AI pilots can demonstrate potential. The control room demands operational trust.
Join OATI and the California Independent System Operator for a Utility Dive webinar on what it takes to move AI beyond a controlled pilot and into the mission-critical systems, data, and workflows utilities rely on every day.
September 9, 2026 | 2 p.m. ET | 60 minutes
Register to watch at the scheduled time or receive the recording.
Moving AI from pilot to production
The production challenge extends beyond model performance. For control-room use, an AI system must work with existing systems, remain grounded in authoritative operational data, respect physical and market constraints, protect sensitive information, and show operators the evidence behind every recommendation.
OATI Vice President Abhimanyu Thakur and California ISO Senior Advisor Gopakumar Gopinathan connect these requirements to real deployment experience. At California ISO, OATI AI Genie™ is running in production for transmission and generation outage review, analyzing more than 500 next-day outage requests in under eight minutes each night. Operators retain final authority over every decision.
Interest in operational AI is accelerating, but moving from a promising pilot to a dependable control-room tool requires a different level of readiness.
The discussion gives utilities a practical framework for evaluating use cases, infrastructure, data readiness, governance, and potential partners before moving AI into mission-critical workflows.
What the webinar covers
- How to integrate AI with legacy applications, systems of record, and operational data
- The technical and organizational gap between a successful pilot and a scalable production deployment
- What utilities should evaluate when reviewing vendor infrastructure, hosting models, security, and data governance
- Why utility AI must be grounded in operational data and aware of grid and market constraints
- How citations, traceability, and human authority help AI earn operator trust
- Lessons from moving a multi-agent system into daily production at California ISO
This is not a conversation about replacing operators or physics-based tools. It is about giving operators faster access to the context, evidence, and automation they need while preserving human control.
Featured speakers
Abhimanyu Thakur
Abhimanyu Thakur
Vice President – Platforms, Visualization & Analytics
Gopakumar Gopinathan
Gopakumar Gopinathan
Power System Technology Senior AdvisorIs your AI ready for the control room?
Production readiness is not defined by the model alone. It depends on the data surrounding it, the systems supporting it, the operational constraints governing it, and the people who must be able to understand and act on its outputs.
Whether your organization is identifying its first operational AI use case or hardening an existing pilot for production, this webinar will help you determine what is ready to move forward and what still needs work.
Continue exploring energy-native AI
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Review practical applications, deployment principles, and field experience across transmission, distribution, and energy-market operations.
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