AI in the oilfield sounds powerful, but can the industry trust it?

Recorded at the 2026 Baker Hughes Annual Meeting in Florence, IT Crowd Podcast hosts Josh Lowrey and Richard Rodriguez sit down with Jim “James” Brady, Chief Digital Officer for Baker Hughes’ Oilfield Services & Equipment segment.

Brady explains how digitalization is moving the industry from siloed data to collaborative, recommendation-driven decisions, and why trust, transparency, and domain expertise are essential to scale AI in energy.

They also discuss tools like Lucida, optimizing production under real-world constraints, and how AI can act as a human capital extender in an industry facing talent shortages.

00:00 Live From Florence

01:33 Meet Jim Brady

03:37 Digital As Language

06:32 Breaking Data Silos

09:43 From Data To Recommendations

12:29 Efficiency And Transition

14:44 Trust And Pilots

17:36 Scaling Beyond Proof

20:18 Regional Adoption Differences

24:48 AI as Career Extender

26:32 Oil and Gas AI History

27:16 GenAI Unlocks Data

30:15 Measured AI Adoption

33:34 Hybrid Physics Plus AI

35:06 Reskilling and Code Gen

38:42 Avoiding Shiny Tech

43:11 Bold Energy Prediction

45:42 Conference Takeaways

46:40 AI for Safety Gains

49:04 Final Wrap and Thanks