AI-driven Predictive Operations

[opo21]

How realistic is AI-driven predictive operations in petrochemical plants considering instrumentation reliability and process complexity?

[ivani1]

AI predictive operations in petrochemical plants are realistic — but not in the “fully autonomous plant controlled by AI” way that vendors sometimes market!
The reality is somewhere in the middle:
Very powerful for prediction, monitoring, anomaly detection, optimization, and reliability improvement
Still heavily dependent on instrumentation quality, process understanding, and experienced human operators
The biggest limitation is not usually the AI itself.
It’s the plant data quality. And what I understand a lot of work has to be done here before dependable AI models are applied.

[jeem]

I would agree with ivani1 that the data quality which is available with the plant owners is the biggest challenge to resolve and apply AI.
And operators would not still be allowing AI to take the control of the review, and making the decisions.
With AI in place, it is still believed at operators level that complete responsibility of the processes should stand with individuals. Responsible as we speak are still the humans to implement the support taken from AI.
Controlled application of AI with prediction modelling is supported however would not have an autonomous control.