Bridging the Gap: Why Operational AI in Oil & Gas Starts at the Edge From Cloud Reliance to Edge Resilience Across the Distributed AI Factory

Sam Hodge, Global Head of Industry – Chemicals, Renewables & Resources at World Wide Technology (WWT), works at the intersection of industrial technology, digital transformation, and enterprise operations. In his leadership role, he focuses on helping organizations apply emerging technologies to complex industrial environments, with an emphasis on scalable architectures, operational performance, and technology adoption.

Dave Montana is the Energy Industry Sales Leader for North America at NVIDIA, where he helps energy companies apply accelerated computing, Edge AI, and industrial AI to some of the industry's most complex operational challenges. He works closely with upstream, midstream, and utility organizations to translate NVIDIA's GPU-accelerated AI capabilities into real-world applications, including seismic processing, reservoir simulation, predictive maintenance, digital twins, and operational optimization. Dave is passionate about helping the oil and gas industry build smarter, more efficient, and more resilient energy systems through enterprise-scale AI infrastructure.
 

In their session, “Bridging the Gap: Why Operational AI in Oil & Gas Starts at the Edge – From Cloud Reliance to Edge Resilience Across the Distributed AI Factory,” Sam Hodge will explore how Edge AI is transforming oil & gas operations by bringing intelligence closer to where real-time decisions are made. The session will examine how organizations can design distributed AI architectures that balance edge, cloud, and centralized AI capabilities while integrating operational AI into existing OT environments without compromising safety or reliability. It will also address connectivity, latency, infrastructure, and scalability challenges, offering practical insights into moving AI initiatives from pilot deployments to enterprise-wide production across distributed oil & gas operations.