Dive Brief:
- BP announced it will expand its use of generative AI to improve the experience of its team across the globe, according to a Thursday press release.
- The energy and retail company said it will be using Copilot, an AI-powered productivity tool from tech giant Microsoft, to assist most of its workforce starting in early 2024.
- AI is increasingly being used in c-stores to automate rote tasks, enabling workers to spend more time on creative or customer-facing tasks.
Dive Insight:
Copilot integrates with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, which includes programs such as meeting software Teams, email portal Outlook and office mainstays like Word and Excel. It uses AI and natural language processing to automate many daily tasks like writing emails or managing inboxes, the release said.
“Our ambition is to empower our people to spend more time on innovation and the problem-solving that will help make the energy transition a success,” said Leigh-Ann Russell, BP’s executive vice president of innovation and engineering.
Russell noted that BP “has been using AI safely and responsibly” for a number of years already. Its corporate investment arm, BP Ventures, invested $5 million in Belmont Technologies — which offers a cloud-based geoscience platform to map out subsurface assets — in 2019. Before that, in 2017, that same arm of the company put $20 million into AI and cognitive computing company Beyond Limits, which provided “operational insight, business optimization and process automation.”
BP also created an app called Safe2go in which its aviation division Air BP uses computer vision to prevent misfuelling, according to BP’s website.
The convenience retail industry, meanwhile, is also using AI to smooth a number of processes. For instance, Casey’s General Stores employed such a program to simplify pizza phone orders, while Pilot uses AI to help plan out the renovations in its New Horizons program.
London-based BP owns a variety of convenience retailing brands across the U.S. Besides its own branded stores, BP’s umbrella also includes Thorntons, Amoco, Ampm and TravelCenters of America. Its U.S. headquarters are in Houston.
