With conversational AI, you can scale workforce capacity and leverage advanced technologies for optimized oil and gas processes.
As a member of the oil and gas industry, your company should always be on the lookout for ways to improve critical processes for better safety and a better bottom line. That means you’ll need to harness automated solutions whenever possible.
Conversational AI is particularly suited to helping you meet goals in improving the flow of revenue and boosting the flow of information internally for better safety for your employees. With conversational AI, oil and gas companies can scale the capacity of their workforce and leverage advanced technologies for optimized and accurate processes.
With that in mind, here are five ways where conversational AI can make a difference for your business:
Many companies in the oil and gas sector are struggling to maintain a robust workforce between the talent shortage and skills gap. As such, your company could likely stand to improve the onboarding process for new workers. Doing so will improve the accuracy and success of your current workforce, help boost employee retention, and even help you meet goals for maintaining standards of safety and risk.
Most likely, your human resources department has used some form of automation to help filter resumes and analyze the trove of information about potential new applicants. You can further make use of automation with conversational AI by accelerating and improving the onboarding process.
Compared to other industries, employee transition in oil and gas is the biggest challenge for the company. Conversational AI allows companies to expedite onboarding by automatically supplying new hires with information on company culture, rules and regulations, and more.
A worker can ask questions at any time or night and get an immediate response based on information from your company’s database. That’s handy, especially when a supervisor is engaged or on a break. It’s also an ideal solution when there isn’t a nearby coworker to ask about a particular way of doing things at the facility.
Consider the perspective of a new worker unsure about a particular regulation or how it applies to the work at hand. A quick inquiry to the system will elicit a response that lets the worker get back to the task, better informed, thanks to the ease of speaking with a virtual AI assistant.
This helps new hires achieve success in their new role and ensures that your organization is equipped with knowledgeable and informed employees, improving your operations' productivity, accuracy, and efficiency.
Conversational AI can provide on-demand support for employees on and off-site and facilitate easier communication between employees. As noted by FutureBridge, “80% of all customer engagements can be handled” by a conversational AI approach because “[conversational] AI can personalize the relationship between customers and logistics providers.”
Many customers will appreciate that they have expert guidance in their buying decisions. Virtual AI agents can offer suggestions based on factors “including the needs identified during the chat, preferred suppliers, preferred items, contracts in place, purchasing history, real-time availability of products, context,” among other important variables.
Best of all, your virtual AI assistants can achieve this very quickly and efficiently. A human without such a support system might have to put the caller on hold, check into multiple databases manually, or make an inquiry to a supervisor with more knowledge or a higher access level. In contrast, the conversational AI system can simply plow through the data and give a relevant response quickly.
The last thing a customer would want to hear is a request to be put on hold or to be called back later after an employee can finally source the correct information needed. Your new virtual AI assistant will take care of the details without delay.
Polite and well-informed, the engagement should be as pleasant as speaking to a real person who knows the ins and outs of the oil and gas industry–and your company in particular. And this information is available to customers and employees 24/7/365, even on holidays.
Ideally, you should already have a system to alert employees of possible risks by providing resources and analyzing interactions between platform users. The oil and gas industry is well-known for its high level of risk for employees, so you need to do as much as possible to promote a safer working environment.
For example, operators need to keep their hands free as they are often moving from one place to another. A conversational AI approach can assist operators with questions and status reports with hands-free voice commands.
Now, with the ability to simply speak and respond to the system, you can obtain timely data whenever needed or call for assistance. It’s easy for the system to look up vital information from your corporate databases. This capability significantly reduces workplace oil and gas risks, ensuring accuracy for dangerous processes such as drilling and procurement.
Even if you have the mandate to improve your systems and support forecasting processes by analyzing data and user interactions, these efforts may be futile without the right technology. This is where conversational AI can make a difference.
Your virtual AI assistant will enable a human-like experience when workers interact with it. This solution is designed to help users engage with vital information when they need it in the most accustomed manner. What could be more direct than asking for information aloud, speaking naturally, and getting a precise, helpful response from the artificial intelligence agent?
When it comes to oil exploration, the easier it is to access information about your ongoing operations, the more efficiently your team can expect to work. Speaking directly with a virtual AI assistant makes access to helpful information smoother. By analyzing user interactions and your company database, conversational AI can provide your employees with data-based insights to help you with forecasting for future projects. This data-based analysis and agility level are crucial in a constantly evolving industry.
You can use a virtual AI assistant in procurement to help make better purchasing decisions. It’s noted that the system can make suggestions based on several factors, including the needs identified during the chat, preferred suppliers, preferred items, contracts in place, purchasing history, real-time availability of products, and context, which shows the variables you can access.
Conversational AI will analyze a large amount of information obtained from users by accessing buying history already in your system, along with earlier contracts to provide context. Then, you combine the real-time product availability with the customer’s desires to help solidify a new deal.
Machine Learning (ML), leveraged by conversational AI, underpins the knowledge that your virtual AI assistant provides during the procurement process.
Machine learning can predict and understand procurement needs even before the specialists do. Acting as a purchasing partner, the machine would complete the tasks like contract negotiation and invoice, all without the assistance of a manager.
It pays to take advantage of emerging technologies, especially when they show as much promise as conversational AI. In the complex world of the oil and gas industry, deploying conversational AI can help in many ways. It provides on-demand support for on-site and off-site employees, keeping each worker better apprised about possible risks in real-time.
Of course, the depth of information and analysis afforded by a conversational AI agent will also enable your team to analyze data more comprehensively, which is valuable when forecasting based on the trove of information in user interactions. The result should be a safer and more efficient work environment where you can make better use of all available information, improving your processes and putting you on a more competitive footing in the marketplace.
Interested in learning more about how DRUID’s conversational AI can improve your business? Download our free guide on conversational AI!
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