Baker Hughes launches transformative Cordant software update to accelerate decarbonisation and operational resilience

Baker Hughes has broadened the capabilities of its Cordant™ industrial software with a new release, aiming to give energy and industrial operators expanded visibility across assets and clearer routes to reduce downtime, manage risk and support decarbonisation programmes. The company unveiled the update at its 2026 annual meeting in Florence. According to Baker Hughes, Release 26.1 advances cross‑functional workflows by consolidating asset, risk and operational data on a single platform and opening access to decision‑grade information for a wider group of users.

The release tightens links between asset performance and risk management by bringing strategy, integrity and health insights into a continuous workflow. Enhanced failure‑mode analytics, waveform analysis and deeper KPI interrogation are now designed to feed directly into risk models, capital‑planning and integrity processes so teams can prioritise interventions with greater clarity. New AI‑enabled functions, including automated failure‑mode mapping across domains and risk alignment tools, are presented as ways to reduce manual effort and promote consistent long‑term asset strategies. The company claims these features will help lower unplanned outages and inform capital allocation.

Process optimisation in the update introduces a flexible objective function that lets operators test competing goals , from maximising throughput to cutting energy use or balancing both , and receive context‑aware, real‑time recommendations. Baker Hughes positions these enhancements as a means to embed sustainability into operational trade‑offs and to help customers respond to volatile market and plant conditions, while noting that outcomes will be contingent on site‑specific configurations and operator choices.

The release also seeks to scale sustainability oversight by linking Baker Hughes’ Energy & Emissions Management (EEM) with Cordant™ FastLCA, creating a centralised repository for energy and emissions data across sites. According to Baker Hughes, the combined view enables users to spot emissions hotspots, align lifecycle data with operational decisions and prioritise decarbonisation measures using consistent, auditable methodologies , intended to support compliance and corporate sustainability targets without adding user complexity.

Foundational platform work in Release 26.1 targets enterprise readiness: multi‑language interfaces, notification systems, self‑guided walkthroughs and configurable reporting are among the usability upgrades intended to accelerate onboarding and broaden adoption across roles and regions. Baker Hughes emphasises Cordant’s modular, composable architecture and AI foundation, which the company traces to its OEM heritage and former Bently Nevada and ARMS Reliability capabilities.

The company has been evolving Cordant in stages. Baker Hughes recently announced general availability of Asset Performance Management 3.0 and Process Optimization 1.0, and the firm states it plans to bring integrated mechanical integrity functionality , derived from its Antea acquisition , into Cordant’s APM suite in the first quarter of 2026. These moves, the company says, are intended to connect inspection data more directly to asset strategy and performance decisions.

Aravind Yarlagadda, senior vice‑president of Industrial Solutions, Industrial & Energy Technology at Baker Hughes, said at the Florence meeting: “Energy and industrial operators are being asked to deliver more, with greater speed, precision and accountability. This release advances Cordant’s ability to connect asset insights, risk and operations data in a single environment, designed to reduce unplanned downtime, prioritize capital more effectively, and improve day-to-day operational performance across complex assets.”

For industrial decarbonisation professionals, the update packages asset reliability and process optimisation with lifecycle‑level emissions visibility, offering a route to align operational improvements with emissions reduction objectives. Industry data and user experience will determine how effectively the expanded analytics and AI features translate into measurable reductions in downtime, energy consumption and carbon intensity at scale. Baker Hughes presents Cordant as part of a broader digital and hardware portfolio the company says is intended to extend asset life and improve returns while supporting clients’ net‑zero ambitions.