Michael F. Watson Joins RIS as Strategic Advisor

We are excited to announce that Michael F. Watson has joined Remote Intelligence Solutions (RIS) as Strategic Advisor. A respected executive in the electric utility industry and former co-op utility CEO, Michael brings decades of operational experience to our team.

Michael explains that he is “working with RIS because for 15 years I was in charge of operations and maintenance at a co-op with 6,000 miles of line, 115,000 poles, and 70,000 meters. Tracking inspections, maintenance, and upgrades for an electric system is a monumental task.”

Upon understanding how this AI-enabled UTELinspect software works he continues, “The RIS platform can transform the way utilities operate and vastly improve the quality of service delivered to customers. Layering Applied AI on top of this robust data management system will be a game-changer for the people charged with this task.”

The RIS team is thrilled that Michael is applying his expertise as we expand the capabilities of our UTELinspect product for the utility inspection market. According to Stuart Rudolph, President of RIS, “Michael Watsons’s deep understanding of the day-to-day challenges electric utilities face is helping to ensure that we’re giving utilities exactly what they need. What they need is a centralized platform to manage and assess the millions of images they are collecting now and into the future.” By combining current inspection data with historical field and aerial information, utility executives can now utilize AI modules from RIS to create a powerful AI-enabled future.

The expanding use of drones is not only providing safety and efficiency for power companies, but also amplifying the volume of images gathered by utility inspectors. Drones create a growing challenge of managing all of these additional images to assess and analyze reliability, safety and sustainability. UTELinspect is meeting and exceeding utility expectations for solutions to this data management challenge, while powering the industry’s digital transformation and its move to incorporate AI solutions.

I am working with RIS because for 15 years I was in charge of operations and maintenance at a co-op with 6,000 miles of line, 115,000 poles, and 70,000 meters. Tracking inspections, maintenance, and upgrades for an electric system is a monumental task. The RIS platform can transform the way utilities operate and vastly improve the quality of service delivered to customers. Layering Applied AI on top of this robust data management system will be a game-changer for the people charged with this task.