This is a recreational question. At my workplace within the same stairwell there are different steps numbers per floor on certain floors.
I have tried to automate counting the steps by binarising the image (Binarize and Dilation, Erosion, DeleteSmallComponents) to minimize lines. ImageLines, ImageCorners and GradientOrientahitionFilter did not yield helpful results (this is most likely my lack of experience and understanding). I have not tried AI queries.
I can manually count the steps (as it is a small number of points):
pts = {{2118, 4821}, {2041, 4657}, {1933, 4478}, {1820, 4242}, {1718, 4001}, {1590, 3739}, {1456, 3452}, {1261, 3118}, {1072, 2713}, {805, 2236}, {533, 1687}, {164, 1056}} Show[i, Graphics[{Red, PointSize[0.02], Point[pts], MapThread[ Text[Style[#1, Bold], #2, {0, -3}] &, {Range[Length[pts]], pts}]}, ImageSize -> ImageDimensions[i]]] 
The other example: 
pts2 = {{1194, 3120}, {1173, 3011}, {1151, 2921}, {1111, 2834}, {1082, 2733}, {1050, 2628}, {999, 2476}, {955, 2309}, {879, 2103}, {807, 1889}, {742, 1578}, {626, 1241}, {477, 777}}; Show[i2, Graphics[{Red, PointSize[0.02], Point[pts2], MapThread[ Text[Style[#1, Bold], #2, {1, -4}] &, {Range[Length[pts2]], pts2}]}, ImageSize -> ImageDimensions[i2]]] 
I did not post my attempts other than the above as they were not edifying and it would be too messy.