broader governance, monitoring, and compliance concerns.
• Most organizations still lack the data and systems foundation needed to scale trusted AI. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they are operating on manual, disconnected, or partially integrated tools. Just 5% said their EHS+ data is centralized and integrated with enterprise data, and 88% said fragmented data and a lack of integration between EHS+ software and other enterprise systems is limiting their teams’ ability to use AI.
• AI is accelerating the push toward integrated platforms and consolidation. Ninety-four percent of respondents said AI has already influenced how they approach EHS+ technology purchasing, and 62% said the need to apply AI is pushing them toward integrated platforms and IT consolidation. The report frames consolidation as no longer optional as organizations look for the consistency, governance, and connected data AI requires.
• Leaders see AI’s biggest upside in improving decisions during active work. While 82% of organizations still rely always or often on lagging indicators such as incidents, violations, and claims for after-the-fact reporting and corrective action, respondents pointed to some of AI’s greatest potential in helping organizations better navigate schedule changes, PPE or tool availability, communication across teams and shifts, and worker focus or fatigue in real time.
• Human oversight remains essential in EHS+ AI adoption. Only 15% of respondents said they trust fully autonomous AI to make and act on decisions, even in defined scenarios. By contrast, 85% prefer to keep humans in command, whether that means reviewing AI actions, approving recommendations, or using AI as a decision-support advisor while people retain final decision-making authority.
  
  

The report introduces Cority’s EHS+ Technology Maturity Model, a benchmarking framework designed to measure organizations across four dimensions: leadership and culture, processes and data, technology, and AI. Across all four, the findings point to the same conclusion: organizations moving furthest ahead are not the ones chasing the most AI experiments. They are the ones building the strongest foundation underneath them, including engaged leadership, connected data, integrated platforms, and centralized AI governance.

“AI is already being used across EHS+. The critical question is whether organizations have the foundation to make it trustworthy, governed, and useful in practice,” said Ryan Magee, CEO of Cority. “In a field where the cost of a wrong call is measured in injuries, disruptions, and regulatory risk, flashy AI is not enough. Teams need AI they can trust.”

The research also points to a larger shift in how EHS+ leaders are thinking about technology. Rather than viewing AI primarily as a tool for faster reporting or administrative efficiency, many now see its greatest long-term value in helping organizations identify and prevent risk closer to where work actually happens, as conditions change in real time. That marks a meaningful shift away from backward-looking systems and toward more operational, real-time support for decision-making.

Cority’s research was conducted in partnership with Censuswide and is based on a survey of 2,000 professionals across the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the UK, spanning industries including manufacturing, mining and metals, chemicals, oil and gas, construction, energy and utilities, healthcare, pharma and biotech, food and beverage, and government and public sector. The survey was conducted between January 19 and January 30, 2026.

Access the full report here: https://www.cority.com/reports-1/state-of-ehs-technology?utm_source=newswire&utm_medium=pressrelease&utm_term=maturity&utm_content=pressrelease&utm_campaign=corityone

About Cority

Cority helps customers see and prevent risks across their operations in real time. Our EHS+ platform converges people, processes, data, and AI agents to provide a clear view of information people can trust, automate workflows that make people more impactful, and deliver personalized insights and expertise to improve decision-making. Cortex AI puts domain-expert intelligence directly into everyday workflows — secure by design, governed by you, and built to scale. While most solutions respond to risks one at a time, Cority helps prevent them across environmental management, employee health, safety, quality, and sustainability. For 40 years, Cority has been the market leader in EHS+, recognized by top analysts and trusted by more than 1,500 of the most complex organizations worldwide. Learn more at our homepage.

Media Contact:
Natalie Rizk
natalier@theriotmind.agency