Success Stories

Case Study

From Zero to 100K In 24 Months: How We Enabled Useful AI in Offshore Drilling

The Client: A large offshore drilling company operating a diverse rig fleet of ultra-deepwater drillships, versatile semisubmersibles and modern shallow-water jackups across the world.

Slide 1 of 7 — use arrow keys, swipe, or click the arrows to navigate

2024

Seeing the Opportunity

In early 2024, leadership at the company and DTS knew AI had the potential to provide value to crews using their asset management system. DTS had delivered prototype demonstrations of an early query-writing conversational model, so the potential was obvious.

But obstacles remained:

  • Even frontier models at the time had real limitations
  • Hallucinations
  • Short context windows
  • A tendency to go "off script" during long conversations

Crews working on the rigs are busy. They're only going to use AI solutions that are fast, reliable and — crucially — help them get their work done faster.

Key Insight

The breakthrough was identifying use cases where AI could deliver value in a single interaction — no long conversations required.

First Win

Now You're Speaking My Language

A new functional requirement emerged: users needed to read detailed, technical maintenance content in languages other than English. DTS quickly delivered a prototype solution, adding translation functionality to the Work Order form.

Translation turned out to be a perfect use case for LLMs:

  • More colloquial, natural-sounding text compared to dedicated translation tools
  • Better at translating technical maintenance language
  • Simple ease-of-use — just pick a language and tap Translate
Immediate Impact

Quick Wins

DTS included three additional LLM integrations in the same release, each solving a specific, tightly-scoped problem.

Completion comments in Portuguese (before) Completion comments translated to English (after)

Reverse Translation

Takes crew notes in any language and translates them to English.

Impact

Significantly improved English-language comments from international rig crews.

Failure Coding Assistant form with auto-populated fields

Failure Coding Assistant

Reads completion comments and selects correct failure cause, mechanism, effect and mode codes.

Impact

~5 minutes saved per corrective Work Order. More consistent failure coding for better analysis.

Rough draft completion comments (before) Cleaned up completion comments (after)

Completion Comment Assistant

Takes first-draft notes and helps write cleaner, easier-to-read completion comments.

Impact

Time savings for users, clearer completion comments, improved analysis.

What Made It Work

"One Shot"

Users don't need to get into a long conversation. Just one click, and their work gets done faster. These problems are tightly scoped, with the AI delivering on very specific objectives.

Letting Crews Focus

Rig crew members are highly compensated specialists. A tool that quickly helps code failures and write comprehensive notes gives them more time to focus on applying their skills to the mission.

Opt-In

Every AI integration is optional. Users on the rig use AI hundreds of times every day because it speeds up their work and makes life easier — not because they're required to.

Human In The Loop

The AI in these implementations is an assistant, not the decision-maker. Users have a helping hand, but are responsible for making decisions.

Next Challenge

Talk Me Through It

DTS then moved onto conversational LLM integrations to guide users through complex, detailed change management processes: Deferrals and Operational Risk Assessments.

Deferral AI Helper guiding a user through the process

Deferral / ORA AI Helper

Guides users through multi-step deferral and risk assessment processes. Interviews the user to document reasons, impact and mitigation. Helps write hazard/mitigation statements. Fills out the form automatically.

Impact

Better deferrals, significant time savings for senior rig personnel, and reduced "failure to launch" scenarios.

Custom Chat Builder interface for building queries

Custom Chat Builder

AI helps users build sophisticated queries and schedule LLM analysis — all without writing code.

Impact

Users can now perform qualitative analysis at scale — auditing Work Order completion comments for quality, consistency and adherence to standards.

Results

84,000+ AI Interactions and Counting

Two years later, users have leveraged AI inside of VAMS more than 84,000 times.

Ready to Transform Your Enterprise Operations?

Let's discuss how DTS can help you get the most out of your existing systems — and prepare for the AI-powered future.

Get in Touch (303) 520-6144