Scaling AI in Industrial Energy Systems: Industry Roadmap Workshop

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation are increasingly applied in industrial systems to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While many pilot projects show promising results, scaling AI across industrial operations remains a challenge. At the same time, industries are integrating renewable energy, electrification, and battery storage, increasing system complexity.
These challenges are addressed within IETS Task XVIII Subtask 4 and the proposed online workshop aims to gather industry perspectives on the current and future role of AI methods in industrial energy systems in an interactive format. The results will provide a practical basis for the development of a technical roadmap that reflects industrial needs, implementation challenges, and promising fields of application and to ensure that the resulting roadmap is grounded in practical relevance and implementation needs. It will complement the results from the first workshop that took place in December 2025 and included the research perspective.

Agenda
The online workshop intends to combine expert input with interactive discussion to create both inspiration and structured stakeholder exchange. Keynote presentations from industrial best practice examples provide practical insights into existing AI applications and lessons learned from implementation and challenges to scaling use of AI in Industrial Energy Systems.

Preliminary agenda:
13:00 Welcome & Introductory Remarks
Brief introduction to IETS Task XVIII, the workshop objectives, and the role of industry input in developing the 2026–2040 technical roadmap.

Keynote Impulse Talks from Industrial Best Practice Examples (10 minutes + short Q&A)
Dr. Paul van Beurden – Tata Steel NL (confirmed) – “Challenges to scaling and roadmapping AI”
Two further keynotes (tbd)

Interactive Stakeholder Exchange: Defining Industry Needs for the AI Roadmap
The interactive part of the workshop is designed to translate industrial experience into concrete input for the technical roadmap. In moderated breakout groups, participants will identify high-potential AI applications, discuss barriers to scaling beyond pilot projects, and define enabling conditions for wider implementation in industrial energy systems as well as discuss their own experience. The results will be consolidated in a plenary exchange and used as direct input for the IETS Task XVIII industry roadmap.

Summary and Outlook
Summary of key messages and outlook on the next steps including a follow-up workshop in autumn (date tbd).

16:00 Closure of workshop

Objectives
• Share practical experiences from industrial AI deployment
• Discuss barriers and enablers for scaling beyond pilot projects
• Explore AI applications for energy optimisation and integration of renewables and storage
• Identify collaboration opportunities
• Contribute to a joint industry roadmap (2026–2040)

Background
Industrial Energy-Related Technologies and Systems (IETS: https://iea-industry.org/about/) is an IEA Technology Collaboration Program (TCP). The Mission of IETS is to foster international co-operation among OECD and non-OECD countries for accelerated research and technology development of industrial energy-related technologies and systems.
Task XVIII (https://iea-industry.org/tasks/digitalization-artificial-intelligence-and-related-technologies-for-energy-efficiency-and-ghg-emissions-reduction-in-industry/) on digitalization is part of IETS, and seeks to advance knowledge and development of digitalization, artificial intelligence and related technologies to improve the economic and environmental performance of targeted energy and GHG-intensive industries.

Target Audience:
o  industrial companies with experience in AI, digitalization, energy management, automation, or process optimization,
o  industrial companies with emerging interest in AI methods for maintenance and operation of industrial energy systems,
o  policy makers to discuss needed framework

The workshop takes place as part of the IETS Task XVIII Subtask 4, where AEE INTEC is leading the Activity 5 – Roadmap.