The ehsAI is a web app designed for Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) professionals to import and deconstruct permits, regulations, and standards. They work with AI to extract requirements and export them by API or spreadsheet.
Project Name: ehsAI (SaaS web application)
Role: Full Time UX/UI Designer
Type: Founding designer
Company: ehsAI
Company Type: Startup acquired by Intelex/Fortive
Dates: 2020–2023
All EHS professionals deconstruct documents by hand with paper and pencil. Moving to digital would be disruptive as most EHS professionals were afraid of or unfamiliar with AI.
One huge challenge was digitizing compliance documents. EHS legal requirements can come from all levels of government (local, state, federal) in all types of formats. The document formatting can be diverse ranging from digital to typewriter-written to hand-written, including tables, diagrams, and images.
Research indicated four primary EHS personas. Most would want to use the ehsAI app and some would want to purchase the ehsAI app for their EHS team:
While interviewing customers and potential customers it became clear that deconstructing data could be difficult because:
The AI was broken down into modules that depended on the previous module. This meant having the users work with the AI in steps module to module.
Red routes are the primary tasks the users want to complete the most often. For the ehsAI app the main red route was the single document upload and analysis flow. EHS professionals preferred to process one document at a time from start to finish. Other tasks like document management were secondary in importance.
Client feedback affirmed the single document upload and analysis flow to be the most important. Later more tasks and features were added to the user flows.
Remote user testing was done using online meetings using screen sharing that were recorded. Some key insights revolved around the Hierarchy Step where the users were assessing the AI evaluations of the document's citation hierarchy. Three main pain points were synonymous across the testing observations and user feedback:
Our team gathered quantitative usability statistics to observe various tasks throughout the ehsAI app. Some key metrics involved the length of time on each of the Review Steps where the user works with the AI to define layout structures, text classifications, citation hierarchy, and citation conjunctions. The statistics corroborated the remote user testing that users were spending the most time on the Hierarchy Step. I worked with the customers and our team to come up with hierarchy lines to help visually show citation depth relationships.
We wanted to hear the thoughts of our users on features that would improve their experience. Using Survey Monkey our team was able to gather insightful feedback about feature request. Notable requests like:
These three primary strategies are the goals derived from the original three key questions.
Our whole team was instrumental in quickly bringing to life a disruptive technology that upends paper and pen with AI/ML by simplifying complex AI interactions and quickly yielding accurate results. We went from a concept to fully functioning B2B SaaS in six months. From there we continued to improve and add features.
Designs that allow Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) professionals to work with AI to deconstruct regulations and permits into usable compliance information saving significant time and money while being more accurate.
Although others had tried and failed, the team at ehsAI successfully built an app that could upload and import compliance documents and give EHS professionals a fast and accurate output. Thanks to top notch leadership and a dedicated hard-working team.
Used by happy EHS veterans at companies like Koch Ag Energy Solutions, ALL4, Mosaic, Apple, and more.
One of our proudest achievements was having customers who were skeptical and leery of AI grow to the point of trusting and loving to work with AI.
A question we asked customers was, "Have you ever discussed or recommended ehsAI to others?"
Yes, to other team members throughout Asia
Yes, told others in the company. I was asked to do demos of ehsAI for the standardization council in the company
Thanks to all our customers for contributing to our journey of designing and building. And thanks to my awesome teammates for the valuable feedback, suggestions, and inspiration. Here is some of the praise we got from our users.
The effort of the whole team contributed to the success of ehsAI as a business and as a software service to our customers. Within months of our launch ehsAI started recieving recognition by winning awards.
Top Product of the Year from Environment + Energy Leader (2021)
"A panel of independent judges commended ehsAI for its innovative approach to simplifying the complexities of EHS compliance with real-world applicability and proven impact of AI. According to the judges, “This product simplifies the time-consuming exercise of compliance with a myriad of permits. The usefulness of this product is on multiple levels, from reducing risk to saving time and labor.”"
Big Innovation Award (2022)
For products that are bringing new ideas to life in innovative ways and have made tremendous strides at improving the lives of their community. ehsAI wins for its innovative compliance platform.
EBJ Business Achievement Award (2021)
"ehsAI (Vancouver, BC) for a game-changing year for its ehsAI platform, including global teaming agreements, industry recognition, and being acquired by Intelex, a subsidiary of Fortive. The company’s ehsAI platform in the cloud is revolutionizing the way EHS compliance is managed. ehsAI’s algorithms allow EHS professionals to deconstruct any EHS compliance document, no matter how messy and complex, into succinct compliance requirements in minutes. ehsAI has four patents pending."
Thank you for taking the time to read through this case study. If you have any comments or questions about the case study feel free to reach out, mp@mikepriebe.comma.ca