Enhancing intelligence through Robotic Process Automation  

Project Summary

Industry context/Challenge:

Intelligent automation has the potential to revolutionise the oil and gas industry by increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving safety.

Project overview:  

NZTC commissioned Synpulse Management Consulting to conduct research in the oil and gas sector on the potential value and impact of IA. 

This study focussed mainly on intelligent automation technologies, rule-based technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), which evolve and learn as they are exposed to large quantities of data.  

To explore the topic of IA in the sector, a series of interviews were conducted with senior executives from operators, service providers, trade organisations and vendors. The research sought to understand where companies are in their digital journey, their current level of awareness, drivers for adoption, and future outlook on the sector and their willingness to adopt IA.  

The scope of this study focused on analysing and evaluating the benefits, value, and impact of IA on the oil and gas sector. To ensure this research provided a holistic overview, the following topics were also addressed in the research:  

• The level of adoption amongst firms.
• The different types of technologies adopted as IA. 

This study explores the current level of adoption of IA amongst participants to assess and explore the possible benefits, value and impact of IA in on the oil and gas sector. 

Study objectives:  

1. Current business and digital strategy and the role IA plays in it 
2. Technology awareness and the level of understanding from senior executives 
3. The different drivers for automation & digitalisation 
4. Current adoption level 
5. Future industry and personal outlook

Key results: 

The journey to wide automation adoption of Information processing automation, RPA and cognitive (using AI, ML and NLP) has started for many operators and service providers, and this study found them at varying stages of maturity on this journey: from contemplation of intent, through cautious experimentation with limited pilot implementations, all the way to full scaling of enterprise-wide IA.  

When investigating the future outlook of the industry, close to 90% of all participants stated that they will increase their intelligent automation adoption in the next 12 to 18 months.  

When asked to elaborate further on their thoughts for the overall industry, close to 70% of all participants said that they expect intelligent automation adoption in the sector to grow significantly by 2022.