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BP announced recently that it will be “expanding the use of generative AI to enhance its global employee experience through the use of copilot for Microsoft 365”.
“BP is the one of the first companies globally to act as a launch partner for the ‘intelligent AI assistant’,” the company said in a release posted on its website, adding that it will be able to roll out access at scale across a substantial part of its global workforce from early 2024.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based service that integrates with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, BP highlighted in the release.
“The service uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to automate a variety of daily tasks such as writing emails and managing inboxes,” BP noted in the release.
“By using the capabilities of copilot for Microsoft 365, BP can help employees to boost productivity, upskill, enhance business performance, and support innovation. BP may also offer insights that may help shape the future functionality of the product,” it added.
In the release, Leigh-Ann Russell, BP’s Executive Vice President of Innovation and Engineering, said, “this collaboration with copilot for Microsoft 365 is a significant next step in BP’s digital transformation”.
“Leveraging the latest developments in AI-powered workplace solutions offers the opportunity for BP to transform how work gets done. Our ambition is to empower our people to spend more time on innovation and the problem solving that will help make the energy transition a success,” Russell added.
“BP has been using AI safely and responsibly in our operations for a number of years. Extending our work with a trusted partner such as Microsoft means that BP is one of the companies at the forefront of the global deployment of this tool,” Russell continued.
Clare Barclay, the CEO of Microsoft UK, said in the release, “copilot for Microsoft 365 will help thousands of employees unlock creativity and give them the ability to focus on what really matters: problem-solving, innovation, and accelerating the energy transition”.
“We’re supporting BP as it puts this transformational technology in the hands of its people,” Barclay added.
So Much Talk About AI at the Moment
In an in-house interview posted on BP’s website last week, which formed part of the company’s online reimagining energy magazine, Russell said “there is so much talk about AI at the moment”, adding “rightly so, it’s relevant to everyone”.
“It is incredibly relevant to BP,” Russell highlighted in the BP interview.
“We’re transforming from an international oil company (IOC) into a nimble, increasingly lower carbon, and tech-driven integrated energy company (IEC),” the BP EVP noted.
“We need the right tools to help us optimize our processes, become more efficient, save costs, lower emissions, and unlock growth. The potential for AI to facilitate that is huge,” Russell continued.
In the interview, Russell revealed that BP has been working with AI and machine learning “for a while now”.
“There’s an amazing app we created in 2018 called safe2go that Air BP uses to prevent misfuelling – it does this by using computer vision to match images on the aircraft to the correct fuel. It’s had a 100 percent success rate and has won four innovation awards,” Russell added.
“Already, AI is helping us do things like choose the best locations to build a hydrogen plant or install the next EV charger. In our oil and gas business, we’ve built a tool that when I started out as an engineer, I couldn’t dream of,” Russell went on to state.
“For example, we’ve got geologists, or more precisely, biostratigraphers, whose job is to identify the best places to drill by studying the layers in rocks. A job that used to take two months, they can do in days using this tool,” the EVP continued.
Russell highlighted in the BP interview that digital is a core component of the company’s strategy.
“It’s why I’m focused on embedding an industry-leading digitalization and technology agenda to support our transition to net zero by 2050 or sooner,” Russell added.
“We have a great opportunity to speed our transition and to differentiate us,” Russell continued.
“Currently, we have many areas where AI is in use, and we’ve identified many more across the organization where it may add value,” Russell stated.
Shell Talks Generative AI at Web Summit
In an on-stage interview at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, last week, which was attended by Rigzone, Shell’s Head of Artificial Intelligence, Amy Challen, sat down with Tom Lee-Devlin, the Global Business Correspondent at The Economist, to talk about the company’s experience with generative artificial intelligence.
“We’ve had an AI program for quite some years, and we’ve actually had a generative AI program as well,” Challen revealed in the interview.
“Obviously it wasn’t as big, and the capabilities weren’t there, but for example we’ve been experimenting with large language models for years because we reckon it’s a much, much, better way of leveraging our knowledge assets,” Challen added.
Back in September, Hussein Shel, the Director, Chief Technologist, and Head of Upstream for Energy and Utilities at Amazon Web Services (AWS), told Rigzone that organizations across the oil and gas industry are increasing their adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence to innovate and address a wide range of use cases, from emissions monitoring to production optimization.
In June, the AWS representative revealed to Rigzone that AWS believes generative AI will have a profound impact across industries.
Rigzone has asked BP and Shell if their use of AI has resulted in, or will result in, workforce reductions. The companies have not yet responded to Rigzone’s request at the time of writing.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
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