Verified
ExxonMobil
Piloting- Oil and gas
- ~58,000 employees (2025)
- Proprietary AI, built in-house
- AI-directed Permian drilling
- No AI spend or user count published
ExxonMobil deploys AI mainly in its operations, building proprietary models on its own well and seismic data: AI directs Permian drilling paths and development planning, drilled the reservoir section of a Guyana well autonomously in 2026, and flagged 150 exploration opportunities from data on 50,000 industry wells. ExxonMobil runs AI through a central technology organization that absorbed IT, and is replacing more than 10 ERP systems with one SAP-based data platform it says will speed AI adoption. ExxonMobil has published no AI spending, user count, model provider or AI-credited return.
corporate.exxonmobil.comTheir approach to AI
- The platform
- ExxonMobil builds proprietary AI workflows in-house on its own well and seismic data, and is moving the whole company onto one SAP-based process and data platform, with larger rollouts planned for 2027 (Jul 2026).
- The models
- ExxonMobil names no outside model provider and calls its AI workflows proprietary and developed in-house (Dec 2025); a 2019 Microsoft partnership put Permian field data and machine learning on Azure.
- The reach
- ExxonMobil has not disclosed how many of its about 58,000 employees use AI tools; its published AI work sits in exploration, Permian and Guyana drilling, oil sands haulage, supply chain and plant monitoring.
- The catch
- ExxonMobil credits about 75% of its $16.9 billion of structural cost savings since 2019 to organizational initiatives and gives AI no share (Oct 2026), and Darren Woods called AI very early on the technology curve in Aug 2025.
Snapshot
- Employees
- ~58,000
- Regular employees at Dec 31, 2025 (2025 Form 10-K)
- Technology budget
- Not disclosed
- Research and development expense was $1.2B in 2025
- AI/ML headcount
- Not disclosed
- Data scientists sit in a computational and data science job family outside IT
- Who owns AI
- Neil Chapman, SVP
- Technology responsibilities including AI (Dec 2024); IT sits inside the central technology organization
- Platform
- Proprietary AI, built in-house
- Moving to one SAP-based process and data platform; larger rollouts in 2027
- Models
- Not disclosed
- No outside LLM provider named; Azure machine learning in the Permian since 2019
- Reach
- Not disclosed
- No employee AI tool or user count published
- Use cases
- 11 describedest.
- Mostly exploration, drilling and operations; ExxonMobil publishes no count
Key findings
ExxonMobil applies AI mainly to finding and producing oil: it said in Dec 2025 that AI now directs its Permian drilling paths and that AI and machine learning in Permian development planning are in deployment, and Neil Chapman said in May 2026 that AI lays out Permian well spacing work engineers and geoscientists used to do. John Ardill, ExxonMobil's vice president of exploration and new ventures, said in May 2026 that AI drilled and geosteered the reservoir section of ExxonMobil's first fully autonomous well in Guyana.
Neil Chapman said on May 28, 2026 that ExxonMobil's AI reviewed data from 50,000 wells in weeks instead of an estimated 15 years and flagged 150 exploration opportunities, and that a Guyana model given only seismic data found already-discovered oil 90% of the time; ExxonMobil reported four new Guyana opportunities from AI-powered exploration in Jul 2026.
ExxonMobil is replacing more than 10 ERP systems, which carried more than 65 million lines of custom code, with one SAP-based process and data platform it says will accelerate AI adoption; a workforce system covering payroll in more than 50 countries went live by May 2026, and larger rollouts follow in 2027.
ExxonMobil runs AI through a central technology organization that absorbed IT around 2023, with SVP Neil Chapman responsible for technology including AI, and Darren Woods said in Aug 2025 that AI resources are limited and allocated corporate-wide, with effectiveness ahead of cost cutting.
ExxonMobil has published no AI spending, employee AI user count, outside model provider or return credited to AI; Dan Ammann said in Sep 2025 that AI is helping the bottom line but gave no figure, and its $16.9 billion of structural cost savings since 2019 (Oct 2026) and its regular workforce falling from 61,000 to about 58,000 in 2025 are not attributed to AI.
