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Emerson expands Ovation AI portfolio with intelligent agents for power and water industries

Emerson Automation Solutions 12 minutes ago

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New Ovation AI Agents help operators resolve complex plant issues in minutes, improving efficiency, maintenance and operational performance

Emerson has expanded its Ovation™ AI portfolio with the launch of five new intelligent AI Agents designed to help operators in the power and water sectors identify and resolve complex operational issues in a fraction of the time. The new capabilities form part of the latest Ovation Automation Platform 4.0 release and are intended to support faster, smarter and more resilient plant operations.

The new Ovation AI Agents include the Sequence Assistant Agent, Alarm Insight Agent, Predictive Maintenance Agent, Root Cause Agent and Loop Performance Monitor Agent.

Designed to integrate seamlessly within the Ovation Automation Platform 4.0, the AI Agents are embedded directly into existing operational workflows and engineering tools. This removes the need for operators to switch between multiple systems while providing contextual recommendations within control, alarm and maintenance workflows. Rather than relying on standalone analytics or manually correlating data from different sources, operators receive actionable intelligence exactly where it is needed.

By reducing diagnostic and analysis times from hours or even days to just minutes, the new AI Agents are designed to help plants overcome many of today’s operational challenges, including workforce transitions, increasing process complexity and operator information overload.

Importantly, the platform has been developed using a human-in-the-loop approach. While the AI Agents continuously monitor plant conditions in the background and recommend improvements, operators remain fully in control of all decision making.

Expanding the Ovation AI portfolio

The latest release builds on the success of Ovation Virtual Advisor, further strengthening Emerson’s growing portfolio of artificial intelligence solutions for the power and water industries.

Whereas Ovation Virtual Advisor provides real-time AI-driven insights through natural language interaction, the new AI Agents are synchronised with the Ovation 4.0 system and operate autonomously in the background. They continuously monitor plant and equipment performance while identifying opportunities for optimisation before issues become more significant.

“Ovation AI Agents deliver a major step change in our AI portfolio, representing a significant advancement in how we help our customers build more intelligent, efficient and resilient operations,” said Bob Yeager, president of Emerson’s power and water solutions business. “The AI-enabled agents handle complex data analysis and pattern recognition to monitor asset health, run simulations, forecast failures and prioritise interventions. These powerful tools enable operators to shift from reactive to proactive planning without disrupting daily workflows.“

Five AI Agents launched in the first phase

The first release of the Ovation AI portfolio introduces five specialised AI Agents, each focused on a different aspect of plant performance and operational efficiency.

Sequence Assistant Agent

The Sequence Assistant Agent provides AI guidance for sequence-function-driven control logic by generating context-aware prompts using both real-time operational deviations and historical failure data.

For example, during a steam turbine start-up, the agent can rapidly identify why a sequence has stalled before alerting the operator with recommended corrective actions. Tasks that previously required hours of manual investigation can now be completed within seconds.

Alarm Insight Agent

The Alarm Insight Agent helps operators manage alarm floods by prioritising the most critical alerts while providing concise summaries of alarm context and recommended actions.

Instead of attempting to interpret hundreds of simultaneous alarms, operators can focus immediately on the events that require attention, helping improve response times and reduce the risk of alarm overload.

Predictive Maintenance Agent

Acting as an intelligent early warning system, the Predictive Maintenance Agent continuously monitors critical plant assets for signs of deterioration.

By identifying equipment degradation at an early stage and prioritising maintenance activities, the agent helps reduce the likelihood of unexpected equipment failures and costly unplanned downtime.

Root Cause Agent

The Root Cause Agent performs real-time root cause analysis that extends beyond the control system itself to evaluate the wider operating process.

By correlating alarms, equipment trips and live operating conditions, it identifies the underlying causes of critical asset issues, allowing maintenance teams to move from reactive repairs towards proactive maintenance strategies.

Loop Performance Monitor Agent

The Loop Performance Monitor Agent continuously analyses control loop performance to identify underperforming loops caused by issues such as oscillation, deadband and poor tuning.

The agent then generates evidence-based recommendations for engineering teams to review, helping improve overall control performance and plant efficiency.

Built into the Ovation Automation Platform

Unlike chatbot-style interfaces or external analytics platforms, Emerson’s latest AI Agents are fully integrated into the Ovation 4.0 Automation Platform.

Governed within the platform itself and supported by decades of Emerson expertise across the power and water sectors, the AI Agents operate continuously in the background while monitoring plant conditions and notifying operators when intervention may be required.

The human-in-the-loop design ensures every recommendation is reviewed by operators before any action is taken, allowing plant personnel to retain complete operational control while benefiting from AI-assisted decision support.

Early deployments deliver measurable operational improvements

According to Emerson, early customer deployments have already demonstrated significant operational benefits.

In one application, the Sequence Assistant Agent identified a failed permissive condition within seconds, diagnosing an issue that would previously have required hours of manual investigation across logic diagrams and point values.

At another major utility, the Predictive Maintenance Agent detected a subtle equipment anomaly before it developed into a critical fault, helping prevent expensive unplanned downtime and improving asset reliability.

Supporting the future of AI-enabled plant operations

The first five Ovation AI Agents are scheduled to launch this autumn, allowing customers to deploy individual agents according to their operational priorities before expanding their AI capabilities over time.

Looking ahead, Emerson’s development roadmap includes a further 28 planned AI Agents covering operations, maintenance, optimisation, instrumentation and control, management and wider cross-domain functions.

The company will also demonstrate its new Ovation AI Agent Builder at this year’s Ovation Users Group Conference. The platform will enable users to design, customise and deploy AI Agents tailored to their own operational requirements, providing a scalable route towards greater AI-driven optimisation across industrial facilities.

The latest additions to the Ovation AI portfolio reinforce Emerson’s continued commitment to delivering AI-powered technologies that improve operational decision making, enhance plant reliability and create long-term business value for customers across the power and water industries.

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Emerson Automation Solutions

0870 240 1978
uksales@emerson.com
Meridian East, Meridian Business Park, Leicester, Leicestershire LE19 1UX GB

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