Borouge International Targets $100 Million in Value From AI Programme by 2027

The company announced the plan at ADIPEC 2026 in Abu Dhabi. It covers production, research, supply chain, logistics and customer service. Borouge International also signed partnerships with Microsoft, Emerson, Immensa and Cognite to help deploy and scale the tools. It did not disclose financial terms or say what each partnership covers.

The plan is a test of whether AI can deliver measurable savings inside one of the Gulf's largest industrial mergers. Borouge International brings together the UAE's Borouge, Europe's Borealis and North America's NOVA Chemicals. The company's approach, which it calls "build once, scale globally", is to prove a tool at one site and then copy it across plants on three continents instead of building separate systems for each.

Dr Hasan Karam, the company's chief operating officer and executive sponsor for the programme, said in a statement that combining the three legacy companies lets it "develop high-impact AI solutions once and scale them rapidly across our operations." He said the initiatives are expected to deliver the $100 million target as the company works towards becoming "AI-native".

The largest system already in use is a real-time optimisation platform in the UAE that runs three large ethane crackers and 20 furnaces. Borouge International said it is the largest such system in the world. The AI-enabled software analyses more than 2,500 parameters a minute to adjust operations, and the company says it raises productivity while cutting energy use and emissions. It plans to install the system at sites around the world, including key plants in North America.

Earlier this year, the company and Honeywell completed a proof of concept for AI-run autonomous operations at the Ruwais complex in the UAE. Borouge International called it the petrochemical industry's first step towards a control room run by AI in real time. Results from the trial, which ran in a live production environment, point to efficiency gains of up to 20 percent, 20 percent less downtime and operating costs up to 15 percent lower, the company said. It has not said when it will move from the trial to full-scale autonomous operation.

Other parts of the programme include machine learning for demand and production forecasting, digital twins for predictive maintenance, and industrial 3D printing of parts, which the company said would make its supply chain more efficient.

The AI announcement follows Borouge International's decision earlier this week to raise its 2030 production capacity target to 13.8 million tonnes. Both announcements are tied to the integration of the three businesses, which management is counting on to produce savings from greater scale, shared technology and a combined manufacturing and supply network.