Baker Hughes, a GE company and C3.ai on June 24 announced a joint venture (JV) agreement that brings together BHGE’s fullstream oil and gas expertise with C3.ai’s unique AI software suite to deliver digital transformation technologies that will drive new levels of productivity for the oil and gas industry.

AI in the oil and gas segment helps improve overall performance by ingesting massive quantities of data, becoming intelligent about specific operational environments and predicting problems before they occur so that operators can improve planning, staffing, sourcing and safety. This joint venture combines BHGE’s extensive oil and gas technology domain expertise with C3.ai’s unique AI software suite and solutions, creating new opportunities for the sector.

“The oil and gas industry is rapidly evolving, and digital technology is critical to achieving increased levels of productivity, efficiency and safety for ourselves and for our customers,” Lorenzo Simonelli, BHGE chairman and CEO, said.

The companies will immediately market and deploy C3.ai’s AI technology, including the C3 AI Suite and applications, into oil and gas businesses. BHGE and C3.ai will also leverage BHGE’s existing digital portfolio to collaborate on new integrated AI applications specific to oil and gas, and offer combined teams of oilfield and AI expertise deployed directly into customer environments to deliver AI solutions that meet specific business needs. Simplifying the approach to AI with this combined offering will help customers focus on what matters most—running their oil and gas business safely and efficiently.

Under the terms of the agreement, BHGE has taken a minority equity position in C3.ai and will have a seat on C3.ai’s board of directors. BHGE will also accelerate its own use of AI, deploying the C3 AI Suite across its business to enable new BHGE AI applications that improve core operations and better serve customers with AI-enabled products and services.