Origin Energy is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to empower its network team, steering them away from manual and repetitive tasks to enhance operational value. Oliver Oldham, the Head of Networks and Core Infrastructure Services at Origin Energy, shared that his team has automated processes previously reliant on paper forms, Excel spreadsheets, command line interfaces, and manual configurations. This shift has freed up the team from extensive packet analysis for routine tasks, enabling them to concentrate on more valuable projects and strategic work.
The introduction of AI has been instrumental in integrating automation into low-level tasks related to service optimization, reducing errors in network services and mitigating incidents. Oldham emphasized the development of AI to streamline service optimization tasks, resulting in increased efficiency, fewer service desk calls, and improved user satisfaction.
The initiative has scrutinized end-to-end network change processes, coding them into software and deploying them through a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. This approach automates testing and deployment, ensuring a known configuration state and reducing complexities associated with multiple individuals participating in change processes. Oldham highlighted the significant improvement in successful network changes, decreasing from a third to less than five percent.
The program has not only enhanced efficiency but also contributed to a more stable network environment. Oldham expressed satisfaction with the current focus on automating low-level activities but acknowledged a keen interest in the evolution of AI and self-healing technologies. While the team is content with addressing the ‘low-hanging fruit,’ Oldham is observant of advancements in technologies such as Copilot and generative AI companions, emphasizing their potential to streamline low-level administrative tasks and provide quicker access to information for more substantial decision-making.
In a recent success story, Oldham’s team efficiently identified and resolved a fault in KVM hubs causing interruptions in video calls, a process that traditionally would have taken days but was handled almost automatically through the system.
