Feb. 23, 2026

S4E3: When AI Becomes a Teammate

S4E3: When AI Becomes a Teammate

As energy systems become more complex and data intensive, organisations face a critical challenge: how to scale reliability, throughput, and decision quality without proportionally scaling headcount.

In this episode of Sustainability Forward, hosts Wrishi and Carmine explore how agentic AI represents a shift from AI as a productivity tool to AI as a trusted teammate embedded directly into operational workflows.

Joined by Subodh Kumar, they discuss:

  • Why cognitive load is the real constraint inside modern energy organisations

  • The difference between traditional AI copilots and agentic AI systems

  • Real world applications across maintenance diagnostics, process safety, engineering handovers, and operational decision support

  • How to design human oversight and accountability in AI enabled environments

  • How leaders must rethink organisational structure and governance to deploy AI safely

The episode draws from Subodh’s book, Agentic AI for Leaders, which offers a practical executive framework for integrating AI into enterprise decision making while preserving accountability and safety.

📘 Book link: https://a.co/d/0aNdOMSK

If you are a leader in energy, oil and gas, renewables, utilities, or industrial operations, this episode explores how AI can strengthen system resilience and unlock sustainable performance gains.

Subscribe to Sustainability Forward for more conversations at the intersection of energy, sustainability, technology, and leadership.

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Welcome back to Sustainability
Forward.

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I'm your host, Rishi.
With me, as always, is my Co

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host Carmine.
How are you, Carmine?

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Good Rishi, welcome to be back.
That's right, Carmine.

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Usually on our podcast, we talk
about sustainability in terms

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of, you know, energy systems.
We talk about infrastructure,

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capital, what's the long term
impact of all of this?

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But one of the constraints that
we usually do not talk about is

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organizational capacity.
We may have touched up on this

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topic in the past, but we don't
discuss it at length.

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Of course, we've, you know,
talked about the fact that

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energy demand, demand is rising
quite a bit and systems are

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getting more and more complex
with the focus on energy

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transition, focus on safety,
reliability.

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And yet it feels like most
organizations are being asked to

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deliver all of this with the
same teams, more or less the

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same kind of structure and the
same ways of working.

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Having sort of read some of the
things in and around this topic,

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I thought today we'll ask one
simple question and that is how

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do you scale output?
How do you improve decision

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quality and reliability without
simply adding more people,

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right?
That's the central thing that we

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want to explore in the in this
episode.

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And to do that and help us
understand the nuances of this,

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we have a special guest.
You please introduce him a

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minute.
Yes.

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So we're talking today about the
topic and the section of

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technology and people, and we
had the pleasure to have Subhot

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Kumar.
And Subhot is the founder and

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CEO of Brisk AI and alumnus of
Howard Business School.

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He brings over 18 years of
global experience across the

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energy and technology sectors,
with roles spanning operations,

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strategy and product leadership.
Other organizations such as

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Shell, BP, the Company, and Dell
Technologies.

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This work focuses on helping
enterprises translate data and

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AI into measurable business
impact.

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Subot is the author of Agentic
AI for Leaders, where the

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explorer leaders can build AI
fluency, redesign work, and

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scale agentic AI from
experimentation to enterprise

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adoption.
This perspective bridges deep

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industry context with modern AI
capabilities, helping leaders

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think and act transformationally
as they transition towards AI

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native operating model.
Subo has also written a book

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recently, the title release
Agentic AI for Leaders, about

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which we will hear more in this
episode.

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So Subot, welcome to
Sustainability Forward.

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Thank you.
Thanks Carmine and Rishi for

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inviting me to this podcast.
Looking forward to a discussion

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on this topic.
Yeah, no, absolutely.

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And for a Full disclosure, I
must say that Subot and I go a

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long back when we started our
careers in in an energy company.

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And so today's discussion is
kind of also reflection of what

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has happened since the time we
started working in the energy

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industry.
Obviously, a lot has changed and

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in the context of AI and things
that have evolved in the energy

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industry, today's discussion is
going to be, I think a very

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fruitful 1.
So Swarton, the first thing that

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I that I was thinking about is,
you know, as I mentioned in the

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introduction, the industry seems
to have become more complex

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because of things that have
happened within the industry as

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well as as market forces.
Is the complexity and the

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cognitive load that the industry
faces today, is it more

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substantial or bigger than the
workforce size that companies

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that companies have?
Can can you help us unpack that

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a little bit?
Absolutely, Rashid.

