Study: Artificial intelligence can help to find ways to increase the opportunities for people with partial work disability to participate in work life

The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health’s Creating new jobs for people with partial work ability using artificial intelligence (UuTTO) research project demonstrates that artificial intelligence can support the division and reconsolidation of work and the identification of stress factors. Artificial intelligence not only helps to find suitable work tasks, but also to modify them so that they are more suitable for people with partial work ability.

In the UuTTO project, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, together with ISS Palvelut Oy, developed new ways to use artificial intelligence to find, modify and develop work in a way that takes into account different work abilities.

"Based on our review of register data, we estimate that some 600,000 working-age people living in Finland have a health-related factor that can affect their work ability. This means that different work modification solutions implemented using artificial intelligence could potentially affect and promote the participation in work of a large group of people in the future," estimates Matti Joensuu, Chief Researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

"New ways of developing the job opportunities of people with partial work ability are important for us, and we have made a lot of work modifications before as well. In the UuTTO project, we were particularly interested in the opportunity to think about work in a new way, which would make it possible for more people to participate," says Sari Vainikkala, Head of Employee Wellbeing at Work at ISS Palvelut Oy.

Supporting the planning of new work with AI

The project developed three pilot projects utilising artificial intelligence: combining existing job descriptions into new ones, defining and assessing work stress factors and modelling the combination of work and worker. The suitability and usefulness of these pilots were evaluated together with ISS' employees and other workplace representatives. The AI pilots were found to offer many opportunities.

"Artificial intelligence has often been thought to replace work, but these experiments revealed how it could also be used to help plan and find alternative duty work. For example, modelling the workload with artificial intelligence could offer many opportunities to streamline work processes for all employees, not just those who already have work ability challenges," Joensuu points out.

All data is not suitable for use with AI

The pilots also revealed a challenge: there is only a limited data about work and tasks that can be utilised by artificial intelligence.

"There are plenty of silent, experiential knowledge about work that has not yet been described in a way that could be provided as material for artificial intelligence. Often, the data is also spread over many different systems, which makes it difficult to utilise. When using artificial intelligence for this purpose, care must also be taken not to misuse personal data or the company’s own confidential information," Joensuu points out.

Checklist for workplaces on the use of artificial intelligence in work planning and supporting work ability

• Artificial intelligence in work planning and as work ability support (in Finnish)

Learn more about the project

• Read the final report of the project in Finnish: Tekoälyn hyödyntäminen vuorotyön terveellisyyden ja turvallisuuden edistämisessä (Julkari.fi)
• Creating new jobs for people with partial work ability using artificial intelligence — UuTTO | The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
• The project was funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund.

Further information

• Matti Joensuu, Chief Researcher, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, tel. +358 43 825 2075, matti.joensuu@ttl.fi
• Mikko Henriksson, Senior Specialist, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, tel. +358 50 501 0425, mikko.henriksson@ttl.fi
• Sari Vainikkala, Head of Employee Wellbeing, ISS Palvelut Oy, tel. +358 50 383 4116, sari.vainikkala@fi.issworld.com