Shell to Deploy AI Applications

Royal Dutch Shell and C3 IoT have announced that Shell has selected C3 IoT as its artificial intelligence (AI) platform to enable and accelerate digital transformation on a global scale.

By deploying the C3 IoT Platform globally on Microsoft Azure, Shell expects to realize substantial economic value by rapidly scaling and replicating AI and machine learning applications across its upstream and downstream businesses and by improving operating performance, with an emphasis on health, safety, security, environment and asset performance.

Shell will deploy the C3 IoT Platform on Azure for a broad set of AI applications, starting with predictive maintenance for hundreds of thousands of critical pieces of equipment globally, and aim to expand to support other machine learning, machine vision, and natural language processing (NLP)-based use cases in upstream, downstream, unconventional, refining, and retail operations.

Shell selected C3 IoT after a rigorous evaluation process that demonstrated the maturity, scalability, and extensibility of the C3 Type System and its model-driven AI architecture. The C3 IoT Platform enables Shell’s developers and data scientists to integrate and process Shell’s data into a unified data image kept current in real-time and to rapidly develop, deploy, and operate advanced AI and IoT applications across millions of Shell assets, its supply chain, and markets globally.

The selection of C3 IoT followed multiple successful projects that demonstrated the substantial acceleration and scalability of C3 IoT technology in combination with Azure to deploy AI applications across Shell.

“With the C3 IoT Platform, we’re looking forward to significantly enhancing the productivity and scope of our advanced analytics capabilities to create greater economic value across Shell’s operations,” said Jay Crotts, Shell Group CIO. “C3 IoT allows us to optimize our existing investments in data and cloud infrastructure while accelerating time to value of AI-based applications, so Shell can better serve our customers with even more agility and efficiency.”

The Shell agreement builds on the growing momentum of the C3 IoT and Microsoft partnership to accelerate enterprise AI and IoT application development. With C3 IoT on Azure, Shell will perform advanced work on tier-one transactional data in the Azure cloud, including predictive maintenance, maintenance optimization, telematics, production optimization, and in the future machine vision.

“Shell’s AI- and IoT-enabled enterprise transformation will create significant customer and economic impact,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business. “We are excited to play a role in this transformation and look forward to partnering with C3 IoT on cooperative development and marketing efforts across other sectors globally.”

“Shell’s selection of the C3 IoT Platform on Microsoft Azure reflects the growing macro-market momentum towards platform adoption for accelerated digital transformation,” said Thomas M. Siebel, C3 IoT CEO. “We are excited to partner closely with Azure to support Shell’s digital transformation journey and are jointly committed to Shell’s success in applying AI and machine learning across its global business.”