How AI Is Powering a New Middle East Energy Push

Wood and ADNOC expand digital platforms as regional operators shift from pilots to full deployment

2 Nov 2025

A fresh surge of digital ambition is sweeping through the Middle East energy sector as operators lean into artificial intelligence and data driven platforms. Wood’s Middle East Digital and AI Hub sits at the center of this shift, pulling together advisers, data specialists and tech partners to tackle everything from asset health to low carbon planning.

The momentum was on display at this year’s ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi. Wood showcased how AI, digital twins and predictive tools can shrink emissions, support rising data centre demand and sharpen operations across the value chain. Executives argued that pairing cloud analytics with field experience helps cut downtime, extend equipment life and tighten safety across upstream and midstream sites.

The regional timing is strategic. Gulf states are pushing to boost domestic gas supply and advance more complex developments. Wood’s team is rolling out advanced asset management, AI driven maintenance and digital twins, supported by tools such as its maintAI platform. The company points to projects that avoided major capital spending on production facilities and trimmed offshore trips by using integrated digital twins, a result that is strengthening the case for faster adoption.

Local giants are moving in lockstep. ADNOC has built ENERGYai with AIQ, Microsoft and G42 by training large language models and task specific agents on decades of operational data. After its debut at ADIPEC in 2024, a three year contract signed in 2025 will bring ENERGYai into ADNOC’s upstream operations to speed decisions, raise efficiency and cut emissions. It marks one of the region’s clearest signals that AI is shifting from pilot projects to everyday use.

This push fits into a broader race to build AI strength across the Gulf. The UAE and Saudi Arabia now rank among the global leaders for AI talent and are backing major data centre and infrastructure investments. That growing ecosystem is giving energy firms access to local skills and processing power for subsurface modelling, production tuning and emissions control.

The shift is not without hurdles. Legacy systems can resist integration, and cybersecurity concerns are rising as operational data enters cloud and hybrid environments. Regulators are urging innovation while calling for strong governance and clear accountability for AI driven decisions.

Even so, the trajectory is unmistakable. With Wood expanding digital support and ADNOC scaling its AI platform, the region is beginning to turn long standing digital plans into real operational change. For Gulf producers, AI is quickly moving from a helpful add on to a core element of how projects are planned and run.