Natural language IVR can significantly reduce call center wait times, improve self-service, and improve the overall customer experience. Shane McArdle, CEO of Kongsberg Digital, said the partnership brings together proven digital twin technology and advanced AI platforms to help customers move more quickly from insights to measurable operational outcomes. He added that the alliance will support customers in extracting greater value from data while improving day-to-day performance.

Modernizing voice and IVR systems

The journey of integrating AI within the utilities sector is complex and challenging. As the industry progresses, these insights and partners, like Neudesic, will serve as a valuable guide for other organizations navigating their AI transformation journeys. Additionally, AI empowers predictive analysis, where data from smart meters and IoT devices are used to predict potential issues and schedule maintenance. This method manages demand side management by alerting customers about potential outages, maintenance schedules, and changes in energy prices within time.

Modern Business Apps

Several demonstrations have focused on how AI/ML algorithms can optimize distribution system resources. There has been an “explosion into public consciousness of generative AI models,” according to a 2024 Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, paper. The explosion has resulted in huge 2025 AI financial commitments like the $500 billion U.S. The age of autonomous utilities has begun, and those who balance innovation with governance will set the benchmark for the industry’s next chapter. Talk to our experts to explore how Agentic AI can transform your operations and lead the era of autonomous, intelligent utilities. Together, these layers form the infrastructure of responsible autonomy, ensuring that as agents grow more capable they remain within defined boundaries of trust, safety and control.

Synthetic Data

Don’t build new infrastructure when you can connect to current databases and sensors. Most utilities have adequate data collection but terrible data organization. Otherwise, agents will make decisions based on incorrect or incomplete information. Budget for middleware that facilitates the translation between old and new technologies. Your 20-year-old SCADA system won’t talk to cloud-based AI without help. Utilities and AI solution providers are partnering to speed up the adoption of AI in the utilities industry.

What the 2026 Season Demands

For example, AI can analyze weather data to predict energy demand and adjust energy production accordingly. AI can also monitor the performance of energy assets in real-time, identifying areas where energy is being wasted or where equipment needs maintenance, reducing energy losses and downtime. In terms of site selection, AI integrates various data sources to evaluate potential locations based on risk assessments and cost-benefit analyses. Additionally, AI optimizes design configurations through simulations, allocates resources effectively during deployment, and monitors construction progress in real-time. Swiss startup Emissium offers a machine learning-based platform designed to facilitate energy monitoring, carbon accounting, and the reduction of electricity emissions. Copilot finds applications in various utility functions, including outage management, where it uses AI to analyze data in the early minutes of an outage to speed up disaster recovery.

The Bigger Theme: AI’s Infrastructure Trade

This newly generated information can be used to build infrastructure to meet net-zero requirements and goals. For example, geospatial-powered AI and deep learning models can be used to identify suitable sites for solar panels. These tools can measure land elevation, evaluate land use data, assess weather patterns, incorporate environmental factors and determine proximity to infrastructure and grid assets to consider solar power generation potential. AI-driven network optimization involves using predictive analytics to monitor and enhance network performance in real-time.

Home to 67 utility stocks, this exchange-traded fund (ETF) is up 8.3% year to date, making it one of the best Vanguard ETFs in terms of sheer performance. In investing, the phrase “small but mighty” is often applied to small-caps, but it’s certainly applicable to utility stocks more recently. The second-smallest sector in the S&P 500 and one that accounts for a mere 2.37% of that index’s weight is delivering big returns in 2026. As AI becomes more capable, adoption will depend less on what the technology can do and more on whether it preserves creative ownership, attribution and trust. It is a series of boundary-setting exercises of what to allow, what to reject and how to communicate intent clearly to a workforce that is highly attuned to the value of their intellectual property and creative output. “The bottom line is — gather more high-quality data, use, store and protect it properly, and feed it into models that are trained and updated for the right tasks,” Renshaw concluded.

Library resources

The changes are taking place thanks in large part to utilities’ increased use of AI. It’s the combination of AI and natural language processing and smart speakers that allows a savvy, automated energy advisor to take up residence in just about any home in America. While impressive, the fact that a utility customer can ask a smart speaker about a high bill and what can be done https://www.gms-software.net/time-attendance-systems/ about it is just one of the breakthroughs.

• The competitive retail energy sector is already using AI-powered customer engagement to stand out, leveraging personalized AI personas and multimodal models to create more interactive experiences.
• In this blog post, we’ll explore how AI is revolutionizing utilities—optimizing operations at both a system-wide and physical level, transforming customer engagement, and augmenting the workforce with AI-driven tools.
• Explore the enhanced functionalities in Reality AI Tools and the new features integrated into Renesas e² studio.
• AI-powered chatbots can also personalize customer service by analyzing customer data and providing tailored recommendations.

74% of utility executives believe that AI’s full potential can only be realized when it is built on a foundation of trust. AI in utility industry agents adjusts power flow in real-time based on demand, weather, and equipment status. They prevent blackouts by moving electricity around faster than your dispatchers can think. Lee says that some are experimenting with short-term load forecasting, using real-time data like weather, usage trends, and local events to predict electricity demand hours or days in advance. Others are testing AI to control distributed energy resources like smart thermostats, EV chargers, and home batteries to slightly reduce or shift energy use during high-demand periods, easing strain on the grid.

“AI/ML and other novel technologies can not only bolster our immediate response capabilities but also inform long-term planning and policymaking,” it added. Utilities can overlay asset, weather and location-accurate maps and perform ML-powered simulations around storm scenarios. They can process imagery to detect dead and diseased trees, determine where to remove fuel and what utility poles to harden and coat with fire retardant material.