Brent Railey

Brent Railey

Chief Data and Analytics Officer Chevron Phillips Chemical Company

Brent is a shrewd and innovative technologist with 20+ years of IT, Commercial, and Supply Chain experience in the petrochemicals industry in various technical, commercial, and leadership roles. He is a strong communicator with an in depth technical understanding in various aspect of technology and analytics. He is also an inventor of new dad jokes that make the eyes roll.

Pre-Conference Workshop & Masterclass - February 23, 2026

8:00 AM Managing AI Investment: Navigating Innovation and Avoiding Tech Debt

According to Bill Gates, AI is ‘the first technology that is happening faster than even the insiders expected’. With the rapid pace of innovation, energy leaders face a critical question: How do we invest in AI today without being left behind tomorrow? In a landscape where AI capabilities are doubling every 6–10 months, the risk of technological obsolescence is real and costly. Poorly chosen initiatives can lead to mounting technical debt, draining resources from high-value opportunities and delaying ROI in markets where every dollar must count. This session will unpack the strategic and architectural decisions that can make or break your AI investments. Through real-world insights and practical frameworks, you will:

  • Explore the roots of tech debt by examining how rapid obsolescence, fragmented data strategies, and misaligned implementation approaches create long-term inefficiencies in AI systems, and learn strategies to avoid these pitfalls
  • Understand the importance of designing for longevity through modular, component-based architectures that extend the lifecycle of AI systems, enabling you to integrate emerging models (like GenAI) without rebuilding from scratch
  • Learn how to prioritize AI initiatives by evaluating not only their potential value but also their resilience to change to determine whether an initiatives long-term upkeep is justified in the rapidly evolving AI landscape 

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Brent.

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