Where ExxonMobil sits
- Stage
- Piloting
ExxonMobil sits at Piloting: AI runs in production in core operations, including AI-directed drilling paths and AI-assisted development planning in the Permian, an AI drilling advisory system in Guyana, where AI drilled and steered the reservoir section of a fully autonomous well in 2026, and an AI-controlled autonomous truck fleet at the Kearl oil sands mine, and a central technology organization that includes IT sets AI priorities corporate-wide. ExxonMobil falls short of Scaling because it has disclosed no AI platform open to most of its about 58,000 employees, no count of use cases, no AI spending and no AI-credited return; Darren Woods said in Aug 2025 that AI is very early on the technology curve and that ExxonMobil is at an early stage, and the enterprise data platform meant to speed AI adoption has its larger rollouts planned for 2027.
How the stages are defined - Ownership
- SVP Neil Chapman, whose technology remit includes AI; IT sits inside the central technology organization
- Platform
- Hybrid: Proprietary AI built in-house; SAP data platform and Azure cloud bought
- Models
- Proprietary in-house models; no outside LLM provider disclosed
- Hosting
- Microsoft Azure for Permian field data and machine learning (since 2019); other AI hosting undisclosed (the Discovery 6 seismic supercomputer is not described as AI)
- Reach
- Not disclosed; no employee AI tool or user count published
How they deploy
Effectiveness before efficiency
Darren Woods said on Aug 1, 2025 that AI is very early on the technology curve, that ExxonMobil is at an early stage with limited resources for AI, and that it has made cost efficiency its second priority. Woods said the bigger value lies in effectiveness: making products at lower cost and with better performance and finding oil more cheaply, while the first efficiencies free people from lower-value work.
Proprietary AI on proprietary data
ExxonMobil said in its Dec 9, 2025 plan update that it focuses on proprietary AI workflows that combine learnings from thousands of wells, and that the vast majority of its Permian technologies are developed in-house. Neil Chapman said in May 2026 that ExxonMobil holds the largest subsurface dataset of any institution and that having the data set is the key to applying AI in exploration.
One data platform first
ExxonMobil is replacing more than 10 functional ERP systems with one enterprise process and data platform built on SAP, which Darren Woods said will become an integrated source of global intelligence and accelerate the adoption of AI (Dec 2025). Woods said in Jan 2026 that the platform gives ExxonMobil one data construct and one nomenclature across the company for the first time, and in Jul 2026 that early deployments went well ahead of larger rollouts in 2027.
Central technology organization
Neil Chapman said in Dec 2024 that ExxonMobil centralized its technology organization, moved IT into it about 18 months earlier, and now integrates IT, including AI, into its base technology work such as subsurface science and catalyst development. Chapman said ExxonMobil concentrates technology resources where they have the highest value instead of spreading them across businesses and regions, and is selective about where it applies AI.
AI as a market for energy
ExxonMobil also treats AI as a source of energy demand: Darren Woods called AI an accelerant of the need for more energy in Jul 2025, and ExxonMobil's Dec 2025 plan said it is advancing low-carbon data center power projects using natural gas with carbon capture, targeting a final investment decision by late 2026.
- Deployment model
- ExxonMobil runs AI from its central Global Technology organization, which includes IT alongside research disciplines such as subsurface science and catalyst development, and applies what it learns across the whole company instead of business by business (Neil Chapman and Darren Woods, Dec 2024; Woods, Oct 2025). ExxonMobil's businesses draw on centralized service organizations, including Supply Chain and Global Operations, into which ExxonMobil integrated its Upstream operations on Jul 1, 2026, bringing together about 31,000 employees at more than 150 sites in 48 countries. ExxonMobil also has staff in India, home to its Bangalore Technology Center, and at its Global Business Center in Kuala Lumpur working on AI, data science and subsurface data.
- Model providers
- ExxonMobil names no outside large language model provider. ExxonMobil says the vast majority of its Permian technologies, AI workflows included, are developed in-house and proprietary (Dec 2025), and Neil Chapman described an agent-style model trained on ExxonMobil's Guyana seismic data and discoveries (May 2026). Microsoft supplied Azure, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Data Lake, IoT and Dynamics 365 for XTO Energy's Permian operations under a Feb 2019 partnership. ExxonMobil has not said whether its employees have a generative AI assistant or which models it licenses.
- Data and infrastructure
- ExxonMobil says it holds the largest subsurface dataset of any institution (May 2026). Permian field sensor data moved to the Microsoft Azure cloud under the 2019 partnership, and ExxonMobil keeps more than 6 trillion operating data points from its refineries and chemical plants in a high-performance computing data lake. ExxonMobil's Discovery 6 supercomputer, built by HPE with 4,032 NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips and four times the performance of Discovery 5, was due for installation in the first half of 2025 for seismic imaging; ExxonMobil has not said whether it runs AI workloads. ExxonMobil uses the open-source OSDU Data Platform to standardize subsurface data (Jul 2026), and its old ERP systems ran on premises with more than 65 million lines of custom code, the most of any SAP customer (Jan 2026).
