AI in Energy Summit, Houston 2026

Day 1

I came to the AI in Energy Summit with industry-focused expectations: less about cutting-edge research, more about real actions peers across the energy sector are taking and how they are navigating AI challenges. Day 1 left me with some reservations.

To summarize my first day, it was remarkably average. The vast majority of sessions consisted of corporate-flavored sweet nothings whispered by energy industry managers with AI experience ranging anywhere from zero to decades. The panel format was the biggest culprit, rarely giving even the sharpest panelists enough room to say anything truly useful. More than once, I applauded a session, only to look down and find my notes consisting of nothing but the session title and a single quote I had greedily jotted down, hoping it would somehow be enough to spark the sweeping organizational change the grandiose titles had promised.

That said, the day was certainly not a waste. Everyone I spoke with at the conference was intelligent, kind, and made the conference better by being there. It’s fascinating to see the breadth of opportunity that exists even when you narrow the filter by both industry and domain. The conversations that naturally arose throughout the day were one of the highlights for me.

As for the sessions themselves, a few did deliver real substance. There were a handful of genuine gems, including a couple by DOW on hybrid AI strategies and customer complaint root cause analysis with LLMs. These sessions scratched a technical itch and were beautifully presented.

Tomorrow is day 2 and I have already filled out my agenda for the day. I will be attending more case study sessions so I have high hopes the conference can turn itself around. I will update with my reflections tomorrow.

Day 2

Just wrapped up the second and final day of the AI in Energy Summit. It was definitely an improvement over the first. It still didn’t knock my socks off, but there were more interesting case-study presentations, and the speakers overall brought more substance to their sessions. It still suffered from many of the same issues as Day 1, albeit with a slight increase in overall quality. My biggest complaint about the conference overall is how vendor sales are forced down your throat. Having the typical booths set up handing out trinkets and “swag” in exchange for a conversation? I have no problem with that and sometimes even enjoy browsing around. But forcing attendees to sit through vendor-only “AI lightning talks,” or scheduling dedicated time with no alternative programming, felt disrespectful of attendees’ time and money. It’s like paying to sit through a time share sales pitch, with no free Disney World tickets at the end.

To conclude: Would I attend the AI in Energy Summit again? No. Was it a complete waste? Also no. AI’s role in the energy industry is only growing and the conversations happening at conferences like this need to evolve in depth and substance in order to match that trajectory.