The AI Bowtie from myosh - A New Tool for Risk Management

In the world of risk management, a Bowtie diagram is a visual tool used to identify, assess, and control risks. It resembles a bowtie shape, with a material unwanted event (MUE) in the middle, potential causes on the left side, and consequences on the right. Controls are placed along both sides to prevent the central event from occurring or to mitigate its impact. This approach provides a structured framework for analysing and managing risks.

The myosh AI Bowtie Tool

Now, myosh is developing an AI Bowtie tool which features AI assistance to improve risk management outcomes. The tool is designed for a broad range of applications, from high-stakes safety operations to lower-risk activities and creative projects. The integration of a pre-primed AI assistant offers the following broad benefits:

• Reduces delays in starting the process by making Bowtie construction more approachable.

• Potentially addresses blind spots that your team may not have considered. For example, the AI has knowledge of historical data and industry trends to identify emerging risks that may not be immediately apparent to the team.

• Speeds up the setup process by allowing you to assess and confirm rather than manually enter many diagram elements.

• Integrating the AI assistant directly into the tool greatly increases the efficiency of using AI-generated suggestions compared to querying an AI model separately.

Applications Beyond Safety

While Bowtie diagrams have traditionally been used in high-risk industries, they are increasingly being applied in other sectors, for example:

• Financial Sector: Managing credit risks by mapping out potential default causes and their consequences, along with preventive controls.

• Cybersecurity: Identifying threats to information systems, potential breaches, and mitigation strategies.

• Environmental Management: Assessing risks related to environmental hazards, such as spills or emissions, and implementing controls to prevent them.

The integration of AI reduces the burden of learning the Bowtie paradigm, making it more accessible for teams that lack prior experience in risk management.

Features Supporting Compliance and Oversight

Current commercial AI models are trained to have vast knowledge of conceptual associations. This broad scope of information availability can be leveraged to help ensure critical controls are not missed, which may support operational safety. It may also improve legal compliance by demonstrating a more exhaustive effort in discovering all possible control measures.  

Being a cloud-based interactive utility, the digital Bowtie tool lends itself to collaborative team input without the need for cumbersome file sharing or lengthy discussion threads.  

Deep Integration with Comprehensive CCM

Critical control management (CCM) does not end with just a diagram. Suggested controls must be implemented, and mechanisms for verification of control integrity and for feedback of efficacy must be in place. The myosh platform already supports these functions with modules like  

• CCM: Hosts records of your identified Hazard/MUE pairs, their associated threats/consequences, and their accompanying preventative/mitigating controls. It also hosts verification records that provide a digital audit trail of control oversight.

• Smart Inspections: Provides real-time updates on control statuses. For example, instantly adjust statuses, such as shifting from “Controlled” to “Do Not Proceed”, in response to new inspection data.

The key benefit of using myosh’s native digital bowtie utility on top of this is that the visual diagram can be translated into all the relevant CCM records with a single button click, after which smart inspection triggers can be configured with great flexibility using a separate suite of no-code configuration options.

Accessibility

A final advantage of the AI Bowtie tool is its accessibility to organisations of varying sizes. Historically, Bowtie systems have been costly and used primarily by large enterprises, as maintaining up-to-date records and verification audit trails was a tremendous administrative burden. The ecosystem of utilities available on the myosh safety management platform now makes this form of risk management more attainable for smaller organisations.

In addition, large organisations benefit from these advances by reducing error rates in highly complex operations. Assigning more staff to a complex task often results in diminished or even negative returns after a certain point. By simplifying risk management processes and integrating AI assistance, the myosh AI Bowtie tool enhances efficiency and effectiveness across the board, making comprehensive risk management more achievable for anyone.

See it in action

Catch up on this webinar with Adrian Manessis, product lead and director at myosh.

Watch a 2-minute overview

In the meantime, have a look at this brief overview video