Platforms and internal tools
Enterprise process and data platformWorkforce system live by May 2026
ExxonMobil's enterprise process and data platform replaces more than 10 ERP systems with one SAP-based system, which Kathy Mikells said in Jan 2026 will leave ExxonMobil with 97% fewer profit centers and 70% fewer cost centers, and ExxonMobil says it will accelerate the adoption and value of AI. ExxonMobil implemented Group Reporting and BlackLine by Jan 2026, launched a workforce system covering talent management and payroll in more than 50 countries by May 2026, and plans larger rollouts in 2027.
Permian AI development planning and drillingIn deployment by Dec 2025
ExxonMobil uses proprietary AI and machine learning to plan Permian developments and direct drilling paths, drawing on learnings from thousands of wells. ExxonMobil's Dec 2025 Permian technology pipeline listed AI and machine learning in development planning as in deployment, and AI-enabled frac operations and advanced AI optimization as near commercial.
- Models
- Proprietary, built in-house
Guyana exploration modelBy May 2026
ExxonMobil built what Neil Chapman called an agent model, trained on its Guyana seismic data and discoveries, which found already-discovered oil with a 90% success rate when given only seismic data (May 2026). ExxonMobil said in Jul 2026 that AI-powered exploration had identified four additional opportunities in Guyana.
- Models
- Proprietary, built in-house
Drilling advisory system
ExxonMobil's proprietary drilling advisory system uses AI to set ideal parameters for deepwater drilling and is used in Guyana, where ExxonMobil says it was the first in the industry to use autonomous drilling in deep water.
Discovery 6 supercomputerInstallation expected H1 2025
Discovery 6 is ExxonMobil's high-performance computing system for seismic imaging, built by HPE on the HPE Cray Supercomputing EX4000 with 4,032 NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips and four times the performance of Discovery 5, which ranked 16th on the TOP500 list in Nov 2022. ExxonMobil says Discovery 6 enables seismic processing such as 4D elastic full wavefield inversion at scale and has not described it as an AI system.
OSDU Data Platform
ExxonMobil uses the open-source OSDU Data Platform to give its subsurface data a common format across regions, including for Guyana, and hosted the first OSDU technical forum in Asia Pacific from Malaysia; an ExxonMobil IT product manager said AI is expected to support that common data language (Jul 2026).
Refinery control room assistantsPiloting by May 2021
ExxonMobil described Sofia, a self-learning AI and voice-recognition assistant that helps control room operators optimize daily production of high-value fuels and chemicals, and SmartLane, an AI guide to chemical ingredient levels, with operators at the Baton Rouge and Baytown refineries piloting such tools in May 2021. ExxonMobil has not published their status since.
Vendors and partners
MicrosoftFeb 2019
Azure cloud, Azure Machine Learning, IoT and Dynamics 365 for XTO Energy's Permian operations · ExxonMobil said in Feb 2019 that the partnership covered more than 1.6 million Permian acres and could add up to 50,000 oil-equivalent barrels a day by 2025; ExxonMobil has not reported whether that happened. Staale Gjervik, then XTO's senior vice president for Permian integrated development, was quoted in the announcement.
SAP
ERP software behind ExxonMobil's new enterprise process and data platform · Kathy Mikells said in Jan 2026 that ExxonMobil faced a required upgrade to SAP S/4HANA and that the core of the new platform will be clean, so ExxonMobil can take upgrades easily.
Hewlett Packard EnterpriseBy Mar 2025
Builder of the Discovery 6 supercomputer · ExxonMobil describes Discovery 6 as a seismic imaging system and has not called it an AI system.
NVIDIABy Mar 2025
4,032 Grace Hopper Superchips in Discovery 6 · ExxonMobil describes Discovery 6 as a seismic imaging system and has not called it an AI system.
