Yokogawa Sees Strong Demand for Autonomous Energy Operations, Executive Tells WAM at ADIPEC

Nadeem is Executive Vice President at Yokogawa UAE Industry and Head of Energy and Sustainability at Yokogawa Middle East & Africa. He told WAM that the company has spent nearly three years moving its focus from industrial automation to industrial autonomy, as AI, robotics and cloud computing change the way plants are run.

He said the technology is advancing quickly but human expertise is still essential. As AI and machine learning mature, he said, combining them with operators' experience will matter more.

At the exhibition, Yokogawa is showing integrated systems that use AI, robotics, cloud computing and other technologies, which it says are designed for safe, secure and optimised operations. Nadeem also said the AI conversation in the energy industry has shifted. Earlier discussions centred on how much power AI consumes, and they now increasingly cover how the technology can help develop energy.

UAE as a Manufacturing and Export Base

Nadeem told WAM that Yokogawa manufactured about 20,000 industrial transmitters in the UAE last year and exported nearly half of them. He said the UAE's location makes it an export base for GCC markets and further afield, including Brazil.

He linked the company's local activity to the UAE's Make it in the Emirates and Make it with ADNOC programmes, which aim to build domestic manufacturing and Emirati talent. He also noted that energy ties between the UAE and Japan go back to the early 1970s, when the first shipment of liquefied natural gas went from the UAE to Japan.

The comments match a theme heard from several industrial technology suppliers at this year's ADIPEC: oil and gas operators are moving from AI pilots towards systems that run parts of their facilities with less human intervention, while keeping engineers responsible for oversight.