On Aug. 10, 2026, ASSP released its “Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Prevention Convening Report,” highlighting key themes and insights to advance SIF prevention. To take a deeper look at those themes, we’re exploring the report in a three-part blog series. This is the first installment.

We’ve all been there: clicking through screen after screen, scrolling as quickly as we can through an e-document as voluminous as a phone user agreement, just to finish a safety training course. But after you download that course completion certificate, how much of the information do you actually remember?

If you work in a high-risk environment, that knowledge gap can be critical — and dangerous.

This past spring, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) brought together nearly 100 safety professionals for two working sessions in Chicago and Washington, D.C., to identify why existing hazard controls haven’t prevented serious injuries or fatalities (SIFs) from falls from height and lockout/tagout (LOTO) failures. During both convenings, participants pointed to generic check-the-box training as being a factor, among other issues.

“One of the biggest things that safety professionals do is training,” says Lauren Bauerschmidt, CSP, senior manager of standards and technical publications at ASSP. “But who wants to sit through safety training? No one. So, you’re already in an environment that isn’t great. But if there’s an incident and OSHA comes in, what’s one of the first things they will ask you for? Your training log.”

During the spring 2026 convenings, safety professionals noted that training is often generic, infrequent and completion-based, rather than task- or role-specific. This creates situations where the core competencies being taught are assumed but not verified. One solution both groups identified was to promote hands-on, role-based learning over attendance-based training. They also highlighted emerging technology as a potential solution, allowing for reminders and real-time answers to questions.

As technology rapidly changes, there are more and more opportunities to create quick, easy, plain-language safety materials and to make training more interactive and engaging. Bauerschmidt says these can range from videos to case studies or even setting up equipment and doing mock demonstrations depending on the company’s budget. But not every company can afford that. “It’s easy to have a checklist,” she says. “It’s a lot harder and more money [to have the other stuff].”

One solution is the ASSP Safety Trekr AI™ tool, which gives users immediate access to more than 70 ANSI/ASSP standards and the ASSP Safety Professionals Handbook on mobile or desktop devices. It can quickly generate checklists and easy-to-understand materials in multiple languages. The tool is also a closed artificial intelligence (AI) model, meaning it is only trained on the handbook and these safety standards.

“That’s the beauty of the tool,” Bauerschmidt says. “It’s only our standards. It’s not going out and pulling in other things. If you ask it about Julia Roberts, or what’s the best hot dog place in Chicago, it will say it’s not trained on that.”

But if you want to quickly put together a five-question multiple-choice quiz on confined space rescue or LOTO procedures using simple terms and non-technical language? Safety Trekr AI™ can provide something for the safety professional on site in seconds — just in time to review with the team before their shift.

Read the full SIF Prevention Convening Report, which was developed following the working sessions this past spring.