BlackLineBy Jan 2026
Financial software implemented as part of the platform transformation
Indian Institute of Science, BangaloreBy Oct 2025
AI upskilling courses for ExxonMobil staff
Leadership
AI, data and platform leaders
Executives
AI org map
Central technology organization holding IT and AI, serving centralized business and operations organizations
ExxonMobil moved from 11 independent business silos to one integrated company starting in 2018 and centralized its technology organization, folding IT into it around 2023. Darren Woods said in Oct 2025 that IT, AI and digital are part of that integrated technology organization, and Woods referred AI questions to Senior Vice President Neil Chapman in Dec 2024. ExxonMobil's 2025 Form 10-K names a Vice President of Information Technology as the manager of its cybersecurity program but does not name the person.
ExxonMobil does not publish how many people work on AI. ExxonMobil's AI work sits mainly in the central Global Technology organization, which includes IT, and its data scientists belong to a computational and data science job family separate from the IT job families. ExxonMobil's India organization, which includes the Bangalore Technology Center, has data science and AI staff and trains people in AI with partners such as the Indian Institute of Science (Oct 2025), and its Global Business Center in Kuala Lumpur supports subsurface data work, including for Guyana (Jul 2026).
Reporting lines
Chairman and CEO
Darren Woods
Senior Vice President (technology remit)
Neil Chapman
Remit includes technology and AI (Dec 2024); ExxonMobil does not publish the SVPs' portfolios
Global Technology
Central technology organization that includes IT, AI and digital (Oct 2025); its head is not published, and the line to Neil Chapman is inferred
Information Technology
Vice President of Information Technology
Manages the cybersecurity program with IT and OT cybersecurity operations managers (2025 Form 10-K); the officer is not named
Chief Financial Officer
Neil Hansen
Kathy Mikells, CFO until Feb 1, 2026, explained the enterprise platform program in Jan 2026; who owns the program is not published
ExxonMobil Upstream Company
Permian, Guyana and Canadian oil sands, where most published AI use runs; reporting line not published
ExxonMobil Global Operations
Jon Gibbs
About 31,000 employees at more than 150 sites in 48 countries (Jul 2026); reporting line not published
ExxonMobil publishes no org chart for technology or AI. The 2025 Form 10-K and ExxonMobil's Management Committee page list Neil Chapman as a Senior Vice President without a portfolio, and his technology and AI remit comes from Darren Woods's Dec 2024 remarks. ExxonMobil has not named the head of Global Technology or the Vice President of Information Technology, and has not published how many AI or data science staff it employs.
Named people
Use cases
ExxonMobil has described 11 AI use cases in public, almost all in operations: exploration screening, Permian drilling paths, development planning and fracturing, deepwater drilling in Guyana, autonomous oil sands haulage, supply chain logistics, sensor monitoring, maintenance and refinery control rooms. ExxonMobil has published no return credited to AI for any of them, and Dan Ammann said in Sep 2025 that AI helps the bottom line without giving a figure; the gains ExxonMobil does report, such as $16.9 billion of structural cost savings since 2019 and about 50% higher recovery expected by 2030 for new Permian wells, come from wider programs that ExxonMobil does not split by technology.
| Use case | Area | Status | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI screening of global well data ExxonMobil ran AI over data from 50,000 wells drilled across the industry worldwide, work Neil Chapman said would have taken about 15 years by hand and took weeks, looking for similarities people may have missed; it flagged 150 exploration opportunities that stay unproven until drilled. | Upstream exploration | Pilot | |
| AI-powered exploration in Guyana ExxonMobil trained an agent-style model on its Guyana seismic data and discoveries that found already-discovered oil 90% of the time from seismic data alone (May 2026), and said in Jul 2026 that AI-powered exploration had identified four additional opportunities in Guyana. | Upstream: Guyana | Pilot | |
| AI-directed drilling paths ExxonMobil said in Dec 2025 that its Permian drilling paths are directed by AI, using proprietary workflows that combine learnings from thousands of wells. | Upstream: Permian | In production | |
| AI in development planning ExxonMobil uses AI to lay out Permian cube developments, setting the spacing of wells across rock layers to balance capital efficiency against recovery, work Neil Chapman said an army of engineers and geoscientists had done (May 2026); ExxonMobil listed the technology as in deployment in Dec 2025. | Upstream: Permian | In production | |
