59 | Applied & Collaborative AI | Transforming Energy & Utility Safety & Inspection

The Data Binge

Today's episode is a Simply Tech LIVE interview featuring my co-host, Ali Mazaheri, and our special guest, Erik Åsberg. Erik is the Chief Technology Officer of eSmart Systems -- an applied AI solution that is transforming the way the world's leading energy providers inspect and maintain critical infrastructure. If you are unfamiliar with this type of tech, eSmart's grid systems solution injects high resolution drone and helicopter video footage into their AI application, to help detect structural issues in cables, towers, and other energy based infrastructure to prevent catastrophic failures and events (which for those of you who are living in California, could include wildfires). Additionally, eSmart is focused on the future of the smart grid, as both utilities and energy consumers seek to optimize energy investments, reduce energy consumption, and cut climate emissions.

Erik is our first international guest - joining us from Halden, Norway, and brings with him a wonderful collection of experiences in his 20-year career in tech and energy. In parallel to Erik's CTO leadership at eSmart, he was also was nominated to be a Microsoft Regional Director - a 2 year program reserved by nomination only, recognizing the world's top technology visionaries. The entirety of this discussion focused on opportunities and capabilities available from the collaborative work between humans and machines (AI).

Key Takeaways:

[07:16] Background on Erik Åsberg and eSmart

[10:32] The AI enhanced applications eSmart brings to the market and how the organization has evolved

[16:42] AI model training and workflow for dynamic data sets

[21:25] eSmart’s target market, and why the energy industry is in need of automation technology

[22:32] How Erik’s team approaches their application testing and code management

[23:56] Modern data capture and workflows for AI based applications

[27:15] The idea of collaborative AI, and the power of the relationship between humans and machine – the feedback loop of intelligence growth

[31:37] eSmart specific projects ranging from global energy infrastructure, oil & gas, and partnerships with Microsoft

[33:50] Cultural challenges Erik has encountered while introducing AI in industry, and how to overcome objections to AI tech

[36:54] Future scenarios as strategic targets for AI problem solving in the smart grid and energy arena

[39:02] What the Microsoft Regional Director designation is all about

[40:39] Getting a hold of eSmart, and being a part of the energy AI community

Memorable Quotes:

[16:03] “Now we try to focus on the value of the application, not much the technology behind it.”

[24:03] “Some of our competitors, they do end-to-end. So they do the inspection, collection, and the software as well. Now we see that it can be, from our perspective, it can be difficult to scale cause you need to have people everywhere.”

[28:20] That’s what we call collaborative AI, where we work together with the engineers that do the inspection, and we improve the AI continuously by working with them”

[38:23] “What we are doing is we are digitizing something digital.”

Resources:

eSmart Systems - https://www.esmartsystems.com/

Microsoft Regional Director - https://rd.microsoft.com/en-us/about/

Erik Åsberg LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-osberg/

Thank you for listening!

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