“We’re seeing a rise in agentic AI being used for troubleshooting, whereby the agent is guiding the user to a resolution and instantly surfacing relevant information and operational recommendations for the field worker to implement,” says Francois Laborie, EVP of strategic projects at Cognite. “We’ve also seen a rise in ambient agents, working quietly in the background, performing checks and evaluations, alerting the user when appropriate. This enables heavy industries to predict equipment failures, optimize maintenance schedules, and manage risk.”
Learning and knowledge management applications go from feasible to operational differentiators when field operators have higher-functioning tablets, connect to 5G networks, and utilize AR/VR and other wearable devices.
“GenAI-powered agents will elevate the capabilities of field technicians by providing multimodal guidance through text, voice, video tutorials, and AR overlays directly on equipment,” says Artem Kroupenev, VP of strategy at Augury. “By democratizing expertise and seamlessly transferring knowledge, these agents enable every technician to operate at expert-level proficiency. Despite early adoption risks like reliability and dependency, the benefits of dramatically reduced downtime, improved safety, and lower operational costs make these agents essential for competitive field operations.”
