Getting ROI from AI: 3 Pillars of Value Creation and Why They Matter | Dr. Krishnan Sankaranarayanan, Former CDO, SABIC Aramco

Nearly every chemical company is investing in AI. Most executives are still asking the same question: where does the business value actually come from?

In this episode of DigiChem Dialogues, host Jay Bhatia sits down with Dr. Krishnan Sankaranarayanan — former Chief Digital Officer at SABIC Aramco, a 12-year ExxonMobil veteran, and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Princeton — to break down why so many AI initiatives fail to deliver, and what separates the companies that get real ROI from those still stuck in pilot mode.

Krishnan lays out the three pillars of AI value creation: the data foundation, change management, and — most critically — solving the right problems. He shares candid, firsthand examples from his time at SABIC of initiatives that worked, ones that didn't, and the key differentiators between the two.

Key topics covered:

• Why most companies are still in the "disciplined experimentation" phase of AI, and what it actually takes to reach enterprise-scale value.
• What an AI-ready data foundation looks like in a chemical company — and where most organizations quietly fall short.
• Why change management, not technology, is usually the bigger obstacle to AI adoption, and the specific moments where it breaks down.
• The most common — and costly — mistake companies make: executing well on the wrong problem.
• Where AI is generating real, durable ROI in chemicals today (and where it's still more hype than reality).

The one thing Krishnan says every company should get right before spending a single dollar on AI.

Krishnan currently teaches AI for Chemical Engineers at the University of Houston and AI Transformation for executives at Columbia University.

🔗 Watch the full episode

#DigiChemDialogues #AI #ChemicalIndustry #DigitalTransformation #AIROI