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2025: A Year of AI-Powered Transformation for the Utility Experience

Dec. 9, 2024
Energy utilities in the U.S. face a daunting challenge: balancing rising energy demand with a strained grid, integrating renewable energy sources, and navigating an uncertain regulatory landscape.

Energy utilities in the U.S. face a daunting challenge: balancing rising energy demand with a strained grid, integrating renewable energy sources, and navigating an uncertain regulatory landscape - especially as a new administration enters office. To ensure a reliable and sustainable energy future, utilities and consumers alike are required to make countless decisions daily.

Pressures of this magnitude can be complex to manage, so how can utilities enter 2025 more equipped to navigate those decisions with confidence?

Prediction 1: AI as the new utility toolbelt

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to continue revolutionizing the energy industry in 2025, and it will thrive in use cases around customer experience. Utilities have invested heavily in smart meters, so much so that they account for nearly 80 percent of all meters in North America. By analyzing vast amounts of data from smart meters, AI can provide utilities with invaluable insights into customer energy consumption patterns. This granular data can be broken down into specific categories, such as lighting, heating, cooling, and EV charging, enabling utilities to offer tailored recommendations to customers, with the benefit of optimizing grid operations.

But the industry is moving beyond just turning data into insights. Accessing those insights in an intuitive way leads to the next major prediction for next year.

Prediction 2: A workforce multiplier

Generative AI (GenAI) is rapidly emerging as a powerful tool for utilities, evolving the AI journey in promising directions in 2025 and beyond. While many fear AI will lead to job displacement, in 2025 utilities will instead see AI empower its employees to be more productive and effective.

GenAI-powered tools and virtual assistants can provide personalized customer support, while also automating routine tasks and optimizing workflows. Additionally, GenAI can analyze vast datasets to identify patterns and trends, enabling utilities to make informed decisions about grid operations and energy resource allocation.

Utilities that have embraced AI-driven analytics have seen significant improvements in customer service. By providing agents with real-time insights into customer energy consumption, AI has enabled them to resolve issues faster and more effectively.

One northwestern U.S. utility, for example, gave customer service representatives one-click access to appliance-level consumption for every home in the service territory. As a result, the customer service team was able to resolve support calls much quicker (with higher customer satisfaction, too) and ultimately reduced its high bill investigation truck rolls by nearly 27 percent in the first year.

Moreso, as the grid continues to become more complicated with increases in solar, battery storage systems, and EVs, the demand for skilled workers will continue to grow. While AI can automate routine tasks, human expertise remains essential for interpreting data, making strategic decisions, and addressing complex customer inquiries.

With GenAI interfaces, employees can simply ask questions to the system like, “Why was customer X’s June bill so high?” or “How much did the customer spend on cooling last year compared to other homes?”

Prediction 3: The rise of self-service solutions

Consumers today expect personalized, on-demand services. GenAI can elevate the customer experience by enabling two-way interactions. By providing tailored energy recommendations and simulating the impact of various energy-saving measures, GenAI can help consumers make informed decisions about their energy usage.

For instance, a customer considering installing solar panels can use a GenAI-powered tool to estimate potential savings, identify optimal system sizes, and assess the environmental impact. Such personalized insights can foster a deeper connection between utilities and their customers, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Current economics have also made people more financially frugal. Some customers may be interested in clean energy opportunities, while others may want to lower their electricity costs. GenAI’s capabilities will allow consumers to engage in detailed conversations with their utility about the decisions that matter most to them.

According to Accenture research, consumers spend only eight minutes per year interacting with their utility, and this is mainly bill-paying. Even with that limited bandwidth, GenAI will help utilities do more with those interactions to achieve program outcomes without having to invest in the traditional slow drip of customer education.

Prediction #4: A grid fortified through CX

Consumers have evolved from static ratepayers to active grid participants whose involvement in activities like EV charging, solar energy generation, and battery storage are greatly influencing the grid. Understanding how those activities impact grid assets is highly important in order for utilities to deploy grid management initiatives, including load-shifting programs, enrollment in EV managed charging, and infrastructure upgrades.

Until recently, it was challenging for utilities to identify which customers are EV drivers or have solar on their roof. AI, fortunately, has made it possible for utilities to gain this behind-the-meter visibility needed to segment these customers to more effectively target them for relevant programming. It is also helping utilities identify other, typically underserved segments, such as low-and-medium income (LMI) customers, to provide affordable energy solutions and support low-income households.

Now, when utilities engage with customers, they can tailor messages depending on the customer’s behavior and lifestyle patterns, like EV charging or money-saving recommendations, rather than sending blanket messages that may not be relevant.

The Unexpected Solution to Our Energy Problems

Going into 2025, there may be mixed opinions on whether AI will still be viewed as part of the energy problem (thanks to its high energy requirements) or the solution. But the success of AI, and now more so GenAI, has the added capabilities to help solve bandwidth constraints at utilities and support strategies that reduce grid strain faster and with greater effectiveness.

About the Author

Gautam Aggarwal

Guatam Aggarwal is Bidgely's Chief Revenue Officer.

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