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So the way I'm seeing the
industry and as I work with the

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leaders in these industries both
on upstream and downstream, one

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of the things is becoming
clearer is it's not only the

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headcount issue that the
industry is facing.

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Like you rightly said, it's all
about the complexity and the

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cognitive load that the existing
people, whether they are in

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engineering operating roles that
they have to deal with.

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So look around globally, right,
Our asset bases are aging and

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they have been retrofitted with
additional layers of digital

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sensors systems and the
regulations have gone more

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stricter.
So there are more compliance

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requirements and then you add to
it another layer of energy

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transition, right.
So there are these new type of

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assets and technologies getting
added in the whole value chain.

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So that's what I see as
increasing that cognitive load

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and the need to preserve the
context.

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So, so that's what I see.
And indeed, like one of the

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operations leaders that I was
talking to, he made a very

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interesting point.
He said in 90% of the cases when

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something goes down in the
plant, they said we are very

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sure that this issue has come in
the past, but they just don't

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know when it happened and how it
was fixed, right.

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So in this industry, I mean,
there are some unique aspects,

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right?
Work happens in shifts and the

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problems are episodic.
So they are, they may not be

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regular.
So it's all about how do you

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build that context, reserve that
context and surface it at the

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right time so that people don't
have to deal with finding the

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information, but rather quickly
with judgement and act on it.

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Yeah, I, I remember about when
we were starting off in one of

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the earlier kind of foundational
courses about process

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engineering, someone said that
you'll not only encounter these

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problems again in your career,
you'll also encounter the same

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solutions again.
It's just that you may not

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remember that this solution was
done by somebody.

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So I think that is, that's
probably, you know, it was

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probably the same thing that was
reflected many years ago that we

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are talking about probably now
at A at a much bigger, bigger

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scale.
Yeah.

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Yeah, I would say so.
And I mean, one additional force

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that I am seeing, right, that
leaders, especially in Northern

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America like US, Canada, and I
would love to hear your context

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from Europe, is the expertise
retiring faster than the new

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talent joining the industry,
right?

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So even if it's not that there
are less people in the industry,

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it's about leaving, losing that
institutional knowledge.

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So I think that's becoming a
bigger issue.

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And this is where technology
could help.

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So there is lot of talk here and
there about what AI can bring.

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But before entering more into
details, probably is helpful to

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baseline with you AI tools from
Argentic AI or let's say other

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AI types, how they differ in
terms of automation or a

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copilot, how they can be a tool
or a teammate.

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Can you help us to understand a
little bit how they can play?

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I can help us here.
Absolutely common.

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And like that's a great point.
And I think the time at which we

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are talking about is, is really
transformational.

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Like if if you look into some of
the recent news like the SAS

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companies stocks have been under
a huge downfall with one news

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coming from Entropic that they
launched their core work

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platform.
So like you rightly said, so

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there are tools that are coming
up, but the bigger thing is the

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way in which Agenti Ki has
evolved is that it's no longer

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about adopting another tool.
It's really thinking of it as

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your teammate, right?
So it's a teammate that can

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actually own parts of the work
that can augment the existing

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human talent so that you can do
a lot more with the same

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workforce, right?
So in the past, our industry in

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the past 1520 years, we adopted
lots of machine learning based

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solutions, be it on the
operations, on the maintenance

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side of things.
But any of those solutions would

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eventually give you some
recommendations and then the

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humans will make further
judgments, act on those.

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And in many cases any solution
that you develop is customized

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to a certain plan to a
customized to a certain

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scenario.
But now with generative AI that

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scaling has been achieved, that
the same trained model can be

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taken and applied to many
different problems and many

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different contexts with a
reasonable level of certainty.

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So that's what is making this
generative AI powered solutions

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as your teammates than just
another tool.

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And so both is this volume play,
is an efficiency play, is it a

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quality play For all the above,
how we should think about it?

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I would think all of the above,
but most importantly it's about

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the expertise really bringing
more expertise that

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organizations that as humans we
have for our rescue, for our

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available to, to help us in our
daily jobs, right?

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Because efficiency play, I would
say is more about automation.

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So even in the traditional
automation, when we have a

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reasonable understanding of the
steps that it needs to be taken,

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that level of automation has
been in existence for maybe over

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a couple of decades now.
I think it's about that

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intelligence clear, which to me
is really exciting.

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So is IT support incorrect to
think of what is coming into the

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industry as the next level of
automation?

