Expert Mind: A Retrieval-Augmented Architecture for Expert Knowledge Preservation in the Energy Sector

TL;DR

Expert Mind is a retrieval-augmented system designed to preserve and query expert knowledge in the energy sector, leveraging LLMs and multimodal techniques to mitigate knowledge loss from retiring experts.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel architecture combining RAG, LLMs, and multimodal capture to preserve and access tacit organizational knowledge, specifically tailored for the energy industry.

Findings

Potential to reduce knowledge transfer latency

Improves onboarding efficiency

Addresses ethical considerations in knowledge preservation

Abstract

The departure of subject-matter experts from industrial organizations results in the irreversible loss of tacit knowledge that is rarely captured through conventional documentation practices. This paper proposes Expert Mind, an experimental system that leverages Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), large language models (LLMs), and multimodal capture techniques to preserve, structure, and make queryable the deep expertise of organizational knowledge holders. Drawing on the specific context of the energy sector, where decades of operational experience risk being lost to an aging workforce, we describe the system architecture, processing pipeline, ethical framework, and evaluation methodology. The proposed system addresses the knowledge elicitation problem through structured interviews, think-aloud sessions, and text corpus ingestion, which are subsequently embedded into a vector store and queried through a conversational interface. Preliminary design considerations suggest Expert Mind can significantly reduce knowledge transfer latency and improve onboarding efficiency. Ethical dimensions including informed consent, intellectual property, and the right to erasure are addressed as first-class design constraints.