I audited control of work as a subject matter expert at bp. This page is part of AI in process safety management.
Where is AI being introduced into control of work?
- Drafting permits and task risk assessments, in digital permit systems or general-purpose assistants.
- Checking isolation plans against drawings and isolation standards.
- Detecting conflicts between permits, isolations and simultaneous operations.
- Camera checks of PPE, barriers and work site conditions.
- Robots and drones doing inspection work.
How do you find where AI is already used in control of work?
With an AI use inventory and governance gap review, run under the site’s legal or compliance lead. It records which tools are in use, which permit, isolation and SIMOPS decisions they reach, and which of those uses the permit procedure and management of change already cover. Each gap gets an owner and a decision on whether the use is permitted, permitted with a defined check, or stopped.
A written policy does not settle it. In EY’s AI Risk and Governance Survey of 202 US senior AI decision-makers at publicly traded companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue, 98% reported formal AI governance policies, and 47% said their organisation “has previously not followed its AI governance process for urgent deployments” (EY, 15 September 2026). The release names no sector and does not address process safety.
Who is the issuing authority when AI drafted the permit?
The person who signs. HSG250 expects those signing permits to have “specific training and authorisation from the company” (HSE, HSG250 Guidance on permit-to-work systems, 2005). A drafted permit arrives complete and plausible, so the issuer checks precautions instead of building them. For electronic permits, HSG250 already warns against operators relying on cutting and pasting sections from other permits, and says permits should not be issued remotely without a site visit. The permit procedure should record that a draft came from AI and require the issuer to confirm the hazards at the job.
What happens to the competence of issuers and performers?
HSG250 expects issuers to know the plant hazards well enough to identify control measures such as isolations correctly. Issuers who mostly review drafts build less of it, so competence assessment should test it without the AI. Performers should know which precautions came from a model.
Can AI verify an isolation?
It can check a proposed isolation against drawings and standards, and only as well as the drawings allow. It cannot confirm that a valve is closed, locked and proven. Verification at the point of isolation stays a signed human step.
Does AI conflict detection replace the area authority?
HSG250 gives a competent area authority the overview of all operations, to avoid hazards from simultaneous activities. Conflict detection supports that person and sees only what is in the system. Unpermitted work or a vessel alongside sits outside its view. The SIMOPS procedure should define what the tool checks and what the area authority still checks.
Can a camera check the work site?
Where it has a view, a camera can flag missing PPE or an open barrier. If the site relies on it, its coverage and failure modes need defining, and it adds to the checks people make at the job.
What changes in the audit trail?
The record should show what the AI proposed, what the issuer changed and which model version was in use. A model update in the permit system is a change, and goes through management of change.
What happens when the system is down?
HSG250 asks for back-up systems in case of software failure or power outage, and for paper permits to display at the job site. With AI, the back-up also has to cover what the AI was doing, such as conflict and isolation checks. Exercises should prove people can still do it.
Are robots and drones new work to permit?
Yes. A drone flight over live plant, or a crawler entering a vessel, brings dropped objects, ignition sources in hazardous areas and people recovering a stuck robot. Each needs its own task risk assessment and a place in the permit and SIMOPS process. AI by asset shows where this arises offshore.
The autonomous operations briefing takes one AI use in your permit system through the M-OPS OMI framework.