At SDG&E, we have an innovation program and a framework that enables us to rapidly test new and emerging technologies with the intent of informing future technology investment decisions. For our Drone Investigation, Assessment & Repair (DIAR) program, we asked ourselves the question “How might we analyze thousands, or millions, of images coming in from the field and automatically detect a damage to the electric system?” The emerging technology we identified to answer this question is Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. It enables us to train a computer to augment the existing manual evaluation process of evaluating drone images. We partnered with our internal teams and Qualified Lineman to create a machine learning capability that automatically detects and prioritize damages for a human to evaluate. Once we had labelled enough training data, we were able to train and deploy machine learning models to automatically detect assets and possible damages. This capability enables us to create a human + machine relationship where we can be much more efficient and effective in the long term, moving with speed and agility. This capability can now enable us to rapidly look at millions of images to identify damages faster, prioritize the issues, and initiate work in the field. Additionally, we are now exploring other scenarios such as deploying a machine learning model on a mobile application for our qualified lineman to utilize in the course of their daily work.