ABB Launches AI Software to Help Control Room Operators Test Decisions Before Acting

The product is aimed at chemicals, oil and gas, power generation, water and other process industries. These are sectors where one wrong call in the control room can shut down a unit or produce a batch that fails specification. ABB says the software explains its reasoning using past data, while human operators keep the authority to decide.

The launch speaks to a staffing problem the Gulf energy sector shares with the rest of the industry. Smaller teams in centralised control rooms now oversee more of each process and must make faster decisions with more data. ABB cited International Energy Agency figures showing that, in advanced economies, there are 2.4 energy workers nearing retirement for every new entrant under 25. By drawing on a facility's own records, the company says, newer operators can learn from the decisions of earlier control room teams.

In ABB's description, the software analyses many data points at once to pick up subtle process changes and searches years of plant history for similar events. It also forecasts critical process variables and simulates the likely outcome of an intervention, then shows the results in a single view inside the operator's existing control system workflow.

Gino Hernandez, head of global digital business at ABB's Energy Industries division, said AI "has to earn its place" in industrial control rooms. He called the product "an important step toward more autonomous operations, while keeping the humans in the loop."

ABB says the benefits include fewer unplanned shutdowns and less off-specification production, more consistent performance between shifts and faster training for new staff. The company did not publish figures for any of these, name any customers or give pricing or availability dates.

The launch adds to ABB's other AI announcements this autumn. These include work with Nvidia on a physical AI training certificate for robotics and an agreement with Hanwha Ocean to develop power systems for floating AI data centres. ADIPEC, the Abu Dhabi energy exhibition, closed on Thursday. Its organisers said the event's AI zone had grown 20% from the previous edition.