Dr Caroline Brown - Microsoft

You’re a speaker at the Future Oil and Gas event and you’re going to be presenting later on, can you tell us about what you’re going to be speaking about?

I’m participating in a panel this afternoon, looking at generating real-time insights using artificial intelligence and machine learning and dashboards.

Microsoft have sponsored the event over the next two days, why have you decided to get involved?

It’s a hugely exciting time in the oil and gas industry. I think Future Oil and Gas is really bringing to the forefront the importance of digital technologies and at Microsoft we are very focused on supporting the oil and gas sector through the digitalisation of their businesses. It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to come and meet with some of the companies that are based here in Aberdeen and really discuss what their challenges are and how we, as Microsoft might support and help them.

Is there anything Microsoft is working on at the moment that you can tell us about?

This is a really exciting sector for us and there’s a number of areas that are important. I think one of the themes that’s emerging today is very much the importance of data. We’ve invested a huge amount in creating an amazing digital platform to help companies curate their data and really use it to derive great business insights. Some of the companies such as BP and Chevron or Shell, we’re working with these organisations to look at how they optimise production, how they really empower their employees, looking at transforming business processes and really engaging with customers in new and different ways. It’s a really exciting time for us.