Abu Dhabi, Microsoft partner on AI push to make energy mkt more efficient

By Anthony Di Paola

 

Abu Dhabi’s main oil company and AIQ agreed on a deal to use artificial intelligence to make the energy industry more efficient. 

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. will for the first time use agentic AI — developed by AIQ in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. and G42 — to analyze massive amounts of data to identify operational improvements in the energy industry, Chief Executive Officer Sultan Al Jaber said at the opening of the Adipec conference on Monday. 

 

“It will speed up seismic surveys from months to days,” Al Jaber said, adding that it will also make the industry more sustainable by reducing emissions. “It will increase the accuracy of production forecasts by up to 90%.”

 

In September, Microsoft and G42 announced the establishment of two artificial intelligence centers in Abu Dhabi, months after they inked a $1.5 billion deal. G42, which is seeking to become an AI superpower in the Middle East, is part of the $1.5 trillion empire of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who’s one of Abu Dhabi’s deputy rulers, national security adviser of the UAE and brother to its president.

 

Microsoft is among the companies working on AI agents — systems that perform a range of tasks without human supervision and accomplish things that existing AI models can’t. Some companies are already using this so-called agentic AI to help with employee on-boarding and managing supply chains. 

 

The Adnoc-AIQ AI system will start test analysis by the end of this year, powered by G42’s Khazna data center. The center is expanding renewable energy use, starting with a solar plant, according to Khazna CEO Hassan Al Naqbi

 

Al Jaber also said that global power sector investment will need to rise to $1.5 trillion annually to meet surging demand from AI.

 

(Updates with more details in penultimate paragraph)