Every utility is facing the same challenge: inspect more assets with fewer resources while improving reliability.
For AEP Ohio, the answer has been autonomous drones paired with AI-powered inspection software, a combination that's helping the utility identify issues before they become outages.
In the recent Flight to Insight webinar, AEP Ohio joined Skydio and InFlightAI powered by Levatas to share how its drone program has evolved from a pilot into an operational tool that's delivering measurable value across the grid.
From Pilot Program to Proactive Maintenance
In 2025, AEP Ohio launched a drone inspection pilot covering approximately 4% of its distribution system. During those inspections, the team identified more than 150 Tier 1 issues, many of which were thermal anomalies that had not yet caused an outage.
By detecting these issues early, crews could make repairs before failures occurred, reducing customer interruptions and improving system reliability.
According to AEP Ohio, the program has already helped avoid more than 30 million customer minutes of interruption by identifying problems before they impacted customers.
More Data Creates a New Challenge
Autonomous drones dramatically increased the amount of inspection data collected.
Instead of capturing only photos of known issues, inspectors collected images of every asset on each inspection route. Over the course of a year, that resulted in 400,000 to 500,000 inspection images, all of which required manual review. One employee alone spent more than 500 hours reviewing imagery.
That's where AI becomes essential.
Turning Images into Actionable Insights
Integrated with Skydio's autonomous drone platform, InFlightAI powered by Levatas automatically analyzes inspection imagery to identify issues such as:
- Thermal anomalies
- Pole and powerline conditions
- Equipment damage
- Corrosion
- Analog gauge readings
Instead of manually reviewing hundreds of thousands of images, utility teams can focus their attention on the assets that require action, allowing inspectors to spend more time flying missions and less time searching for defects.
Inspection Programs That Scale
As utilities expand their drone programs, collecting more data isn't enough. The real value comes from turning that data into actionable insights that improve reliability and help maintenance teams respond faster.
AEP Ohio's experience demonstrates how autonomous drones and AI work together, not only to inspect infrastructure more efficiently, but to proactively prevent outages before they occur.
Watch the Webinar
Want to hear directly from AEP Ohio about how they're scaling autonomous inspections and using AI to improve reliability?
Watch Flight to Insight: How AEP Ohio Is Using Drones & AI to Turn Inspections into Uptime to see how AEP Ohio, Skydio, and InFlightAI powered by Levatas are helping utilities transform inspection data into operational insight.