Foreword
The pace of technological advancement is nothing short of extraordinary. If this report had been written six months ago, its conclusions might already feel out of date. Six months from now, they may evolve again.
That’s the reality we now operate in — a world where innovation is not only constant but accelerating and where technologies once thought of as futuristic, such as quantum and agentic AI, are rapidly moving into the strategic planning horizon of the energy sector. In the near term, the industry leaders we speak with point to agentic AI as a transformative force.
Although traditional automation has delivered incremental benefits, its progress is increasingly constrained by the need for expert human intervention — expertise that is both scarce and diminishing.
Agentic AI offers a breakthrough. These systems can autonomously manage entire workflows, complementing the nuanced judgment of human experts and making complex decisions without direct oversight, providing recourse to a human expert if and when required. The level of impact seems dramatic: One company, I heard present at COP29, shared that by deploying AI agents, they reduced a 21-day process to just 18 minutes.
For energy companies, the cost of inaction is rising fast — those who delay risk being locked into outdated infrastructures, talent models, and operating assumptions that may be unfit for purpose by the end of the decade. Scaling AI is about reimagining the enterprise and meeting the energy trilemma head on, embedding intelligence across the value chain to secure supply, decarbonize and control costs. This report provides guidance for navigating that future.
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