Tech That Sticks: What We Took from Safety Connect 2026

Written by Hewitt Roberts, CEO, Certainty Software

Buying safety software is the easy part. Making sure it gets used — and pays off — is where it gets difficult. At Safety Connect 2026 we spent two sessions on exactly that problem.

Jump to: Why most safety software does not stick  ·  What the product showcase demonstrated

Why most safety software does not stick

Safety software stops being used when only one of three stakeholder groups is satisfied by it. Procurement, IT and legal sign the contract; frontline teams and middle managers decide whether the platform is still in use two years later. That was the core of the technical-track panel, Tech That Sticks: What Makes Safety Software Work in the Real World, hosted by Safeopedia on Wednesday, October 21.

Panel · Wednesday, October 21: Tech That Sticks: What Makes Safety Software Work in the Real World. The recording sits on the Safety Connect conference platform and is available to registered attendees once they log in.

I joined Chip Duffie, President of Momentum Solutions 360, on the panel. The pattern we both recognized is familiar to anyone who has run an EHS program at scale. A platform goes in. Inspections still get done on paper and typed up later, so the data describes the paperwork rather than the workplace. Dashboards get built that nobody opens. Corrective actions get assigned, and nobody can prove they were closed.

None of that is a technology problem. It is a friction problem, and that is the ground the panel covered.

Who has to say yes to a safety software rollout

Three groups have to say yes, not one.

• Procurement, IT and legal lead the buying process on a project of any size, so a platform has to clear their bar on data security, user provisioning, integration and scalability.
• Frontline teams need something that works where they work and in the PPE they wear — online or offline, with photos and annotation that are not a fight, and corrective actions they can raise in the app.
• Managers and project leads need roll-up reporting by team, division and group, the admin tools to schedule safety inspections and manage users, and data that stays consistent across the business while still allowing for site-specific variation.

Satisfy one group and you get a signed contract. Satisfy all three and you get a program still running in two years.

Getting to the second observation

The second observation is the real test, not the first. Getting someone to submit once is easy; getting them to come back depends on the same short list — easy to use, works offline, photos without friction, actions handled on the spot.

What to digitize first

If a company can only digitize one thing first, start with a simple, frequently used inspection checklist rather than the biggest, most complex audit in the business. I would make it a single dynamic checklist that adapts to the user and the location, so that one checklist works for everyone from day one.

What keeps frontline teams using the app

What keeps people coming back is seeing that using the app changes something: report an issue on the app and see it fixed quickly, because the right person was notified the moment it was raised. Participation holds up when reporting visibly leads to a fix.

Making the business case for buying safety software to a CFO

The business cases that get approved lead with costs already on the P&L, not with injuries avoided — a CFO discounts a projection of something that did not happen. Those costs are usually admin time spent chasing, consolidating and re-keying inspection data; tool sprawl across safety, quality and supplier audits; and the days lost assembling evidence before an ISO audit, a regulator visit or a customer audit.

Then comes the risk question, in the CFO’s own language: if we had a serious incident or a regulatory inspection tomorrow, could we prove we found the hazard, assigned the fix and verified it was closed? For an organization running on spreadsheets the honest answer is usually no, and that gap is a liability exposure a CFO understands.

Where is AI genuinely useful in inspections today, and where is it still overhyped?

The value of AI in inspections depends entirely on the use case. Certainty Vision — reading the documents and photos attached to an inspection — earns its place on a large ISO 19011-type audit with a lot of supporting evidence, and much less on a short behavior-based observation. Certainty Insights is valuable to the people trying to understand what their safety data is telling them, and less so to the person completing the inspection.

There is one thing I would not hand to AI at all: communicating results to people, or trying to change behavior. Use it to analyze data, read attachments and produce summaries. Leave persuading human beings to human beings — otherwise people tune out, or push back.

What the panel covered

• Choosing a tool — what to look for in software that frontline teams will actually use
• Making it stick — getting buy-in from the people who complete inspections every shift
• Proving value — showing leadership that the program is working

What the product showcase demonstrated

The showcase walked the Certainty mobile app end to end, as a field team uses it: a scheduled inspection on a phone, evidence captured at the finding, a corrective action assigned on the spot, and a report produced without rebuilding anything. Jessica Salinas, Business Development and Client Success, ran the demo on Thursday, October 22, while I answered questions in the chat.

A compliance system is only as good as the inspection data entered into it. Certainty’s offline-ready mobile app is built so field teams can deploy and use it within minutes on day one, paired with an enterprise compliance engine that will not hit a ceiling on day 100 as programs scale. You should not have to choose between a simple app and a powerful database.

Jessica opened with the four problems safety teams raise most often:

• Collecting accurate, consistent and comparable data across every site
• Assigning, tracking and closing corrective actions reliably
• Managing and reporting on audit plans and programs
• Sharing results that mean something across the organization

As Jessica put it, if your process involves a checklist, Certainty can support it — behavior-based safety observations, job site and facility inspections, PPE inspections, near-miss reporting and other safety audits.

What the showcase covered

• Work anywhere — inspections on a phone, tablet or computer, online or offline
• See only what is yours — a role-based dashboard with today’s scheduled inspections, open actions and overdue items
• Capture evidence at the finding — photos attached to the answer, with cropping and annotation, and photos can be made mandatory
• Assign the fix on the spot — corrective actions with an owner, priority, type and due date, mandatory when a specific answer is given
• Follow the chain of command — workflows for review, approval and sign-off, with notifications, reminders and escalation
• Optional AI tools — Certainty Vision suggests answers from attached photos and documents with a confidence score; Certainty Insights summarizes results and flags rushed submissions; Analytics shows risks, trends and anomalies across sites
• Report without rebuilding — a scoring summary on save and a PDF report in one tap

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What was Safety Connect 2026?

Safety Connect 2026 was Safeopedia’s virtual EHS conference, held October 20–22, 2026. It ran across four tracks with more than 40 speakers, and registration includes 365 days of on-demand access to every recorded session.

Why does safety software get bought but never used?

Because only one of the three groups who have to live with it was satisfied during the buying process. Procurement, IT and legal assess security, provisioning and integration. Frontline teams and middle managers assess whether it fits the work. A platform that clears the first bar but fails the other two is the one that quietly reverts to paper.

Who needs to approve safety software for a rollout to succeed?

Three groups: procurement, IT and legal; the frontline staff completing inspections every shift; and the middle managers and project leads who need reporting and administration. Buy-in from all three separates a program still running in two years from one that stalls.

Can safety inspections be completed offline?

Yes. Certainty’s mobile app works offline on a phone or tablet and syncs when a connection returns, which matters on sites where coverage is unreliable.

Can inspection answers be made mandatory?

Yes. Questions and photo attachments can both be set as mandatory, and the app shows which answers are missing before an inspection can be completed.

Does Certainty use AI for inspections?

Yes, as optional tools. Certainty Vision analyzes attached photos and documents and suggests answers with a confidence score, Certainty Insights summarizes results and flags rushed or anomalous submissions, and Analytics surfaces risks and trends across sites.

Are the Safety Connect sessions still available to watch?

Yes. Both the panel and the product showcase were recorded, and Safety Connect registration includes 365 days of on-demand access to every session.

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