| AI-enabled fracturing and optimization ExxonMobil listed AI-enabled frac operations and advanced AI optimization as near commercial in its Permian technology pipeline in Dec 2025, and Neil Chapman said in May 2026 that ExxonMobil uses AI to set how hard to fracture the rock. | Upstream: Permian | Pilot | |
| AI drilling advisory and autonomous deepwater drilling ExxonMobil's proprietary drilling advisory system uses AI to set deepwater drilling parameters in Guyana. John Ardill said in May 2026 that ExxonMobil had recently drilled its first fully autonomous well there, with AI drilling and geosteering the reservoir section and no driller at the controls, and ExxonMobil cited AI-enhanced drilling performance among the reasons for its Guyana pace and cost (Jul 2026). | Upstream: Guyana | In production | |
| Autonomous heavy haul trucks at Kearl ExxonMobil runs a fully autonomous heavy haul truck fleet at its Kearl oil sands mine in Canada, which Neil Chapman said is controlled by AI (May 2026). ExxonMobil credits a wider set of technologies, the trucks among them, with cutting Kearl's unit costs by more than 30% (Dec 2024) and gives no share for the trucks. | Upstream: Canada oil sands | In production | |
| Logistics planning ExxonMobil uses AI in its supply chain (Neil Chapman, Dec 2024), and Kathy Mikells said in Jan 2026 that newly implemented supply chain technology moves ExxonMobil toward using AI to plan logistics across its system, such as marine shipments. | Supply chain | In production | |
| Sensor monitoring and production optimization ExxonMobil uses AI to monitor equipment in real time and identify potential production bottlenecks (Oct 2025) and to connect data from billions of sensors across its operations (Apr 2026), and Darren Woods said in Oct 2025 that ExxonMobil applies AI wherever it has a lot of data, downhole and at operating sites worldwide. | Operations | In production | |
| AI in maintenance Neil Chapman said in Dec 2024 that ExxonMobil was piloting AI in maintenance. Darren Woods said at the same event that pooling data from all of ExxonMobil's businesses had already cut maintenance and turnaround costs, before the gains he expects from newer AI. | Operations | Pilot | |
| Control room AI assistants ExxonMobil described Sofia, an AI and voice-recognition assistant for control room operators, and SmartLane, an AI guide to chemical ingredient levels, with operators at the Baton Rouge and Baytown refineries piloting such intelligent tools in May 2021. | Product Solutions: refining and chemicals | Pilot |
Adoption
ExxonMobil has not disclosed an employee generative AI assistant or how many of its about 58,000 employees use AI tools. ExxonMobil's AI has spread along its data: machine learning on Permian field data in Microsoft Azure from 2019, AI pilots in refinery control rooms by 2021, IT folded into the central technology organization around 2023, AI in exploration and supply chain by Dec 2024, AI-directed Permian drilling by Dec 2025, and in 2026 AI exploration results and a Guyana well drilled autonomously with AI. ExxonMobil plans larger rollouts of its enterprise process and data platform in 2027, which it says will accelerate the adoption and value of AI.
By the numbers
Rollout, first pilot to today
Feb 2019
ExxonMobil's XTO Energy began applying Microsoft Azure, machine learning and IoT to its Permian Basin operations, putting field data in the cloud.
May 2021
ExxonMobil described AI assistants for refinery control rooms, with operators at Baton Rouge and Baytown piloting intelligent tools.
2023
ExxonMobil moved its IT organization into its central technology organization, about 18 months before Neil Chapman described the change in Dec 2024.
Dec 2024
Neil Chapman said ExxonMobil uses AI in exploration and the supply chain and is piloting it in maintenance, and that ExxonMobil runs 100% autonomous heavy haul trucks at its Kearl oil sands mine.
Aug 2025
Darren Woods said AI is very early on the technology curve and ExxonMobil is at an early stage, with limited AI resources prioritized corporate-wide and cost efficiency as the second priority.
Sep 2025
Dan Ammann said ExxonMobil is seeing benefits to its bottom line from AI, including drilling wells faster, and uses AI to help monitor some operations remotely.
Oct 2025
Darren Woods said ExxonMobil is deploying AI downhole, in the Permian and at operating sites around the world, wherever it has a lot of data.
Dec 2025
ExxonMobil said AI now directs its Permian drilling paths and listed AI and machine learning in development planning as in deployment.
May 2026
ExxonMobil launched a workforce system on its new enterprise process and data platform, the first step of many on the platform.
May 2026
John Ardill said ExxonMobil had recently drilled its first fully autonomous well in Guyana, with AI drilling and geosteering the reservoir section.
May 2026
Neil Chapman described AI that screened data from 50,000 industry wells for exploration and now lays out Permian well spacing.