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That's probably the wrong
benchmark, right?

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It's not like we are going from
one level of automation to a

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much higher level of automation
with these new tools.

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We are actually talking about
intelligence that's going to

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recommend that's what to do and
not necessarily just automate

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something that we already know
what the steps are.

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See the way they see actually
thinking of it as an automation

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kind of sets the wrong bar to to
A to a large extent, because

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when you think of automation,
you like, we tend to think of a

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near perfection, right?
So here we automated it.

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So given any of these inputs,
this is output.

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But in an agentic AI context, I
think the more we think of it as

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a team member, like a new team
member, it may not be giving the

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right answers on day one, but we
need to remember that AI based

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systems can learn much faster
than lot of the human humans and

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they only tend to become better
and better over time, right?

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So that's where I tend to think
that it's not about automation,

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it's more about intelligence
that works alongside the humans.

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Makes sense.
One of the things that I was

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thinking of in this context is.
I mean some of the use cases

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come to mind very quickly and
there may be are multiple other

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use cases that we do not
typically think about in the

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context of AI in energy.
Can you help us understand some

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of the categories of these use
cases and maybe also give us

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some examples which can help us
understand this better?

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Sure.
So see there are two kind of use

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cases that I am saying, one of
one is kind of these low hanging

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fruits which are already in
practice, other are more

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aspirational.
So if I think of the low hanging

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fruits, those are the use cases
which helps you to reduce

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cognitive load and preserve
context.

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So think of A use case that we
were working with one of the

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clients into maintenance
planning.

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So having an AI powered
maintenance planning agent that

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drafts of work orders based on
your inspection data by going

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into your standard operating
procedures, equipment manuals.

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So that the human planners don't
have to spend time in the

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paperwork, but rather they spend
more time in simply prioritizing

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the tasks and not becoming a
bottleneck for your technicians

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on site, right.
So those are the kind of use

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cases and another example being
in shift handovers, AI playing a

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role as a connective tissue so
that the team members are not

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not spending time on
rediscovering the same problems.

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So these are the more kind of
practical use cases that I'm

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already seeing companies
experimenting with.

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And then there are more
aspirational use cases.

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The kind of use cases are like
one comes to my mind is related

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to subsurface, let's say
reservoir planning, thinking of

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deciding where to drill the next
wells.

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So in the current context,
engineers spend months of time

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in running these simulations and
then deciding where to drill

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that next well.
So those are the use cases where

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again there are experimentation
happening on how we use these

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large language models or large
visual models to to help

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facilitate that.
But those are fairly complex

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problems given the underlying
physics involved.

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So those are the ones I would
say will materialize probably

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with more kind of capabilities
on the modeling side.

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Yeah.
And so I've had some familiarity

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with these, with these issues.
And I think there are two

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aspects. 1 is that from
subsurface information linked to

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the reservoir?
So #1 you get a huge volume of

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data.
And that has always been true.

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So a huge volume of data needs
to be processed and it gets

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collected, right?
And some surface locations talk

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to each other.
So if you know something about

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one part of subsurface, it'll
tell you possibly something else

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00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:50,000
about another part of the same
structure, right?

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So with time, AI will improve,
but it can probably bring

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improvements in this, in this
understanding in the processing

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of this large quality quantity
of data.

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I also think there's a second
aspect, which is that drilling

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one well incorrectly,
particularly in an offshore

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00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:14,760
context, can lead to significant
loss of money, right?

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00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:20,200
And I think that's why coming up
with this pinpointed location

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has always been a big issue for
all exploration production

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companies.
And I think that's where with

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time better, better use of AI
can probably help us pinpoint,

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00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:36,560
pinpoint accurately where the
next well needs to be drilled.

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Yeah.
Any other sort of left field

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00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:49,560
crazy cases that you have seen
in as as examples of, you know,

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potential use cases?
I think use cases are plenty, if

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I had to think of it, like you
rightly said, Rishi, it's all

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about that tolerance for error
and what's at stake, right?

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00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:09,720
So there are use cases which are
either economically too, too

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00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,480
risky to perceive or it could be
a little safety.

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So that's what I think use
cases, you pick any function,

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any rule, and that's where like
like in the book that I have

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written, right?
So I have come with a framework

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00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:26,880
for leaders and for team members
to literally go through

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systematically and identify what
are the use cases that they can

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have.
I think the real next step is

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about really prioritizing and
deciding what are you

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comfortable with having AI to do
versus what you continue to own.

