Abstract Introduction In an evolving environment, new factors like artificial intelligence (AI) are creating emerging physical and psychosocial risks to a safe and healthy working environment. New technologies like AI need to be introduced mindfully to avoid negative unintended consequences. Materials and Methods The specific risks from the above factors that could impact workers are being identified by researchers and educators in occupational health. There is urgency to get ahead of potential harm. Two case examples will be discussed which have received much recent attention. Results Potential risks at work arise from: (1) using AI in human resources departments to offset human tasks involved in managing worker’s performance (people analytics). If the algorithms are improperly trained and do not include human interventions and ethical considerations in their formulation, workers could be exposed to increased physical and psychosocial risks and stress. (2) the vision of Industry 5.0, where the human and automation work together as collaborative robots (cobots). While there are certain advantages to allowing this synthetic pairing, there are also risks, including robot / human collisions, where the robot may perform in unpredictable ways. Conclusions Occupational health and safety experts will need: (1) better understanding and training in both - the effects of people analytics on workers, and of the actual algorithms themselves; and (2) to collaborate with engineers, psychologists and sociologists in the design of cobots’ dynamics to make sure that risks are minimized from the beginning. A risk framework and potential mitigations will be presented.