Jul 2026
ExxonMobil reported four new Guyana opportunities from AI-powered exploration and said larger platform rollouts follow in 2027.
Economics & controls
Spend and ROI
Technology budget
ExxonMobil does not publish a technology, IT or AI budget. ExxonMobil's research and development expense was $1.2 billion in 2025, up from $1.0 billion in 2024 and $0.9 billion in 2023 (2025 Form 10-K), and its Permian technology pipeline held more than 40 technologies in Dec 2025, several of them AI-based.
What AI itself costs
ExxonMobil has not disclosed what it spends on AI models, compute or staff. Darren Woods said in Aug 2025 that resources for AI are limited at this early stage and that ExxonMobil allocates them corporate-wide to the highest-value work. ExxonMobil has not said what its Discovery 6 supercomputer cost or whether it runs AI.
Reported ROI
ExxonMobil has published no financial return credited to AI. ExxonMobil reports $16.9 billion of cumulative structural cost savings from 2019 through Sep 2026 toward a $20 billion target for 2030, and defines them as coming from operational efficiencies, workforce reductions, divestments and other measures, with no AI share; ExxonMobil said in Oct 2026 that about 75% came from organizational initiatives. Dan Ammann said in Sep 2025 that AI is helping ExxonMobil's bottom line, including by drilling wells faster, but gave no figure, and Neil Chapman said in May 2026 that nobody knows what AI's impact will be but that he expects AI to take more costs out of the business.
Where ExxonMobil expects AI value
Darren Woods said in Aug 2025 that ExxonMobil looks to AI first for effectiveness: lower-cost, better-performing products and cheaper oil discovery. ExxonMobil expects about 50% higher recovery by 2030 for new Permian wells versus 2019 and drilling and completion costs about 40% below 2019, and credits them to more than 40 technologies, scale and integration together, with no figure for AI alone (Dec 2025). ExxonMobil credits 4D seismic and high-performance computing, not AI, with more than $2 billion of net present value in Guyana (Jul 2026).
Headcount
ExxonMobil had about 58,000 regular employees at the end of 2025, down from 61,000 in 2024 and 62,000 in 2023, and booked $419 million of restructuring charges in 2025 (2025 Form 10-K). Darren Woods described the 2025 reductions in Oct 2025 as the next step in a continuum of transformation work and did not link them to AI.
Governance and risk
Central prioritization
ExxonMobil decides centrally where to apply AI: Darren Woods said in Aug 2025 that ExxonMobil works corporate-wide to put its limited AI resources on the highest-value opportunities, and Neil Chapman said in Dec 2024 that ExxonMobil concentrates technology resources instead of spreading them across businesses and is selective about AI.
One data construct
ExxonMobil's enterprise platform gives the company one data set and one nomenclature, Darren Woods said in Jan 2026, after decades in which each business built its own systems and data definitions. Kathy Mikells said the core of the new SAP platform will be clean so ExxonMobil can take software upgrades easily, which its old systems, with more than 65 million lines of custom code, could not.
Cybersecurity
ExxonMobil's cybersecurity program is managed by its Vice President of Information Technology, with IT and operational technology cybersecurity operations managers, and the Audit Committee of the board oversees it (2025 Form 10-K). ExxonMobil's 2025 Form 10-K warns that it has limited ability to make partners and service providers, cloud-hosting providers included, keep strong cybersecurity controls.
Disclosed AI risks
ExxonMobil's 2025 Form 10-K says ExxonMobil must adapt to and capture the benefits of AI to stay competitive, and that AI may strengthen rivals that lack ExxonMobil's in-house capabilities and reduce resource-owning countries' need to partner with private oil companies. ExxonMobil's Oct 2026 results release lists the success of AI-enhanced technologies among the factors that could change its results.
Board oversight
ExxonMobil's 2026 proxy statement does not mention AI and assigns no board committee to it; the Audit Committee oversees cybersecurity, and several directors list scientific or technology experience among their skills.
People and skills
ExxonMobil describes its approach as AI plus people with domain knowledge and engineering expertise, and trains staff in AI through university partners such as the Indian Institute of Science (Oct 2025).
Recent signals
Oct 30, 2026
ExxonMobil reported $16.9 billion of cumulative structural cost savings since 2019, including $1.8 billion in the first nine months of 2026, and listed the success of AI-enhanced technologies among the risks to its plans.