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So I think that that's the real
decision to be made.

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It's about, let's go a little
bit deeper here, also connecting

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00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:56,760
what you said before about
thinking AI as a teammate,

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00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:04,640
because this will underlines
also a, a level of trust when

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thinking AI, the technology as a
colleague, a level of safety.

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So how we can still make this
happening, keeping in mind the

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00:18:19,360 --> 00:18:22,880
human interaction on how we can
control it?

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00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:29,720
I think that's, that's a, that's
a really, I mean, good point,

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00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:32,520
Parvine.
I think the answers we will kind

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00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,480
of find over time in the grand
scheme of things.

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But I would say the key here is
to start with use cases as we

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00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:43,360
call it, like human in the loop
kind of use cases.

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00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:51,000
So that see AI based solutions,
you need to assume that they are

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going to make some mistakes.
They will not always be

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00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:58,360
accurate, right?
So the key here is how do you

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00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:03,520
design the work or the use cases
so that it's not right away

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hitting the end point, right?
Let's say if it's a customer

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00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:10,080
facing solution, like if I pick
another example from another

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00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:14,640
industry like Air Canada, they
had launched an AI powered chat

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00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,840
bot and this chat bot ended up
in, in one of the customer

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00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:24,080
instructions, ended up promising
a refund to the customer in a

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00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:27,920
very famous case that went even
to the courts here, which was

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00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:31,800
against the policy, right?
But I wonder the company,

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00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,040
company had to live with that
because they could not really

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00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,000
pass on the accountability to
the AI that hey, it's on the AI

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00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:40,040
who said that?
I wonder what would have

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00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:44,640
happened if the agent would have
upgraded the person to 1st

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00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:51,320
class.
You know, but but it's an it's

283
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:56,920
an interesting issue.
I think the point about trusting

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00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:01,360
an AI teammate, I think that
probably is 1 One thing that's

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00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:05,400
probably has a long way to go
from from now.

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00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:09,480
At least, not really.
Out of dress.

287
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:13,920
Maybe.
So it's about fear, it's about

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00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:18,960
OK, probably some part of the
work is speaking taken by

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00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,280
somebody else, kind of
automated.

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00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,560
So there are all this kind of
the dynamic that we need to

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00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:29,120
learn to live with, I think.
Yeah, yeah, it's the.

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00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:31,680
Fear of even job loss to some
extent.

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00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:37,400
And today, interestingly, one of
my ex colleagues, he, he, he

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00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,920
just sent me a text right after
reading the book and he made

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00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:41,480
some really interesting
observations.

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00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:45,960
He's like, OK, AI as a team
member, but how do I think about

297
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,320
social interactions?
Then it's he's like, OK, maybe I

298
00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:52,720
will do some work.
I will do some work, We will

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00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:55,840
collaborate.
But I go to office for work

300
00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:58,200
because I also want to interact
with people, right?

301
00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:02,360
So I would say there, there are
some issues that are going to

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00:21:02,360 --> 00:21:05,400
come up as we adopt the
technology more and more.

303
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:09,480
So at least it's good to kind of
think through these potential

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00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:13,240
issues and then slowly the
solutions will start shaping.

305
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:16,440
Yeah.
Maybe 10 years later I'll be

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00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:20,960
doing a podcast with with an AI
teammate probably even.

307
00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:27,640
Sooner, yeah.
Now, what I wanted to ask you

308
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:33,440
about having read, you know,
some parts of your book, which

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00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:39,480
is appropriately titled Agentic
AI for Leaders, is how should or

310
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:42,480
what should leaders be doing
differently today?

311
00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:47,840
Whether it comes to redesigning
the work, you know, building AI

312
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:51,360
fluency within their
organizations or even

313
00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:54,520
encouraging safe
experimentation, right?

314
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:59,680
Where should they start?
Is there sort of a good sequence

315
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,800
of things to do today that will
set them up for success for the

316
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:08,160
future?
I would say Rishi, like from the

317
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,720
experience that I have had after
interacting with multiple

318
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:16,040
companies, I see one of the key
starting points has to be

319
00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:21,320
building a, a fluency for the
functional teams.

320
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:25,640
Because a lot of the companies
that I interact with, people are

321
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:31,960
still thinking of agent AI in
the form of automation, right?

322
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:36,600
So, and sometimes they are even
linking a technology tool.

