An innovative artificial intelligence (AI) platform that is transforming asset maintenance in the energy sector is in the national spotlight, with Unleash live taking out the top spot at the 2025 Australian Financial Review AI Award in the productivity and efficiency category.
Unleash live’s platform uses machine learning to analyse video and images of energy assets, assessing the condition of external surfaces and reporting the information back to those responsible for maintenance.
Celebrating the win, the company said the national recognition highlights real-world impact of its machine learning video analytics platform – starting with wind farm inspections and expanding across solar, utilities and grid infrastructure.
“It’s a powerful validation of how AI is transforming asset-intensive industries with smarter, faster, and safer operations,” the company said in a statement.
“We were honoured to be selected from a strong shortlist of finalists that included Nasdaq, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), NSW Department of Education, and Dext – and to emerge as the winner in such a competitive and high-impact category.”
The AFR AI Awards celebrate applied AI that delivers meaningful outcomes across the economy. Unleash live was recognised for enabling:
- Up to 80 per cent cost savings over traditional wind turbine inspection methods
- Up to 90 per cent reduction in revenue loss from downtime for offshore wind operations
- Five times increase in inspection throughput using autonomous drones
- Safer operations by eliminating rope access for high-risk inspections
- Real-time fault detection and predictive maintenance using machine learning AI computer vision
The platform integrates with off-the-shelf drones to inspect turbine blades for erosion, cracks, and lightning damage before they can lead to system failures. Partnering with leading energy services providers, Unleash live has replaced manual workflows with scalable, AI-driven analytics.
The company said with more than 90 wind farms and nearly 4000 turbines generating more than 11GW of power across the country, the need for fast, high-quality inspections is on the rise.
Its platform is hardware-agnostic, automating both flight and analytics, giving operators rapid, sub-centimetre-level fault detection. And it doesn’t stop at wind.
In the solar sector, Unleash live’s technology detects panel degradation and thermal hotspots to enable smarter preventative maintenance.
The company works with utilities such as Endeavour Energy, Ausgrid and Essential Energy to inspect transmission lines, substations, and pole-top assets – cutting inspection times from weeks to days while improving field safety and data quality.
Energy caught up with Unleash live Group CEO, Hanno Blankenstein, for the June issue to learn more about how AI and automation are redefining infrastructure management in the energy sector – read the Q&A here.