Jul 31, 2026
Darren Woods said early deployments of ExxonMobil's enterprise process and data platform went well ahead of larger rollouts in 2027, and that AI trained on Guyana drilling and subsurface data found four new discovery opportunities.
Jul 10, 2026
ExxonMobil described its use of the open-source OSDU Data Platform for subsurface data from its Kuala Lumpur business center, with an IT product manager saying AI is expected to support the common data language.
Jul 1, 2026
ExxonMobil integrated its Upstream operations into its Global Operations organization, bringing together about 31,000 employees at more than 150 sites in 48 countries.
May 28, 2026
Neil Chapman said ExxonMobil's AI reviewed data from 50,000 wells in weeks and flagged 150 exploration opportunities, that a Guyana model found known oil 90% of the time from seismic data alone, and that AI now lays out Permian well spacing.
May 6, 2026
John Ardill, ExxonMobil's vice president of exploration and new ventures, told the Offshore Technology Conference that ExxonMobil had recently drilled its first fully autonomous well in Guyana, with AI drilling and geosteering the reservoir section and outperforming conventional drilling and well placement.
May 1, 2026
ExxonMobil launched a workforce system covering talent management and payroll in more than 50 countries, which Darren Woods called the first step of many on its enterprise process and data platform.
Apr 14, 2026
ExxonMobil said its AI gathers and monitors data from billions of sensors across its sites to improve operations and production.
Feb 1, 2026
Neil Hansen, who ran ExxonMobil Global Business Solutions, became CFO, succeeding Kathy Mikells, who retired.
Jan 30, 2026
Kathy Mikells said ExxonMobil is replacing more than 10 on-premises ERP systems carrying more than 65 million lines of custom code, and that new supply chain technology moves ExxonMobil toward AI-planned logistics.
Dec 9, 2025
ExxonMobil said AI now directs its Permian drilling paths, that its new enterprise platform will accelerate AI adoption, and that it targets a final investment decision on low-carbon data center power by late 2026.
Quick answers
- How does ExxonMobil deploy AI?
- ExxonMobil deploys AI mainly in its operations, building proprietary models on its own well and seismic data: AI directs Permian drilling paths and development planning, drilled the reservoir section of a Guyana well autonomously in 2026, and flagged 150 exploration opportunities from data on 50,000 industry wells. ExxonMobil runs AI through a central technology organization that absorbed IT, and is replacing more than 10 ERP systems with one SAP-based data platform it says will speed AI adoption. ExxonMobil has published no AI spending, user count, model provider or AI-credited return.
- What does ExxonMobil use AI for?
- ExxonMobil has described 11 AI use cases in public, almost all in operations: exploration screening, Permian drilling paths, development planning and fracturing, deepwater drilling in Guyana, autonomous oil sands haulage, supply chain logistics, sensor monitoring, maintenance and refinery control rooms. ExxonMobil has published no return credited to AI for any of them, and Dan Ammann said in Sep 2025 that AI helps the bottom line without giving a figure; the gains ExxonMobil does report, such as $16.9 billion of structural cost savings since 2019 and about 50% higher recovery expected by 2030 for new Permian wells, come from wider programs that ExxonMobil does not split by technology.
- Who leads AI at ExxonMobil?
- AI at ExxonMobil is led by Neil Chapman (Senior Vice President). Ownership of AI on the org chart: SVP Neil Chapman, whose technology remit includes AI; IT sits inside the central technology organization.
- What AI platform does ExxonMobil use?
- ExxonMobil builds proprietary AI workflows in-house on its own well and seismic data, and is moving the whole company onto one SAP-based process and data platform, with larger rollouts planned for 2027 (Jul 2026).
- Which AI models does ExxonMobil use?
- ExxonMobil names no outside model provider and calls its AI workflows proprietary and developed in-house (Dec 2025); a 2019 Microsoft partnership put Permian field data and machine learning on Azure.
- How many ExxonMobil employees use AI?
- ExxonMobil has not disclosed how many of its about 58,000 employees use AI tools; its published AI work sits in exploration, Permian and Guyana drilling, oil sands haulage, supply chain and plant monitoring.
- How far has AI spread at ExxonMobil?
