Mines Paris – PSL and PREVENTEO: 20 years of R&D for risk prevention in the workplace
Published on 25 June 2024
The event, which took place at Mines Paris – PSL, brought together representatives from over 60 French companies to share best practices and present new software products. PREVENTEO’s 2030 roadmap was also presented, as well as the company’s international strategy through its partnership with ENHESA, and its new CSRD offering in partnership with a consulting firm particularly active in the field of CSR. Finally, the contributions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the safety, environment and human resources professions were assessed. The day concluded with a lecture by Alain Bensoussan, a pioneering lawyer in digital and AI law. Planète Robot magazine was a partner in the event.
At the end of 2003, Jean-Marc Rallo, winner of an innovation competition, set about creating a software platform to recommend the wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE) according to the level of risk assessed on a workstation. He explains: ” The incubator pointed me in the direction of INRIA and the École des Mines, two prestigious institutions based in Sophia Antipolis, the place where I absolutely wanted to develop my entrepreneurial project. I met Franck Guarnieri, and indeed the École, and was won over by their pragmatism and concern for efficiency, with a view to obtaining tangible results as quickly as possible, and showing them to prospective clients.
In early 2004, a partnership agreement was signed between his company PREVENTEO and ARMINES. Michel Schmitt, then Research Director and now Managing Director, played an active role in defining the cooperation arrangements between CRC and PREVENTEO. He explains: ” The concept, the needs of the market – which was huge at the time – and the perfect understanding between Jean-Marc Rallo and Franck Guarnieri quickly convinced me that the School had to support this project with an original partnership business model.
The idea of a software program for PPE was quickly abandoned for lack of consolidated data. However, the work carried out on the use of available, up-to-date legal data has made PREVENTEO a LegalTech which, for the past 20 years, has been putting together knowledge bases on labor law, environmental law, European directives, case law, etc., with the aim of making the most of this knowledge.
The alliance between PREVENTEO and CRC is based on both application domains and Artificial Intelligence. In 2004, CRC researchers boasted solid skills in this field, with over 10 years’ experience in the design and development of ontologies, knowledge-based systems, neural networks and multi-agent systems. This expertise has been put to good use in the development of a first prototype of the PREVENTEO software platform.
Franck Guarnieri: ” In 2004, I was finalizing my manuscript for my habilitation to direct research (HDR) on the contribution of AI to risk prevention and crisis management. Jean Marc Rallo, with his idea of a Knowledge-Based System and his business start-up project, offered us a fantastic opportunity to meet a wide range of industrial needs: controlling compliance, assessing risks, taking corrective action, and reporting progress using indicators “.
Jean-Marc Rallo, Founder of PREVENTEO
PREVENTEO has therefore never ceased to support these software developments, making good use of AI, its theories, methods, models and technologies. While remaining rooted in Symbolic AI, an approach to AI that uses systems of rules and symbols to represent knowledge and reason logically, mimicking human cognitive processes, PREVENTEO also explored Machine Learning from 2015 onwards. This branch of AI enables computer systems to learn and improve automatically from data without being explicitly programmed, and has proved particularly useful with the growth of its legal, risk and feedback databases. In 2022, the onslaught of ChatGpt and a host of competing solutions led the company to reorient its strategy.
Jean Marc Rallo: ” With generative AI (GAI), we’re moving from AI purely at the service of productivity to AI conducive to creativity. This is a radical game-changer. Taking advantage of a result out of a black box is obviously profitable, but expressing your creativity without technological hindrance, by combining different conversational agents (text, images, videos…) provides a benefit without comparison, as long as the user is an expert in his or her field “.
PREVENTEO has cleverly repositioned part of its IT team and its Data Engineers as part of an IAG Task Force tasked with monitoring trends and evaluating, according to a rigorous protocol, solutions brought to market by the Net giants and new entrants. The multi-disciplinary team is committed to the design and development of new services, which are rapidly brought to the attention of our corporate and institutional customers.
Jean-Marc Rallo: ” Since the creation of PREVENTEO, our modus operandi has been based on a collaborative approach with our partners. We co-construct services and software. It’s our trademark, our DNA, and we’re particularly proud of it.
Every year, PREVENTEO brings together its partners in the “Club PREVENTEO”. A day of exchanges to encourage the sharing of best practices between companies and institutions from different sectors (aeronautics, chemicals, construction and public works, agri-food, defense, etc.). The Club is also an opportunity to present new developments and launch a call for partners to take part in large-scale experiments.
Jean-Marc Rallo: “As well as showcasing our innovations, the club is a particularly convivial occasion and a great networking opportunity for participants.
Club PREVENTEO 2024 participants
The club also provides a space for reflection and perspective on topics of great importance. This year, the central theme was artificial intelligence (AI), explored from two angles: the impact of AI on law, a favored field of LegalTech, and the influence of law on AI, particularly in terms of deontology, risk management and ethics.
PREVENTEO thus detailed its action plan for the next three years, presenting its multidisciplinary set-up to undertake large-scale projects and provide guarantees in terms of data confidentiality and security.
Jean-Marc Rallo: ” The potential of AGIs is extraordinary, which makes it all the more important for us to provide our partner companies and institutions with every guarantee of the reliability and security of the solutions we offer. Maître Bensoussan, an undisputed expert in AI law, has clearly underlined the multiple risks we need to master. On thestrength of our experience, I have no doubt that we are well armed in this area.
For CRC, the club’s time represents the measure of the road travelled, both in the long term, with a 20-year perspective, and in the short term, through research work leading to concrete achievements. The latter create value both economically and in terms of risk prevention.
Franck Guarnieri: ” I’ve got into the habit of asking myself the question “What’s left of it? With PREVENTEO, I have no difficulty in answering this question, given that Jean-Marc and our teams have significantly and sustainably transformed the world of corporate risk prevention with our innovations.
At the end of the day, a date was set for next year’s edition of Club 2025. In the meantime, PREVENTEO and Mines Paris – PSL will continue to work together ambitiously, aiming to reach the milestone of 40 years!
Jean-Marc Rallo (PREVENTEO) and Franck Guarnieri (Mines Paris – PSL) celebrated 20 years of research partnership on June 20 at the Ecole, Paris.