Cognite was once again on the ground this year at CERAWeek 2026 in Houston, Texas, for another thought-provoking and memorable conference that brought together policymakers, energy leaders, and technology innovators. Representing from the Microsoft Agora House, with a presentation from Agora Pod #4, and with discussions all over the rest of the conference, it was clear to the Cognite team that the industry is grappling with how to handle pressing geopolitical and macroeconomic inflection points for which there are few clear answers.
What is top of mind for energy leaders?
For example, given current conditions in the Middle East that are affecting energy prices and changing the mechanics of the supply chain, leaders are thoughtfully discussing how best to mitigate the impact and then use those learnings to prepare for the next disruptive event.
- How well can they anticipate the next shock?
- How quickly can they adapt and compensate for future disruptions and minimize negative societal and economic hardship?
This issue is more urgent than ever, especially with the higher energy demands in the era of AI, and it puts producers in an interesting circular catch-22:
- How can they increase production more efficiently while using AI to improve their processes?
- How much energy will actually be needed for data centers to make AI work in industry?
Even the paths forward with technology are not always clear. Several leaders expressed that their investments in technology and AI to-date have not yet returned the value they expected and have not yet proven capable of addressing their macroeconomic challenges.
- Is this the year that patience runs dry?
- Are there actually other viable technological options that will move the needle?
- Or is industry set to live in a perpetual state of hope and hype based on cyclical technology trends?
Addressing these concerns with AI and data proven to drive value
At Cognite, we see this as a true “put up or shut up” moment. AI must rise to the occasion and deliver on its promise of value. There’s no good alternative. So what does that take? And where are we already seeing signs of progress and value?
AI success is dependent on its underlying data
Today, it’s never been clearer how successful AI outcomes are linked to clean, contextualized data. What’s changed, however, is the breadth of data in consideration. It’s no longer just about making predictions on asset health or supply chain bottlenecks, but rather being able to have agents quickly find, analyze, and action all your information at the right time and in the right context to deliver a better outcome based on the predictions.
All of this requires AI-ready data from documents, work order histories, inspections, video, sensors, historians, vendor agreements, transit information, and more. Recent research from IDC’s Worldwide MarketScape for Industrial DataOps Platforms and Verdantix’s Green Quadrant for Industrial Data Management have made it clear that industry must focus on its data for the sake of the autonomous industrial future.
Unlocking scale is the secret to material ROI
With so many new AI solutions and vendors, AI pilots are back in full force. But even the most successful pilot doesn’t count for much unless it can be rolled out across the enterprise. The math is simple: even small value compounds dramatically once it scales to all wells or production facilities. TotalEnergies is addressing this head-on with a surface data platform initiative with Cognite that is in the process of being rolled out across 36 upstream assets. It will lay the groundwork for digital tools and AI workflows to be quickly scaled across all similar workflows, rather than remaining isolated in the lab or at a single site.
An “ecosystem” approach is more important than ever
The energy industry has always been fast adopters of technology but it often means that their stacks are complex and full of layers. But what if they could unlock more from their existing investments while also improving the integrations with new layers of technology? That’s exactly how AkerBP maintains high rates of innovation and technology adoption; by orchestrating their technology with Cognite’s open Industrial AI and Data Platform that reduces data silos and equips valuable AI capabilities. For example, their latest breakthrough involves improving anomaly detection by operationalizing NVIDIA’s NV Tesseract models with Cognite. This will help them drive proactive troubleshooting and improve the safety and reliability of their offshore operations.
So how quickly will the energy industry leverage and adapt AI? Only time will tell, but Doug Burgum, US Secretary of the Interior, said it well: “We need Energy for AI, but Energy needs AI. AI will disrupt every job, every company, and you need to be looking at it.”
Serving this inflection point is what Cognite has always been about. Whether you are just now starting on your industrial AI journey, or trying to scale your early AI wins, Cognite can help you fast-track ROI and usher in a more productive, efficient future for your operations.
Want even more takeaways from CERAWeek? Check out our newly launched podcast, Shift Change, with Host Justin Hester, Cognite VP of Customer Value, Insights, and Industries