SafetyTech: $2.24 Billion Market, Only 7% Fully Digital - What It Means for Your Career in 2026

Have you been paying attention?

“The gap between manual and digital safety professionals is real and widening, and 2026 is when it becomes undeniable.”

Right now, we have 2 types of safety professionals - those who are building dashboards, automating workflows, using AI and data to predict incidents before they happen. They’re getting promoted and/or experiencing rapid career growth (hell, I did). They’re influencing leadership. Despite all these, they are working normal hours. No overtime.

Then there is the other group. Those still chasing signatures. Still using paper and Word templates. Still manually cleaning data. Still spending 500+ hours a year on admin tasks that should take 50.

And though we have succeeded in hiding this gap for long enough, 2026 is when it becomes undeniably evident.

2025 taught us that the safetytech market hit $2.24 billion in 2025 and is growing at 10.7% every year. Organisations are investing because technology has proven itself. And yet… only 7% have gone fully digital. Which according to the British Safety Council (BritSafe) means 93% are stuck somewhere in the middle - part legacy system, part paper, part digital, part Excel… aka still transitioning (or not).

Marks & Spencer cut incident rates by 80% using AI analytics (Mordor Intelligence). Not 8%. Not 20%. Eighty wonderful percent.

Meanwhile, wearable technology that detects heat stress and prevents falls became standard in high-risk industries. It is Proven. It is Operational. Lives are being saved.

And yet… only 17-18% of employers are using wearables (Startus Insights).

The gap isn’t closing. It’s widening.

And here’s where it gets worrying - 36% of workers say skills shortages are actively hurting workplace safety. 46% of leaders say skill gaps slow AI adoption and 93% of workers expect formal training with only 68% getting it (BritSafe). That is a problem because we have those who have the skills to deploy these technologies, and those who don’t and the gap between both groups of professionals is HUGE.

Their typical week.

Their typical month.

500+ hours lost to admin. You are carrying out reactive work, fire fighting and struggling to prove the value of your work and team. For a person on £30 per hour, that is over £15,000 wasted or lost to manual labour that could have been eased and saved by digital.

There are not lazy or incompetent safety professionals. These are professionals who have been dealt a bad hand. They have been given difficult, unfavourable, or disadvantageous work situations, often beyond their control. They don’t have the skills to change things, and clearly the time to learn to change it. I have been there. Management was not going to “save me”. I saved myself. I used my tech and digital skills to change my work situation and career.

Their typical week.

Their typical month.

500+ hours saved or redirected. Rather than being reactive, they can be proactive and actively reduce accidents and non-compliances. They are valued and seen as a strategic partner, not someone leadership cannot rely on to be efficient and effective. Again, working normal hours. They move into digital and tech roles (story of my life). They build systems (again, story of my life).

As my mother would say, these groups of safety professionals don’t have 2 heads - aka, they are not more experienced or smarter. They invested time and money into learning new skills that enable them to use the tools they already have access to - Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Google Workspace. ROI is savings in time which often translates to money.

You have been getting away with your Excel print outs and PowerPoint reports. In 2026, forward-thinking leadership expects real-time dashboards and data-driven decisions. They expect safety to operate like every other department who are already digital, automated, strategic, and reaping the rewards.

Many still have a huge distrust of AI and technology but the truth is, they have proven to be effective at saving time, creating visibility and transparency, and even reducing accidents. I have been very vocal about my experience with these technologies - massive time saving and doing things I typically shouldn't have the skills for yet tech made it possible. For example, I am no Excel pro but thanks to Copilot, I can analyse datasets in Excel and use formulas I normally don't know how to use. I can’t code to save my life but I can create a functional digital system in a day. I even teach people what I know.

The only barrier I see with safety professionals is the digital skills gap - this is one of the things that slows down tech and digital adoption. And the truth is, yes it takes time and practice, but it is not rocket science. It is not difficult to learn these skills.

Joanna, one of my learners, was first hesitant. She couldn’t believe how these tools (Microsoft and Power Platform) could be used to digitise her safety work. By the end of Module 1, she was convinced as she found herself putting to use these skills immediately.

We are starting to see roles like Safety Systems Manager, Safety Data Analyst, Safety Digital Specialist. With the right tech and digital skills, you can transition to one of these roles.

In the last 2 years, I have worked as a Safety Software Implementation Consultant for a leading EHS Software company, and a Global Safety Digital Specialist for a multinational. My digital skills and experience made it possible. This also means, I get to work remotely in a safety-related role - no site visits which is something that is required but quickly became a challenge after I became a mum to twins. Without digital skills, I often wonder where I would be career-wise. I am sure I would be doing something meaningful, but it very likely wouldn’t be in the safety profession.

The career progression is real - I have the lived experience to prove it. Build these skills and watch opportunities and choice become your lot.

A Question For You - Which path are you on?

Are you still chasing signatures manually? Spending hours cleaning messy data? Creating PowerPoint reports from scratch every month? Losing 500+ hours a year to admin?

Are you ready to move from manual to digital? Because it surely is no longer about working harder or longer (IYKYK), but about learning specific digital skills. This is why I built NavigatorPRO - for safety professionals who are looking to make that switch and fast without overwhelm. And it takes as little as 6 hours a month.

NavigatorPRO is structured around 5 capabilities:

✅ Month 1: Data Collection & Quality (foundation)

✅ Month 2: Digital Systems & Integration (build on solid data)

✅ Month 3: Cleaning, Modeling & Evidence (automate pipelines)

✅ Month 4: Analysis, Visualisation & Reporting (dashboards)

✅ Month 5: AI, Automation & Orchestration (intelligent workflows)

Every month, you ship a working system. With my and my team’s support.

By Month 6, you’ve built:

Want in? I’m offering free consultations to serious individuals and teams who want to learn more about NavigatorPRO and if it is a good fit for their digital transformation goals. We’ll explore your current state, your goals, and whether NavigatorPRO can help move you from manual to digital. I have lots of information in this document.

And if coaching and training is not what you need, but rather want to implement a digital system, DM to talk it through. We will identify the right path for you.

Here’s what I want you to do this month:

Step 1: Audit your time

Track where your time goes for one week. How many hours on:

My guess? You’ll find it’s more than 10 hours per week.

Step 2: Identify your biggest time thief

Of the 7 time thieves from last month’s post, which of the following costs you the most time?

Step 3: Commit to fixing ONE

Not all seven. Just one.

Pick the biggest time thief. Commit 6-8 hours this month to digitising / automating it.

Step 4: Report back

Come back to my DMs in a month’s time and tell me:

I seriously want to hear your wins.

2025 showed us the gap is real and massive.

2026 is the year it becomes permanent.

The safety professionals who will thrive in 2026 aren’t the ones working harder. They’re the ones who invested time to learn digital skills. Ready?

Now, let’s build. 🚀