Making decisions in today’s complex and fast changing energy markets is a daunting task. Relying on your intuition and experience will not be enough anymore. Your company certainly owns an overwhelming amount of data that you could use in your decision-making process. Humans and models are usually not good at handling too much information. Machines that can learn from massive amounts of data can help you make faster, better, and cheaper decisions. It requires an open mind - and a willingness to change your relationship with technology - to take advantage of this new technique.

Machine learning brings together computer science and statistics to quickly gain insights and making predictions that are based on algorithms that can learn from so-called ‘Big Data’ without relying on rules-based programming. Big Data itself is not so exciting. However, what you could do with it for instance increasing profitability, lowering your risks or saving costs, definitely is.

Making the shift from traditional statistical analysis to data analytics by machine learning will allow you to get crucial insights from huge datasets such as to predict consumer behavior, set strategic goals, detection of rogue trading and identify and manage risks. Besides embracing machine learning will significantly improve your financial results. For instance by increasing your sales or making significant savings on your required Risk Capital.

There is an emerging recognition also in the energy industry that leveraging machine learning is the key to deriving real value from big data infrastructure. However, executives without a technical background may be wary of relying on the new machine learning approach. Although algorithms used to, for instance, manage risks can be described in general terms, understanding and perhaps more importantly explaining exactly how they work is extremely challenging. As a result today only a very few senior managers do understand the concept of machine learning and it is therefore widely considered as a “black box” tool kit.

Should I fully rely on the algorithmic outcome for my key decisions, you might think. Don’t worry, the fear of someday being replaced by machines is unjustified. Computers may be faster and better than humans at manipulating enormous datasets, but data alone don’t influence human decision making. Raw, or even processed, data needs to be converted into something that makes sense for humans such as stories or pictures.

To help you understand what machine learning is and could do for your company we have developed a workshop. In this workshop we will explain how machine learning can help you and your company to survive in the highly competitive energy markets by making faster, better, and cheaper data-driven decisions. At the end you will have a much better insight into what machine learning could do for you and that you will have to collaborate with the machine to get the best results.

Last changed: 02/07/2018 at 12:00 am