AI-generated operating procedures carry a safety risk

The data center industry continues to speculate on AI’s future role in operations. Although current use cases are typically limited to predictive maintenance and sensor data analysis, survey findings indicate that many in the industry are open to expanding AI’s role in operational functions.

Most data center owners and operators are willing to use AI to create procedural documents, according to recent findings from the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2025. Although procedural document generation is typically viewed as a safe application of AI in data centers, AI is less effective in generating procedural documents such as methods of procedures (MOP), emergency operations plans (EOP) and standard operating procedures (SOPs). AI-generated operating procedure documents may increase the risk of system failure if they are not carefully checked by experienced facility staff. These documents often lack situational context and site-specific knowledge, which means they can fail to guard against the type of procedural errors that often contribute to major public outages.