323
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:40,400
The failure of the technology
tool, let's say without naming,

324
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,760
say one of the copilots in a
workplace gave them wrong

325
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:48,280
answer.
And people would very soon

326
00:22:48,360 --> 00:22:52,200
extrapolated that, hey, agent AI
is still not, hasn't still

327
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:55,080
reached that level, right?
So that's where I think that

328
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:59,000
fluency is the foundational
stone for people to understand

329
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:03,080
what agent AI generated AI are
capable of, what they are not.

330
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,000
Because end of the day,
functional teams have to play

331
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,360
much bigger role in this
transition.

332
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:12,680
So it's less of a technology
part, more of an operating model

333
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,280
redesign that leaders need to
think about, right?

334
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:17,720
So that's what I think the
starting point is building a

335
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:21,960
fluency.
And as teams start to leverage

336
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:27,400
AI, they start to experiment.
Leaders have to start thinking

337
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,040
about this operating model
redesign.

338
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,280
What I mean by that is what are
the new roles and

339
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,840
responsibilities?
What, what are we comfortable

340
00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:39,760
with AI owning versus human
zoning, right?

341
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,400
What are the right guardrails
that we put in place?

342
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,280
What are the right control
mechanisms we put in place,

343
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:47,880
right?
So let's say if there are

344
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:53,080
autonomous cars on the roads,
are you able to switch them off

345
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:56,960
when you need to, right?
So and if anything goes wrong,

346
00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,480
who takes accountability?
So designing that whole

347
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:03,960
operating model is crucial next
step once you build that air

348
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:09,000
fluency and start experimenting.
Yeah, so.

349
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,440
Let's.
Take that on on the book on this

350
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,280
new book you just wrote.
So a gentic AI for leaders.

351
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:21,200
Why did you choose to write this
book and what do you think are

352
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:25,240
some of the key messages and
blind spot that we should be

353
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:27,680
aware?
Yeah.

354
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:33,160
So my core motivation for this
Carmen has been based on the

355
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:37,000
consistent pattern that I saw
while interacting with the

356
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,720
leaders from from across
industries.

357
00:24:41,360 --> 00:24:47,440
And that's been that there's a
huge curiosity and excitement

358
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,480
about the technology that
leaders have, but they don't

359
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:54,560
know where to start, right?
So and that's what we are

360
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,600
seeing, right.
The advancements in a a

361
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,120
technologies have been
humongous, but the real world

362
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:05,440
applications are still very few.
So that was my core motivation.

363
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:12,760
How do we create the right set
of information like that source

364
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:16,800
of how do how does it become the
right source of information so

365
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:20,520
that the function teams leaders
can understand what this AI

366
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:24,040
technology is all about?
And secondly, how do they go

367
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,080
about systematically discovering
use cases in their own teams

368
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:31,520
because that's where they're
struggling that what all can

369
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:34,320
they really do with AI and where
should they start?

370
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,360
So that's been the core
motivation.

371
00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:41,000
Sorry, I forgot Carmina, what
was the other part of the

372
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,120
question?
I know it was probably and if

373
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:45,720
you I.
Know that's very helpful it's

374
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:51,040
but the question was there is
any blind spot that you're doing

375
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:55,560
your research that you saw and
you recommend the leader to look

376
00:25:55,560 --> 00:26:00,040
at things that for example we
are underestimating,

377
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,600
overlooking.
Absolutely.

378
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:06,680
I think one of the biggest blind
spots I see is lot of the

379
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:11,840
leaders are still treating AI as
another technology deployment

380
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,880
and hence they're leaving it
largely to their IT teams or to

381
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:19,360
the technology vendors to come
and pitch it to them, right?

382
00:26:19,360 --> 00:26:22,240
And that's where you see, right,
MIT came with some statistics

383
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:26,760
like 95% of the pilots, early
pilots have failed, right.

384
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,480
And one of the key reasons is
when you are going after those

385
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:34,720
shiny demos by technology
vendors, right, you are not

386
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,760
necessarily picking the right
use cases for your functions,

387
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:40,040
right?
So I think that's one of the key

388
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:44,880
kind of blind spots that it's
not just another technology to

389
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,200
be adopted, it's a real world
operating model change.

390
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:52,720
So leaders need to proactively
think through what parts of

391
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:57,800
their work could be reshaped and
assigned to some of the AI

392
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,920
agents, while still keeping the
overall control on the decision

393
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:06,680
making.
But I'm.

