A practical guide / Health and safety
Can ChatGPT do a risk assessment?
ChatGPT can draft a risk assessment from your notes, and a competent person decides the hazards, the controls and whether the assessment is suitable. Use AI to sort site walk notes into a risk assessment draft and an action list. Start with observations from one activity, such as a construction delivery area. Keep the place, people involved and source links beside each finding.
Follow HSE’s five steps: identify hazards, assess risks, control risks, record findings and review controls. The first section links to the guidance. The example shows how to turn site notes into a clear draft for the competent person.
Use the site notes promptTurn observations into a practical risk discussion.
Follow HSE’s five steps from the site walk
HSE sets out five steps to manage workplace risk. Use those steps to structure your draft. Gather the walk notes, worker comments and photos. Give each note a place and source ID.
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Ask the assistant to group observations by activity and hazard. Carry across current controls exactly as described in the notes. Put draft actions in their own field. For example, a note about a blocked pedestrian route should keep its place and the time observed. Ask the site team to add context about how the delivery operation normally works.
Read the source: HSE: steps needed to manage risk
Use a record that leads to an action
HSE’s template covers who might be harmed and how, current controls, further action, the owner and the action date. Use those fields as your starting point. Add your site reference and a place to record the follow-up.
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For a reusable draft, use: activity and place; observed hazard; people affected; current controls; further action for consideration; owner; target date; evidence; review outcome. Ask AI to format the notes under these headings. Give open questions their own list so they can be discussed with workers during the next walk. Keep each question close to the observation it concerns.
Read the source: HSE: risk assessment template and examples
Connect the draft with the next site discussion
Prepare two outputs from the notes. The first is a draft record for the competent person. The second is an agenda for the site lead: place, action to discuss and person to consult. Use words the team can discuss on site.
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At the next review, add what was done and the records seen. Keep the initial observation available beside the later response. Group repeat observations by place or activity to help the team choose what to examine. Ask workers whether the draft measures fit the way the job is actually carried out.
Worked example
A delivery area observation made usable
Example with made-up details: “Delivery bay east side, 10:20. Materials left across marked pedestrian route. Two workers walked around them into vehicle area. Photo P04. Supervisor informed.”
The draft can show the activity as deliveries and the place as the east bay. Keep the blocked route and people observed in the record. Add a question for the site lead: how will the route stay clear during unloading? Leave the action and review outcome for the site team to agree. The result is a draft entry with a source link and a clear point to discuss.
Illustrative example.
Site walk
Capture activity, location and evidence.
Structured record
Separate observations and proposed actions.
Site review
Agree controls and follow up the work.
Try a practical task
Structure your site walk notes
Paste sample observations with photo reference numbers. Keep identifiable worker images out of the prompt.
Try this in your AI app
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
CodexUsing Gemini? The button copies the prompt. Paste it into the new chat.
Prepare a draft record for a competent person from these construction site walk notes. Sort observations under the HSE risk management steps. Use a row for each place and activity, retaining the note ID and photo ID.
Populate the fields for observed hazard, people affected and current controls only where the notes support them. Put proposed further actions in a separate discussion column. Flag missing context as questions for the supervisor and workers.
Create a short follow-up agenda grouped by area. Leave risk scores, control approval, owners and dates for the competent person and site team to complete. Record an action as closed only when the supplied records confirm it.
A public example of connected inspection records
Iain Davidson’s work covers health, safety and security audits at luxury hotels. He built a Python app around his inspection process to connect evidence, issue scores and reports. He used it to produce his first 70-page client report, then adapted it for further European hotels.
His approach is relevant to site walk records because it keeps observations and supporting evidence together for the practitioner’s review.
Read the source: Public story: Iain Davidson, hotel audit records and reporting
Keep assessment and control decisions with a competent person
HSE says employers must appoint someone competent to help meet health and safety duties. Competence involves the skills, knowledge and experience needed to recognise hazards and help put sensible measures in place.
Use AI to sort the record and draft points to discuss. The competent person must assess the work, choose controls and confirm the record. Deal with urgent hazards through the site’s normal reporting process. Follow your firm’s data rules for notes and images. Include only the personal details needed for the assessment record.
Read the source: HSE: appoint a competent person
Questions about this task
Where should we begin on a busy site?
Select one activity and one area, then gather recent walk notes and worker comments. Produce a draft record and a short list of questions for the next discussion.
How do we keep actions visible after the assessment?
Assign each agreed action an owner and target date. At follow-up, attach the proof of what changed and record the competent person’s review.