fleets face risks, including financial loss, increased fraud exposure, inaccurate reporting and audit deficiencies,” she said.“ Improved access to invoice information now allows supervisors to monitor financial activity and identify trends or anomalies more effectively.”
A major component of the Ameren Illinois modernization effort was the use of Robotic Process Automation( RPA), software that employs virtual robots to automate repetitive, rulesbased tasks. Ameren’ s fleet team partnered with the utility’ s Center for Automation and six vendors to implement automated payment processes. The system incorporates Optical Character Recognition( OCR) technology and automates data entry into payment and fleet management systems. In 2025, the process handled 16,595 invoices.
“ The results illustrate the value of automation in utility fleet operations,” Daiber said.“ The transition from manual data entry to automated workflows returned approximately 2,800 labor hours while delivering cost savings, improved accuracy, enhanced scalability and increased employee satisfaction.
Entergy has implemented the SmartTagIt mobile application that allows workers to share information, coach one another and mitigate potential hazards.
The initiative demonstrates that before organizations can fully capitalize on AI, they often benefit from first identifying repetitive, rules-based activities that can be automated and standardized.”
Daiber also pointed out that successful digital transformation is not solely about technology. It also requires the development of oversight processes and controls that ensure information is accurate, transparent and aligned with organizational policies.
Knowledge and Decision-Making At ENMAX, Ostoici reported, AI is being applied to support employees and accelerate decision-making throughout fleet operations. His presentation showcased several solutions designed to improve access to information, reduce administrative burdens and enhance collaboration.
One example is ENMAX’ s Share- Point AI Agent, described as a digital front door to fleet knowledge.“ The tool reduces repetitive questions directed to subject matter experts by answering common inquiries using approved content,” Ostoici explained.“ Rather than searching through multiple folders and repositories, employees can access standard operating procedures, policies, standards, vendor documentation and decision records from a single source.
“ The AI agent also provides summaries and insights from large collections of documents, helping employees quickly understand complex packages, procedures and reference materials,” Ostoici continued.“ Importantly, the system is permission-safe, operating within the Microsoft 365 security framework and only accessing information designated as available to the user.”
ENMAX is also using AI to improve meeting productivity through a tool called Facilitator. The technology creates real-time meeting notes that participants can co-author and automatically captures decisions and open questions. Additional capabilities include in-meeting question-and-answer support, reminders when individuals are referenced but not present, agenda detection, goal prompting and timed topic management.
“ By documenting action items as discussions occur, the tool helps ensure that important fleet-related actions are not lost after meetings conclude,” Ostoici said.“ These features help teams stay focused while improving accountability and follow-through.”
Another key AI application at ENMAX is Copilot Chat, which Ostoici described as a“ thinking partner” for problem framing and analysis. Rather than replacing human judgment, the tool helps users clarify questions, structure planning and research efforts and organize early-stage thinking before moving into documents, models or workflows.
“ It breaks complex fleet decisions into clear options, risks and assumptions, helping employees make more informed decisions,” Ostoici related.“ The system also improves decision quality by helping users challenge assumptions, refine prompts and validate thinking against available information sources.”
Taken together, Ameren Illinois’ s and ENMAX’ s examples illustrate a growing trend in utility fleet management: AI is becoming less of a standalone technology and more of an integrated workplace assistant. From knowledge management and document retrieval to meeting support and strategic analysis, it is helping employees spend less time searching for information and more time applying it effectively.
Safety Briefings and Hazard Awareness
McDonald’ s presentation focused on using AI-supported technologies to improve hazard recognition, job hazard assessments( JHAs) and workplace safety conversations across Entergy’ s fleet operations. The utility’ s fleet operation, which serves customers across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, includes more than 7,000 assets.
“ Within such a large operation,
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