Six out of ten Spanish companies have not addressed their workers' resistance to artificial intelligence. This is said by the NTT DATA and ISDI barometer published in April 2026. The technology is deployed. The problem is human.
In industrial environments, this resistance takes a concrete form: the operator who has been in the plant for fifteen years sees a new camera above his position and thinks that They are watching him to throw him out. If your company does not manage this moment, the most sophisticated AI system on the market fails.
Why workers distrust AI on the factory floor
Distrust is not irrational. 62% of managers use AI regularly, but its integration into the rest of the workforce remains limited according to the same barometer. Rank-and-file workers perceive AI as a tool their bosses use to control them — not as something that helps them.
In manufacturing and logistics, this fear has three specific variants:
Fear of dismissal: AI automates tasks and the worker fears that his position will disappear.
Fear of surveillance: cameras and sensors generate the feeling of permanent control.
Fear of evaluation: the data collected by the system can be used as an argument to sanction or pressure.
Your ORP technician and your HR manager have to understand that None of these fears disappear with training alone.. They require a communication and participation strategy from day one.
The most common mistake: install first, explain later
Most AI implementations in the plant follow this pattern: the management team decides, the supplier installs, and workers see the changes without having participated at any point in the process. The result is predictable.
According to Reasonwhy, 29% of employees admit to actively sabotaging their company's AI strategy. It is not a marginal data. It is almost one in three workers acting against the system that their company has just paid for.
Technology advances faster than organizations. Companies have taken the first step — incorporating AI — but they still have to take the most complex step: transforming themselves to take advantage of it. — NTT DATA and ISDI Barometer, 2026
How to build trust before turning on the system
Plants implementing AI with less resistance share a common pattern: They engage workers before installation, not after.
Explain the purpose before installing: call a meeting with union representatives and the safety committee before any suppliers arrive. Explain what the system is going to do, what data it collects and who has access to it.
Distinguishes surveillance from prevention: a system like Safe does not generate individual productivity reports — it detects risks and launches alerts to protect the worker. That difference has to be clear from day one.
Form before activating: the operator who understands how the system works stops seeing it as a threat. A 30-minute session with the team on duty reduces resistance measurably.
Share the results: when the system detects a real risk and prevents an accident, communicate it to the staff. Workers who see the system in action change their perception.
The role of middle management
The shift leader and line manager are the key figure in this process. They are the ones who have a relationship of trust with the operators and who can translate technical language into everyday terms.
If the middle manager does not believe in the system – or does not understand it – he will transmit that distrust to his team. Investing in their training and involvement during implementation is the decision with the greatest return in the entire process..
What happens when trust is built
The plants that overcome the resistance phase describe a clear change: the workers themselves begin to report risk situations that the system has not yet detected. They go from supporting technology to collaborating with it.
That's the real goal. Not a tolerated surveillance system, but a security tool that the team feels like theirs.
How Safe facilitates that process
Safe includes in its implementation a communication protocol with plant equipment. The system is designed to detect risks and protect the worker — not to generate individual performance data or behavioral reports.
Your ORP technician can show any worker exactly what the system detects and what it does not. Data transparency is the most effective trust tool that exists.
Request a demo of Safe and ask us how we manage the communication process with the teams