Recommendations / Occupational physician and nurse

Recommendations · Occupational physician or nurse

AI: pointers for the occupational physician and the occupational health nurse

Two branches, reflecting the twofold goal the site draws from France’s fifth Occupational Health Plan (PST 5): supporting the companies and employees you look after, and using AI cautiously in your own service.

By Dr Charles Broutin, occupational physician · Updated on

Read the pathway ↓Open the flowchart →

The essentials

The principle, and what holds in every case.

The steps that depend on no answer.

The principle

“AI concerns both the workers you support and your own practice.”

To do whatever the situation:

  • In all cases. Act on the organisation first: checking time counted in the workload, the right to set aside an AI recommendation, training during working hours, the right to disconnect extended to AI, regular unaided practice, collective indicators. Training employees to manage their stress does not make up for an organisation that exposes them to it.
  • Ongoing. Watch for weak signals: jobs not replaced, fewer junior hires, raised targets, growing supervision, skills practised less often. A test question: would the company still function if its AI system disappeared tomorrow? To measure these trends, the 2025 review proposes recording AI exposure in the databases of inter-company occupational health services (SPSTI).
  • Governance. Name who checks, approves and can suspend the use. Log uses, approvals, errors and incidents, and obtain documented feedback before any wider roll-out.

The pathway

Question by question, the recommendation that follows.

The same content as the flowchart, as continuous reading. Each recommendation points to the page of the site it is drawn from.

  1. Start

    Your question is about…

Branch ASupporting companies and employees

  1. A1

    Is a company you look after introducing an AI that changes the organisation of work, workload, autonomy or work pace?

    If yes

    Offer to contribute before the works council (CSE) gives its opinion: the occupational physician advises employee representatives. Fill in the assessment grid in a meeting, without any individual health data, and analyse concrete work situations.

    Labour Code R. 4623-1 · L. 2314-3

    Sources: Works council and AI · occupational health · Assess an AI project

  2. A2

    During a medical appointment or interview, do you notice an unusual workload, boredom, anxiety or sleep problems?

    If yes

    Explore recent changes in the work, AI included, without automatically attributing these signs to it. Who approves what, and how many times a day? What has the time saved been used for? Does the tool make demands outside working hours?

    Sources: Publication · LLMs and psychosocial risks · Reading · Human in the loop

  3. A3

    Do the same signs recur in several teams after the same deployment?

    If yes

    Move from the individual signal to the collective one: alert the employer and the works council without any individual health data, and propose a workplace action and the recording of the risks in the DUERP (the company’s occupational risk assessment document).

    Sources: Economic and social risks · Publication · LLMs and psychosocial risks

  4. In all cases

    Act on the organisation first: checking time counted in the workload, the right to set aside an AI recommendation, training during working hours, the right to disconnect extended to AI, regular unaided practice, collective indicators. Training employees to manage their stress does not make up for an organisation that exposes them to it.

    Labour Code L. 4121-2

    Source: Psychosocial risks · prevention at three levels

  5. A4

    Is an employee already affected: exhaustion, loss of meaning, a transformed job?

    If yes

    Tertiary prevention: an appointment with the occupational physician on request, support for returning to work after exhaustion, prevention of health-related job loss, a skills assessment or training leading to a qualification.

    Sources: Psychosocial risks · Claude skill · job retention (in French)

  6. Ongoing

    Watch for weak signals: jobs not replaced, fewer junior hires, raised targets, growing supervision, skills practised less often. A test question: would the company still function if its AI system disappeared tomorrow? To measure these trends, the 2025 review proposes recording AI exposure in the databases of inter-company occupational health services (SPSTI).

    Sources: Economic and social risks · Publication · LLMs and psychosocial risks

Reassess whenever the tool changes

Branch BUsing AI in your service

  1. B1

    Has the tool been approved by your service: charter, hosting, access?

    If no

    No personal, medical or identifying data. Rather than a blanket ban, map existing uses, define prohibited data with concrete examples and offer authorised alternatives.

    Source: AI in OHS services · shadow AI

  2. B2

    Does the task involve health data or an individual decision?

    Medical summary, workplace recommendation, fitness for work, prioritising a case.

    If yes

    Assist, never conclude: an authorised environment (certified health-data hosting, HDS), de-identified text, AI as a second reader. Analysis, wording, validation and signature remain in medical hands; an individual score requires a formal analysis before any decision.

    Sources: AI in OHS services · uses · Publication · AI and medical recommendations

    If no

    A good candidate for a limited pilot: internal document search with sources displayed, training administration, routing simple requests with human follow-up.

    Source: AI in OHS services · value / risk matrix

  3. B3

    Does the pilot compare the tool with a human reference, without changing the usual workflow?

    If no

    Follow the sequence: need, value, data, risk, parallel test, collective decision. Measure the tool (errors caught, missed or invented; total time after correction) and the work (checking load, skills, incidents).

    Source: AI in OHS services · building a pilot

  4. B4

    Are teams trained, and do they keep practising their expertise?

    If no

    Train each profession before deployment, on its real tasks and the errors it cannot accept. Protect the practice of residents and beginners: when you review a summary prepared by AI, you are the human in the loop.

    AI Act art. 4

    Sources: AI in OHS services · training · Reading · Human in the loop

  5. Governance

    Name who checks, approves and can suspend the use. Log uses, approvals, errors and incidents, and obtain documented feedback before any wider roll-out.

    Source: AI in OHS services · sharing responsibilities

Decide collectively: continue, adjust or stop

Taking action

The site’s tools for this audience.

Value / risk matrixPlace a use according to its value, complexity, data and the consequences of an error. Review a workplace recommendation (in French)Five quality criteria, fictitious texts only. Claude Skills (in French)Occupational disease tables and job retention, supervised use.

Key answers

Three frequent questions.

Short answers, drawn from the pathway above.

Can an occupational physician use ChatGPT with health data?

Not in a tool that the service has not validated: no personal, medical or identifying data. In an authorised environment, with certified health-data hosting (HDS in France), AI assists without concluding: de-identified text, AI as a second reader. Analysis, wording, validation and signature remain medical.

What should you do when a company you follow deploys AI?

Offer to step in before the works council (CSE) gives its opinion: the occupational physician advises employee representatives. The assessment grid can be filled in during a meeting, with no individual health data, by analysing concrete work situations.

How can the effects of an AI tool be spotted during a consultation?

Faced with an unusual workload, boredom, anxiety or sleep problems, explore recent changes in the activity, AI included, without automatically attributing these signs to it. Who validates what, how many times a day? What was the time saved used for? Does the tool make demands outside working hours?

Scope of these pointers

These pointers restate the flowcharts published on this site, which are written for the French legal framework. They are prevention pointers to adapt to each work situation: they replace neither legal advice, nor the opinion of the occupational physician, nor dialogue with employee representatives.

Update log

  1. First continuous-reading version, drawn from the flowchart updated on 13 November 2026.