SLB Digital Forum: Day Three
Overview of day three of the SLB Digital Forum 2024
Today, was the final day of the SLB Digital Forum 2024, but that doesn’t mean the brakes have been put on just yet. There was still a lively exhibition for visitors to immerse themselves in the latest digital innovations, and a morning of engaging technical track presentations.
Executive panel on people and technology: Experts unveil strategies to attract and develop digital talent
Dianne Ralston, Chief Legal Officer, introduced a panel discussion focused on the intersection of people and technology, particularly within the energy industry. Dianne highlighted the evolving talent strategies to attract, develop, and retain top digital talent in this era of rapid transformation.
The panelists included Carmen Rando, the Chief People Officer for SLB; Liat Burger, the Chief Human Resource Officer for Cognite; Dr. Karthik Duraisamy, founder and Chief Scientist for Geminus AI and faculty member at the University of Michigan; and Paula Doyle, the Chief Digital Officer at Aker BP. Each panelist brought a unique perspective to the discussion, emphasizing the importance of combining domain expertise with digital skills.
Carmen Rando emphasized the need for curiosity and a willingness to constantly learn as critical factors in seeking digital talent. She shared her experience at SLB, where they created a program to train domain experts in data science, resulting in a powerful workforce with expertise in both areas. Liat Burger echoed the importance of combining domain expertise with digital skills and highlighted Cognite's efforts to foster high-performing teams and develop leaders for the digital market.
Dr. Karthik Duraisamy discussed the potential of AI to accelerate and augment human capabilities, stressing the importance of human-AI collaboration. He pointed out that AI should not be viewed as a solution but as a tool to enhance human creativity and decision-making. Paula shared Aker BP's approach to integrating digital skills and emphasized the need for a culture that supports agility and innovation while maintaining safety standards.
The discussion also touched on the challenges of attracting digital talent to the oil and gas industry, which often faces perception issues. Paula mentioned the importance of addressing these perceptions by visiting universities and presenting data that demonstrates the ongoing relevance of the industry. Liat highlighted the significance of purpose in attracting digital talent, noting that the younger generation seeks careers that align with their values and contribute to global impact.
The panelists agreed that upskilling the existing workforce is crucial. Carmen shared SLB's success in upskilling their domain experts in data science, creating a workforce capable of tackling complex problems with both domain knowledge and digital skills. Liat emphasized the need for diverse backgrounds and continuous learning, while Paula mentioned the importance of adapting training to individual needs and fostering a culture of vulnerability and openness.
The conversation addressed the potential impact of AI on jobs. Dr. Karthik reassured that AI would not replace people but would instead enhance their capabilities, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks. Liat compared the current AI revolution to past technological advancements, suggesting that while AI would change job content, humans would adapt and find new ways to add value.
In conclusion, the panelists highlighted the exciting opportunities at the intersection of digital technology and the energy industry. They emphasized the importance of combining domain expertise with digital skills, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation, and addressing perception issues to attract top talent. The discussion underscored the need for collaboration, empathy, and adaptability as key factors in navigating the digital transformation in the energy sector.
Academia Innovation Program finalists
The session culminated with the Academia Innovation Program ceremony. The program is designed to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and industry requirements, creating a synergy that produces well-rounded, highly skilled professionals ready to meet the demands of the evolving job market. This program focuses on evolving skillsets, mastering data science and domain expertise, fostering future leaders of innovation, and ensuring talent retention within industries such as energy.
Way back when the Digital Forum was still at the planning stage, we asked budding university students to submit abstracts to the Academia Innovation Program. Our five university students finalists: Hajar Mali, Adwaita Sathrukkan, Divakar Vashisth, Kenny Bankejesu, and Waleed Diab, were asked to prepare presentations of their innovation. After the panel discussion, each presented their innovation to subject matter experts and industry leaders, followed by a celebration of the winners.
Integrating generative AI
In a panel discussion this morning, two experts, a senior reservoir engineer from the UK and Arvind Sharma from the SLB Lumi™ data and AI team, shared insights into their work with generative AI and its applications in their respective fields. The senior engineer highlighted his experience in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and the deployment of a company-wide AI tool to manage internal documents and generate responses, which has significantly improved operational efficiency. This tool, initially met with confusion, has now been widely adopted across various departments, demonstrating its value.
Arvind Sharma, with a deep background in high-performance computing and seismic imaging, discussed the evolution of AI in the past 18 months. He emphasized the importance of integrating AI into workflows to enhance decision-making, particularly in exploration and well management. He noted that AI tools are not a replacement but an enhancement, assisting professionals in making more informed decisions by leveraging vast datasets.
The conversation also touched on the cultural aspects of adopting AI in small companies, where a flat organizational structure and management buy-in were key enablers. They discussed the importance of understanding and managing the uncertainties associated with AI outputs, ensuring that the technology is used as a guide rather than a definitive answer.
Both experts agreed on the necessity of continuous learning and adaptation to keep pace with rapid technological advancements. They stressed the importance of collaboration and open-mindedness in adopting new tools, which can lead to significant improvements in efficiency and decision-making in complex, cost-driven environments like carbon capture and reservoir management.
SLB and NVIDIA to develop generative AI solutions for the energy sector, together
Our last piece of news for this Digital Forum, we announced that our long-standing collaboration with NVIDIA will go further, together will we co-develop generative AI solutions for the energy industry.
The collaboration accelerates the development and deployment of industry-specific generative AI foundation models across SLB’s global platforms, including its Delfi™ digital platform and Lumi™ data and AI platform, by leveraging NVIDIA NeMo™, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, to develop custom generative AI that can be run in the data center, in any cloud or at the edge.
This will help unlock the full potential of generative AI for energy domain experts including researchers, scientists and engineers―enabling them to interact with complex technical processes in new ways to drive higher value and lower carbon outcomes.
"As we navigate the delicate balance between energy production and decarbonization, generative AI is emerging as a crucial catalyst for change," said Olivier Le Peuch, chief executive officer, SLB.
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said, “Custom models created by SLB leveraging NVIDIA NeMo will provide the industry’s scientists and engineers unprecedented insight to speed their work in optimizing the energy supplies today and unlocking the clean energy innovations of tomorrow.”
Thank you and goodbye for now…
And that’s the SLB Digital Forum 2024 officially closed, with successes that exceeded expectations across the board. Thank you to all the people at SLB, our customers, and our partners that made the event possible. Your tireless dedication is an inspiration to us all.
See you next time!
