Esri User Conference San Diego, California 2026

Recap & Reflections From Two Geonamic Team Members

Colin Wideman, Project Manager

This year’s Esri User Conference reinforced something I’ve been seeing across the industry for a while: we’re standing at the intersection of two powerful forces. One is the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the way it’s reshaping how businesses operate. The other is the enduring, practical work of operational excellence that keeps the pipeline GIS world running. Both were on full display, and the most interesting conversations happened where they overlap.

AI Was the Headline

It’s hard to overstate how central AI has become to the conversation. It was the primary focus for a large share of the companies I spoke with, and the pace of change is incredible— the technology is adapting so quickly that it’s actively changing the way people do business rather than simply promising to someday.

Three themes came up again and again. Agentic AI was a major talking point, with a growing interest in systems that can take action and carry out multi-step workflows rather than just answer questions. AI assistants are popping up everywhere, positioned as a way to help analysts and field teams get more done with less friction. And AI chatbots continued to mature as an accessible front door to complex spatial data, letting people ask questions in plain language instead of wrestling with tools and queries. Taken together, these tools point toward a future where interacting with GIS is extremely efficient, data centered, and accurate.

But the Fundamentals Still Matter

There is still a large and very real need for community involvement inside the pipeline GIS world. Not every company is racing toward the newest technology, and that’s not a shortcoming — many are rightly focused on operational excellence, making sure the day-to-day work is accurate, reliable, and safe.

The topics that have always mattered are as important as ever. Field data collection, data verification, data sharing, and big data analytics remain the backbone of what we do. No amount of AI sophistication replaces the need for clean, trustworthy data collected in the field and validated before anyone builds a decision on top of it. If anything, the growing appetite for AI raises the stakes on getting these fundamentals right, because every automated system is only as good as the data feeding it. The companies leaning into operational excellence are laying exactly the groundwork the flashier tools will eventually depend on.

Great Conversations

Some of the most valuable moments came away from the sessions, in conversation with people doing this work every day. I had a great time connecting with the teams at Esri, Phillips 66, TC Energy, Valero, Plains, Cintoo, and Williams. These discussions were a good reminder that behind every trend is a community of practitioners solving real problems — and that the strength of the pipeline GIS space comes as much from those relationships as from any single technology.

Bottom Line

AI is clearly the story of the moment, and it’s worth paying close attention to. But the future belongs to the organizations that pair that innovation with a relentless commitment to good data and operational excellence. The two aren’t in competition — they’re partners, and this year’s conference made that clearer than ever.

Lucy Chen, Project GIS Analyst

The 2026 Esri User Conference was a great opportunity to step away from my day-to-day work and think about where GIS technology is heading. What I enjoyed most was seeing how different organizations are using GIS in practical ways and thinking about how some of those ideas could be applied to our industry for pipelines.

One of the strongest themes for me was pipeline GIS modernization. Several sessions focused on connecting traditionally separate datasets and business systems, including centerlines, asset data, integrity and ILI information, environmental and regulatory data, imagery, work management, and field information. It reinforced the idea that GIS is becoming more than just a mapping system. It is increasingly becoming the spatial foundation that helps connect different parts of the pipeline business.

AI was also a major theme, but what stood out to me was how practical some of the examples were. Instead of focusing only on the idea of fully autonomous AI, many sessions showed AI being used within specific workflows to help GIS professionals work faster, organize information, support analysis, and identify items for human review. One pipeline example showed how natural-language questions could be translated into GIS filters and combined with ILI, HCA, environmental, and regulatory information to help prioritize integrity concerns. That felt very relevant to the type of complex data we work with in pipeline GIS.

I was also very interested in ArcGIS Notebooks, Python automation, and geoprocessing improvements. Since a lot of pipeline GIS work involves repetitive processing, QA/QC, data conversion, and validation, these tools have real potential to make workflows more efficient and consistent. The sessions on Python, batch geoprocessing, and AI-assisted ArcPy notebook development gave me several ideas for improving everyday workflows.

Another area that caught my attention was ArcGIS Experience Builder and other web GIS tools. In many projects, we produce valuable analysis, but the results are not always easy for project managers, field teams, or clients to access and understand. I liked seeing how GIS results can be turned into interactive applications that make information easier to explore and use, instead of relying only on maps, spreadsheets, geodatabases, or static reports.

All of this connected well with this year’s theme, “GIS – Creating a More Intelligent World.” To me, a more intelligent GIS is not just about adding AI or new technology. It also means improving how we collect, organize, validate, connect, and share our data. Good data is still the foundation because it provides the most important domain knowledge, especially in pipeline work where decisions depend on accurate asset, integrity, compliance, environmental, and field information.

Overall, my biggest takeaway is that the value of GIS is not only in performing the analysis itself, but in how well we connect data, automate workflows, and turn the results into information that people can actually use to make decisions.

Esri UC Presentation with TC Energy

As part of the Esri User Conference, Geonamic had the privilege of Yan Wang presenting alongside Deanne Colbourne and Sunil Wadhera of TC Energy to discuss the Modernizing of Pipeline GIS.

TC Energy modernized its entire GIS infrastructure by upgrading to PODS 7 plus ArcGIS Pipeline Referencing and fully spatial, object-oriented model running on ArcGIS Pro. Modernizing pipeline GIS isn’t just about upgrading software, it’s about building a stronger foundation for operational excellence. Geonamic is proud to have partnered in this work.

Congratulations to Lucy Chen, Project GIS Analyst, who is now PODS Certified. Geonamic, a Gold Sponsor of PODS, is excited to take advantage of the certification opportunity.

From Lucy, “Earning the PODS Certification has been a valuable experience for me because it directly supports my daily work in pipeline integrity and compliance, from Liquid HCA analysis and alignment sheets to PODS data validation and migration. It helps me better connect GIS workflows with the PODS data model and deliver more accurate, reliable solutions for Geonamic’s clients.”

PODS Certification recognizes qualified professionals by promoting greater standardization, reliability, and trust across the pipeline industry, making it easier for operators to identify experienced partners who can effectively support their data management needs.

If you work with PODS or pipeline data, now is a great time to earn your certification. It’s an excellent way to validate your expertise, demonstrate your commitment to industry best practices, and distinguish yourself as a trusted professional in the pipeline data community.

We encourage all service providers to take the next step and become PODS Certified!

Join Our PODScast

August 19, 2026 @ 11 am CT

Pipeline operators today are data-rich but often insight-poor. Decades of integrity and asset data—especially high-value inspection data such as ILI—are frequently underutilized due to fragmented systems and manual analysis workflows. At the same time, AI/ML initiatives demand structured, high-quality data to deliver meaningful results.

This PODScast explores how the Pipeline Open Data Standard (PODS) provides a standardized, enterprise-grade data foundation purpose-built for pipeline operations. By organizing assets, inspections, welds, anomalies, and repair data into a consistent relational framework, PODS enables efficient data integration, improves data quality, and significantly reduces preparation effort for analytics.

We will demonstrate how PODS-structured data accelerates AI/ML readiness and supports advanced integrity use cases, including multi-run anomaly matching and predictive corrosion growth modeling. The session will also highlight how operators can transition from reactive, periodic reviews to proactive, predictive integrity management.

Join Geonamic to learn how structured integrity data unlocks scalable AI/ML, enhances decision-making, reduces risk, and drives more efficient and reliable pipeline operations.