Middle East 2024
31 October 2024 | Abu Dhabi
The Future Digital Twin & GenAI 2024 conference Middle East, staged in Abu Dhabi by Cavendish Group International, provided an invaluable regional forum to exchange ideas on the future of the energy industry’s most dynamic sectors.
Some 254 delegates from 69 organisations attended the conference on October 31, which was held as a physical event this year, following an enthusiastic reception for Cavendish’s online Middle East event of May 2023. Attendees at the Beach Rotana Resort conference centre welcomed the opportunity to hear from leading experts and took advantage of the excellent networking opportunities on offer.
Panellists and contributors included some of the digital sector’s most influential innovators and thought leaders from a diverse range of organisations and institutions, including ADNOC, Aramco, Kent, Kongsberg Digital, Khalifa University, Cadmatic, Siemens Energy, Motiva, V2T, Accenture and Bosch, among many others
Digital Twins create digital replicas of physical assets, processes or business systems that carry out predictive modelling to foresee and avoid potential pitfalls, helping companies navigate the energy transition, improve performance and reduce emissions from their operations. Generative AI is now making them even more effective by making the technology more user friendly and allowing people to extract ever more relevant information.
Cutting-edge themes covered at the event included how to incorporate GenAI into digital twins effectively, using digital twins to hone asset management and autonomous operations, the crucial roles of data sharing, standardization and security in successful implementation, and the need to adopt a people-centric approach when introducing digital technology.
Wassim Ghadban, VP, Global Innovation and Digital Engineering at Kent and Chairman of the event’s Advisory Board, said the conference provided a showcase for the way in which digital twins were now being used to generate engineering deliverables
“The combination of digital twin and GenAI is really opening the door for big innovation in our industry. By enabling us to make efficiencies and overcome safety challenges, this is allowing us to finally achieve what we have been trying to do over many years,” he said.
Shane McArdle, CEO of Kongsberg Digital said successful implementation of digital technology was not about replacing people, but about improving how they work together.
“We are a diverse community of professionals from many different roles across the industry, but all working towards the common goal of transforming our organizations,” he said. “At Future Digital Twin conferences, we often start talking about the technology but end up discussing the people. We need to redefine how we how we work, because that is where we get the value from adopting digital technology.”
Adam Soroka, Chief Executive Officer of Cavendish International, highlighted the opportunity presented by the conference to demonstrate how the Middle East region was playing a key role in advancing digital technology.
“The Middle East is a global thought leader when it comes to remote operations, AI and digital twins, with standout examples like NOEM, Masdar City, Aramco’s 4IR Centre and ADNOC Panorama. The region is setting new standards with its technical expertise and disruptive solutions,” he said.
In recognition of the Middle East’s contribution to the sector, the event also played host to the Digital Twin Excellence Awards Middle East 2024, which threw a spotlight on the talent being fostered within the region, with ADNOC and Aramco prominent amongst the winners.
Here’s what some of the other speakers had to say at the conference:
Dr Chris Cooper, Executive Advisor, ADNOC:
“You’ve got to get to the net value. A lot of organisations are building AI-based solutions, and then looking for the problem to solve afterwards. You need to get to the point up front, where you can identify and qualify the solutions that are going to drive most impact and then build those. You can’t go broadbrush, you’ve got to go focused and targeted.”
Kari Manner, Director of Business Development, Process Industry at engineering software solutions developer Cadmatic:
While AI will still take some time to reach maturity, digital twins are already creating business benefits and implementing them doesn’t have to take two years and cost several million dollars. The quickest digital twin we completed using our platform was completed in one week with multiple integrations.”
Nadun Muthukumarana, CEO of digital twin and logistics AI specialist V2T”
“Digital twins make a perfect user interface to interact with complex AI, because it no longer requires a lot of technical knowledge to do so. People on both the business and technical side need to be shown how to interact with the technology, how to train it, and how to test it.”
Fatima Abdulla Al Zaabi, VP, Procurement Services, ADNOC:
“We need to look at customer satisfaction. At the end of the day, we must make sure the metrics we measure are those aligned with the ultimate goals of the companies involved, as we further enable digital technology.”
Dr Shivagami Gugan, Chief Technologist, META, AWS:
AI is a tremendous enabler, but managing data ownership and governance must come first. AI is only as powerful as the quality and security of the data it uses.”