AI can create value in refining
Industrial AI and our energy future
The energy industry has lagged in adopting AI, but industrial AI could create value through predictive maintenance and optimisation
The success of energy companies is becoming more complex, with the dual challenge of supplying the world’s growing demand while achieving the planet’s need for increased sustainability. Digital technology, particularly AI, is becoming crucial to navigating this complexity and the marketplace’s volatility. 22pc of respondents in a 2020 survey from consulting firm McKinsey report at least 5pc of earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) attributable to AI. In the manufacturing (process and discrete) sector, 15pc of the AI use cases are in the areas of energy and yield optimisation, and another 12pc in predictive maintenance. But almost every analysis shows that the energy industry is a laggard
Also in this section
18 February 2026
The global gas industry is no longer on the backfoot, hesitantly justifying the value of its product, but has greater confidence in gas remaining a core part of the global energy mix for decades
18 February 2026
With marketable supply unlikely to grow significantly and limited scope for pipeline imports, Brazil is expected to continue relying on LNG to cover supply shortfalls, Ieda Gomes, senior adviser of Brazilian thinktank FGV Energia,
tells Petroleum Economist
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