- ExxonMobil sits at Piloting: AI runs in production in core operations, including AI-directed drilling paths and AI-assisted development planning in the Permian, an AI drilling advisory system in Guyana, where AI drilled and steered the reservoir section of a fully autonomous well in 2026, and an AI-controlled autonomous truck fleet at the Kearl oil sands mine, and a central technology organization that includes IT sets AI priorities corporate-wide. ExxonMobil falls short of Scaling because it has disclosed no AI platform open to most of its about 58,000 employees, no count of use cases, no AI spending and no AI-credited return; Darren Woods said in Aug 2025 that AI is very early on the technology curve and that ExxonMobil is at an early stage, and the enterprise data platform meant to speed AI adoption has its larger rollouts planned for 2027.
Open questions
- Which models and vendors power ExxonMobil's AI, does its generative AI work run on Azure OpenAI, which an ExxonMobil job posting for a generative AI data scientist listed as a required skill, and do its employees have a sanctioned generative AI assistant?
- How much has AI added to ExxonMobil's bottom line, which Dan Ammann said in Sep 2025 AI was helping without giving a figure, and what has autonomous AI drilling in Guyana saved?
- How many ExxonMobil employees use AI tools, and how many AI and data science specialists does ExxonMobil employ?
- Who runs Global Technology and IT day to day, given that ExxonMobil has not named the head of Global Technology or its Vice President of Information Technology?
- What does ExxonMobil spend on AI and compute, and does the Discovery 6 supercomputer run AI workloads?
- What business return do AI-directed drilling and AI development planning deliver in the Permian, separate from the other technologies ExxonMobil credits with higher recovery?
- Will any of the 150 opportunities from ExxonMobil's AI well screening, or the four AI-identified Guyana opportunities, turn into discoveries?
- How much of ExxonMobil's $20 billion structural cost savings target for 2030 depends on AI and the new enterprise platform?
- What happened to the refinery control room AI pilots, such as Sofia and SmartLane, that ExxonMobil described in 2021?
- Did the 2019 Microsoft partnership deliver the up to 50,000 oil-equivalent barrels a day by 2025 that ExxonMobil projected?
- Did ExxonMobil reach a final investment decision on low-carbon data center power by late 2026, as targeted?
- Which board committee, if any, oversees ExxonMobil's use of AI?
Sources
ExxonMobil
- Digital technologies
- Management Committee
- Corporate and affiliate officers (Jul 1, 2026)
- The future of seismic imaging and technology, Discovery 6 (Mar 13, 2025)
- Smart technologies and intelligent operations (May 7, 2021)
- ExxonMobil to increase Permian profitability through digital partnership with Microsoft (Feb 22, 2019)
- ExxonMobil Malaysia on open subsurface data and the OSDU Data Platform (Jul 10, 2026)
- How ExxonMobil is using AI as a catalyst for innovation (Apr 14, 2026)
- Turning artificial intelligence into business intelligence (Oct 23, 2025)
- Powering the AI revolution with reliable energy (Jul 24, 2025)
- ExxonMobil raises 2030 plan (Dec 9, 2025)
- Leadership changes, Global Operations (Nov 4, 2025)
- Leadership changes, Upstream (Dec 3, 2024)
- Information technology career path
- GenAI Data Scientist, Commercial, Supply Chain and Trading, job posting (via Simplify)
Filings and investor materials
- ExxonMobil 2025 Form 10-K (filed Feb 18, 2026)
- ExxonMobil 2026 proxy statement (Apr 8, 2026)
- Form 8-K: CFO succession (Dec 8, 2025)
- Q3 2026 results release (Oct 30, 2026)
- Q3 2026 prepared remarks (Oct 30, 2026)
- Q2 2026 earnings call transcript (Jul 31, 2026)
- Q2 2026 earnings presentation (Jul 31, 2026)
- Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference transcript, Neil Chapman (May 28, 2026)
- Q1 2026 earnings call transcript (May 1, 2026)
- Q4 2025 earnings call transcript (Jan 30, 2026)
- 2025 Corporate Plan Update, prepared remarks (Dec 9, 2025)
- 2025 Corporate Plan Update, presentation (Dec 9, 2025)
- 2025 Corporate Plan Update, Q&A transcript (Dec 9, 2025)
- Q3 2025 earnings call transcript (Oct 31, 2025)
- Q2 2025 earnings call transcript (Aug 1, 2025)
- 2024 Corporate Plan Update and Upstream Spotlight transcript (Dec 11, 2024)
Data confidence
- Confirmed
- Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
- Estimated
- Derived or approximated from public reporting.
- Unconfirmed
- Reported, but not yet corroborated.
ExxonMobil profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 1, 2026