394
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:11,760
Going to ask you to do a little
bit of crystal ball gazing and,

395
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,720
and, and tell us when do you
think the energy industry in

396
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,960
particular will see a
breakthrough in terms of

397
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:25,320
adoption of of AI?
Are we talking about 10 years or

398
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:29,360
is it coming in 18 months?
You know, is there sort of, you

399
00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:31,600
know, having done all this
research for your book and

400
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,520
having worked with these
organizations, do you have a

401
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:39,840
sense of when that time is?
I would say somewhere in between

402
00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:44,640
Rishi, when we can see
meaningful adoption of agentic

403
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:48,280
AI, I would, my guess would be
like maybe four to five years

404
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:51,560
time frame because I already see
things in motion.

405
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,960
So some of the low hanging
fruits like we talked about

406
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:59,200
those context preserving use
cases, right or reducing the

407
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:02,520
cognitive loads.
I see some of the tools for

408
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:06,280
those use cases are already
being used and I think that's

409
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:07,880
the right kind of starting
point.

410
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:12,400
So probably four to five years.
And which is, which is OK for

411
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:14,320
this sector, right?
Because unlike many other

412
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:18,400
sectors like SAS or digital
companies, I think the stakes

413
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:22,280
are high here.
So it's better to kind of take

414
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,880
more judicious decisions, yeah.
Now it is.

415
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,840
And it's not an industry that's
known for a rapid pace.

416
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,920
So five to six years probably
will be a good achievement.

417
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:41,600
So we're getting sort of to the,
to, to the end of this episode.

418
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,840
And when, when we, when I
started thinking about this

419
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:50,080
episode, I actually wasn't
thinking of this as a

420
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:56,080
conversation on AI.
The, the keywords that were in

421
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,080
my mind were around capacity,
trust, you know, how

422
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,280
organizations actually get work
done in this new context.

423
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:06,160
Those are the things that I had
in mind and on the podcast

424
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,600
Carmen, you'll obviously
remember is that we we've talked

425
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:13,040
about building systems and
scaling them over time.

426
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:17,360
I think with some of the things
that Sabor has described, it

427
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,200
seems like.
With AI.

428
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:25,080
And you know, with the help of
AI as well as with AI in the at

429
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,400
the centre, there are probably
some systems that need to be

430
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:32,560
developed, not just thinking
about AI as a tool as as Subodh

431
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:36,640
was saying earlier, I think that
that phase is coming for this,

432
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,880
for this industry as well for
our business.

433
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,720
I just want to highlight again
that Subodh has written this

434
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,120
amazing book called Agentic AI
for Leaders.

435
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:51,680
It's available on Amazon.
We'll also live leave a link to

436
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,000
this book in the podcast
description.

437
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,720
So those of who you're
interested in this topic,

438
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:01,080
please, please feel free to buy
a copy of the book.

439
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,240
So both thanks for joining us
and sharing your perspective on

440
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:11,160
on this subject.
Again, great conversation and of

441
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,080
course, a great book as well.
Thank you guys.

442
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:17,360
I really appreciate you guys
inviting.

443
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:20,600
Thank you so much All right and
to.

444
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,560
Our listeners around the world,
thanks for tuning into

445
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:27,400
Sustainability Forward.
Make sure to subscribe to the

446
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:31,160
podcast on any of the platforms
that you listen to podcasts on.

447
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,840
We'll, of course, continue to
keep interesting episodes coming

448
00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:37,200
to you.
Carmine, thank you again for

449
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,800
joining me.
Thank you, Richie, and.

450
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:44,120
I hope I will not be substituted
soon by energetic podcaster

451
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:48,000
soon, so I'll invite.
I'll invite you to podcast 10

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00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,320
years down the line for sure.
All right, take care.

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00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:53,200
Thank you.
Subodh Kumar Profile Photo

Founder & CEO, Brisk AI

Subodh is the Founder & CEO of Brisk AI and an alumnus of Harvard
Business School. He brings over 18 years of global experience across the
energy and technology sectors, with roles spanning operations,
strategy, and product leadership at organizations including Shell, BP,
McKinsey & Company, and Dell Technologies.
His work focuses on helping enterprises translate data and AI into
measurable business impact. Subodh is the author of Agentic AI for
Leaders, where he explores how leaders can build AI fluency, redesign
work, and scale agentic AI from experimentation to enterprise adoption.
His perspective bridges deep industry context with modern AI
capabilities, helping leaders think and act transformationally as they
transition toward AI-native operating model.