Shape Digital Expects AI Agents to Be Routine in Oil and Gas Operations Within Five Years

Machado spoke to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of ADIPEC 2026 in Abu Dhabi. He said agents could increasingly handle several tasks at once, though he added that the pace of change and its effect on the industry are hard to predict.

He pointed to the agreement signed on Monday by ADNOC, G42 and OpenAI as a significant step for industrial AI. Under that deal, ADNOC will become the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier, a platform built to coordinate AI agents across complex business operations. Machado said combining G42's infrastructure, OpenAI's models and ADNOC's operating experience gives a framework for faster AI adoption in the sector.

Shape Digital has recently expanded its platform so that maintenance engineers, technical specialists and other staff can build their own applications and AI agents using company data, OpenAI's models and Shape Digital's predictive models, Machado said.

He said trust in AI-supported decisions depends on reliable, properly contextualised sensor data and validated predictive models, and that pilot projects help operators check data quality and model accuracy before rolling tools out more widely.

The company also highlighted two energy-efficiency products. One optimises production facilities to cut fuel use while maximising plant capacity, lowering carbon dioxide emissions and operating costs. The other, a flare management tool launched two months ago, continuously monitors flaring emissions and has achieved reductions of around 12%, according to Machado.

Shape Digital is headquartered in Houston and has significant operations in Brazil. Machado said it is moving into Europe and sees opening a Middle East office as its next strategic step.

The comments reflect a wider theme at this year's ADIPEC, where national oil companies and suppliers are presenting AI agents as a way to raise output and reliability from existing assets. For vendors such as Shape Digital, the ADNOC-OpenAI agreement is being read as a signal that large Gulf producers are ready to move from pilots to broader deployment.