Employers’ organisation Assolombarda and the regional branch of Italy’s workplace accident insurer Inail in Lombardy signed a three-year cooperation protocol in Milan, Italy, on 20 October 2026. The aim: to help prevent workplace accidents and occupational diseases in the Lombardy region through artificial intelligence (AI) and targeted training.
What the agreement involves
Assolombarda represents more than 7,000 companies in the Milan area and its surroundings. Together with the Direzione regionale Inail Lombardia, the organisation will exchange aggregated data and good practices on workplace accidents and occupational diseases, and jointly develop prevention and risk-management initiatives. A separate, related protocol also links Assolombarda to the territorial Inail offices of Milan, Monza-Brianza, Lodi and Pavia. The parties expect that innovative prevention measures will not only improve safety but also reduce insurance and social costs and contribute to a more sustainable and competitive production system.
AI as a tool, not a replacement
At the heart of the agreement are pilot projects in which AI is used to identify risk patterns in the workplace. The parties explicitly stress that accountability, transparency and human well-being come first: AI is meant to support decisions, but must not replace human autonomy and responsibility. The protocol also provides for a permanent technical working group, for information, training and communication for member companies — including help in applying for funding for prevention investments — and for safety education in schools and training programmes.
“Safety at work is not a cost, but an investment,” said Alessandro Scarabelli, director-general of Assolombarda. Giuseppe Gigante, regional director of Inail Lombardia, pointed to the importance of territorial cooperation and to the agreement’s focus on schools and young people.
Context
The Milan initiative ties in with a broader European debate on AI in workplace safety. In its research on AI-based worker-management systems, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) calls for a human-centred approach and for “prevention through design”: building prevention into the design of AI systems from the outset to protect workers’ health, safety and well-being. More recent EU-OSHA publications, such as a factsheet on the tension between productivity and safety in algorithmic management and a discussion paper on the implications of the EU AI Act for occupational safety, build on that premise.
For HSE professionals worldwide, this agreement shows how a public workplace accident insurer and an employers’ organisation are jointly exploring how data analysis and AI can help flag risks earlier, without undermining human judgement in safety decisions. How that balance between technology and human responsibility is maintained in practice will be watched with interest beyond Italy too — especially now that the EU AI Act is also raising new questions for occupational safety.
Source: Accordo tra Assolombarda e Inail: AI e formazione per la prevenzione e la sicurezza sul lavoro, 21 October 2026
Additional research: EU-OSHA, “Artificial intelligence for worker management: implications for occupational safety and health”; EU-OSHA, topic page “AI and worker management”
