Artificial intelligence (AI) is already proving its value to oil and gas companies, and yet widespread adoption of AI technologies within the industry still faces lots of hurdles. "The barriers for oil companies to adopting new AI technologies are many, ranging from resistance to change, a belief that what they already have is sufficient, and skepticism about whether new technologies will deliver," said Ray Hall, energy sector director at Tessella, a provider of engineering and consulting services that has helped global energy companies identify ways to improve drilling and operational efficiency with data. "Many of our own customers have invested in large technology vendors promising the world from analytics, only to be left disappointed with the result," Hall said. Oil companies for years have been using analytics approaches such as model predictive control (MPC) in supply chain platforms and linear programs in refinery planning, Hall said. "They are no strangers to the use of structured data approaches and analytics," Hall said.