AI in the Energy Industry
Energy and utility companies can take advantage of AI to build better customer experiences and operate more efficiently.
Sharon Talbott
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already having a big effect on the energy and utilities industry. Many organizations use predictive AI within an energy CRM (customer relationship management) to monitor how often customers use their services. That information can help them make operational improvements, such as knowing when peak demand times occur and allocating resources accordingly.
With the rapid advancement of this Technology over the last year, it’s time to take AI in energy and utilities to the next level with generative AI. We’ll discuss how energy and utility companies can use it to build better customer experiences and take advantage of its capabilities to operate more efficiently.
Beyond buzzwords: adopting generative AI in energy and utilities
The industry is already using predictive AI. MIT Technology Review recently wrote about how AI can help make the power grid faster and more resilient . Now it’s time to embrace the next wave of this technology: using generative AI.
International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that 45% of energy suppliers will use generative AI technologies , like chatbots, to improve customer experience in 2024. This can lead to operational efficiencies, such as cutting calls to contact centers by over 60%.
A study done by the CapGemini Research Institute found that a third of utilities are exploring generative AI for customer service.
For energy and utilities companies, the “relationship” in customer relationship management (CRM) is everything. Improving customer service to build better relationships is a responsibility for the entire organization. Customers expect the highest quality of service, which is impacted by contact center engagements, utilities field service management, and always-on resource availability.
Generative AI can help with all of that. It offers low-cost, personalized service for customers. It helps crews work safer and more efficiently. AI can also speed up service restoration and improve communications for outages.
Overcoming obstacles for generative AI in energy and utilities
The industry is already using predictive AI. MIT Technology Review recently wrote about how AI can help make the power grid faster and more resilient . Now it’s time to embrace the next wave of this Technology: using generative AI.
International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that 45% of energy suppliers will use generative AI technologies , like chatbots, to improve customer experience in 2024. This can lead to operational efficiencies, such as cutting calls to contact centers by over 60%.
A study done by the CapGemini Research Institute found that a third of utilities are exploring generative AI for customer service .
For energy and utilities companies, the “relationship” in customer relationship management (CRM) is everything. Improving customer service to build better relationships is a responsibility for the entire organization. Customers expect the highest quality of service, which is impacted by contact center engagements, utilities field service management, and always-on resource availability.
Generative AI can help with all of that. It offers low-cost, personalized service for customers. It helps crews work safer and more efficiently. AI can also speed up service restoration and improve communications for outages.
Five applications of generative AI in energy and utilities
The energy and utilities industry can benefit from these five applications of generative AI:
- Generate summaries: With generative AI, you can automatically create summaries of important information from your CRM system. This gives you a clear overview of your customers, their behaviors, and their needs.
- Simplify information: Generative AI can use information from different places and change it into something that’s easier for people to understand. For example, it can create suggestions on how to use energy better based on how much customers use it.
- Engage via chatbots: AI chatbots can answer customer questions. They do this by using a big collection of training guides and articles.
- Create models and simulations: Energy and utility companies can make detailed models and examples through simulations or digital twins using generative AI. For instance, energy companies can use modeling, AI, and analytics to predict the rate of penetration of electric vehicles (EVs). This helps them better understand where that spike in electricity consumption will affect the grid.
- Manage and plan usage: We now have much more clarity, detail, and up-to-the-minute information with AI. This gives utility companies more chances to consider how their customers act when managing and planning their power grids.
Create hyperpersonalized energy customer experiences with generative AI
Generative AI technologies have the power to give energy and utility companies an advantage over their competitors. At the 2023 Dreamforce Utilities CEO Panel, Geisha Williams , former CEO of PG&E and current member of the Energy and Utilities and Salesforce Global Advisory Board, shared her thoughts on how AI can make a big difference in the energy and utility industry.
“Utilities companies across the country are looking collectively for the best solutions with the customers in mind,” Williams said. “We’ve been talking about how to turn data into useful information for decades, and I think we finally have something that’s going to make that dream come true.”
Energy and utilities companies can supply the full 360-degree view of customers that makes hyperpersonalization possible. With a deep understanding of your customers, you can deliver personalized journeys and interactions that match each customer to the right offer or service, through the right channels, at the right time.
Generative AI opens up new ways to use data to improve customer service and provide better outcomes. It can be used to personalize incentive offers, send targeted emails, and provide a more complete customer experience across digital channels. For service providers, AI can can give you a competitive edge by increasing productivity and reducing operational costs. All this has the potential to change the energy relationship.
AI in Energy FAQ
AI is used in the energy and utilities industry to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. Predictive AI monitors customer usage to optimize resource allocation, while generative AI is used for creating better customer experiences, such as through chatbots.
AI offers significant business benefits, including improved operational efficiency, enhanced customer experiences, and better grid management. It helps companies automate tasks, predict equipment failures, and provide personalized service through chatbots. This results in reduced costs, increased productivity, and a more resilient infrastructure.
Generative AI can be used to automatically summarize important customer information, simplify complex data for customers, and engage with them via chatbots. It also helps create models and simulations for grid planning and manage usage with up-to-the-minute data.
AI provides up-to-the-minute information on customer behavior and energy use. This allows utility companies to more effectively manage and plan their power grids. It can also be used to create detailed models to predict the impact of new technologies, like electric vehicles, on the grid.
AI is helping to shift the customer relationship from a transactional one to a more personalized and proactive one. By using AI to understand customer behavior and provide tailored services, energy companies can create a more engaging and positive experience.
Writers were aided by AI to draft these FAQ questions
Ready to take the next step with Energy & Utilities Cloud?
Try for free.
Start building on Energy & Utilities Cloud for free with one of our trial environments, custom configured to suit your needs.
Talk to an expert.
Tell us a bit more so the right person can reach out faster.
