AIQ, an Abu Dhabi-based energy sector artificial intelligence specialist, is set to export AI solutions to overseas markets as the global energy sector’s increasing adoption of the technology continues, the company’s chief executive has said.
Solutions developed by AIQ, a joint venture between state-owned energy major Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and AI firm Presight, have already been used at Adnoc units in the UAE.
As part of the push to expand its overseas footprint, AIQ is running pilot programmes in six countries, Dennis Jol told The National on the fringes of Adipec on Tuesday.
The services for overseas markets are at trial stage and not yet fully operational but “we’re edging closer to our international deployment”, he said in an interview.
AIQ has already announced partnerships to introduce its technological solutions in Colombia and Kazakhstan, and on Tuesday it signed a similar agreement with Indonesia. The company is expected to announce deals with three more countries soon, Mr Jol said.
He did not say when AIQ plans to export, nor which other markets are being explored for expansion. “We’re hoping to be able to announce some [more] wins”, Mr Jol said, without elaborating.
AIQ signed an agreement with Indonesia’s state-owned SKK Migas for use of its Advanced Reservoir 360 platform across upstream operations in the south-east Asian nation, a former Opec member.
AIQ’s partnerships will be demonstrative of the diverse places it seeks to serve, Mr Jol said.
“We are the Global South and the Global North is definitely our target but, essentially, we are looking for customers that believe in AI for all, not AI for the few,” he said. “We are looking for anybody that wants to make their energy systems far more efficient, and far more productive and sustainable.”
In the UAE, Adnoc and AIQ launched Energyai, the first agentic AI for the energy sector. Agentic AI features systems that can autonomously make decisions and execute them with limited supervision.
The companies have a three-year agreement for Energyai and while there have been no discussions to extend this, co-operation will continue for developing AI technology in energy, Mr Jol said.
“That would be up to Adnoc … but at the end of the day we continue to build products together with our customers,” he said.
AIQ is “talking to a lot of different partners and customers around the world, and collaborating to continuously develop new products and new agents for the energy system”.
AI’s explosion has enabled major transformation in several industries, with its innovation opening up new possibilities that help streamline operations and create new streams of revenue.
One in five energy firms is now using agentic AI to automate complex decision-making, with use of the technology in the sector increasing, a survey from Adnoc and Microsoft last week showed.
The UAE is ahead of the global average when it comes to the use of AI, as well as literacy, training and optimism over the technology, British professional services firm KPMG said in a report last month.
“The [AI] space is moving so quickly … that there’s no such thing as competition – this is really just collaboration to accelerate the AI race,” Mr Jol said.
The role of and investments in data centres is expected to keep increasing, as more AI and tech-powered applications come to the fore, requiring more to be built globally, Mr Jol said.
Mr Jol said he did not expect the data-centre boom to peak, because “technology continues to progress and there will be more data available”.
“I hope it never peaks … when we think about our AI and their deployment – we’re now only in 25 per cent of Adnoc wells, 20 per cent of reservoirs and 100 per cent of drilling rigs – but we still got a long way to go,” he said.
AIQ will also be focusing on a “convergence of renewables and hydrocarbons” to manage its energy demand for AI, Mr Jol said, keeping in step with the UAE’s goals of using more cleaner sources.
At Adipec, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Adnoc managing director and group chief executive, called for “massive” investment into energy to fuel data centres.
“We’re going to need energy from all different forms to be able to drive the most efficient use of AI,” he said. “And the more people that adopt AI … we’re going to end up needing a lot more energy to drive the AI that’s going to drive everything to become more efficient.”
