Steve Smith, President of National Grid Partners and Chief Strategy and Regulation Officer at National Grid.
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Artificial intelligence is swiftly moving beyond the realm of startups to serve governments and large enterprises. And despite some early skepticism and stumbling blocks, the long-promised results are starting to land. Senior leaders now report positive ROI from artificial intelligence across their businesses, from operations to innovation.
Even highly regulated industries like finance, healthcare and utilities are deploying AI. In fact, our survey of utility innovation leaders revealed a sea change: Nearly two-thirds of respondents had seen their innovation budgets increase versus the previous year, and almost all (96%) called AI a strategic focus.
I've seen firsthand how artificial intelligence delivers hundreds of millions of dollars in value to our company and its customers—from warding off equipment failures to reducing outages caused by falling trees. AI even helps us solve the challenges it creates: While many fret about AI’s massive electricity demands, our portfolio company uses it to find excess grid capacity that can power data centers. And Emerald AI recently proved that artificial intelligence can help data centers automatically reduce power usage by up to 40% in times of high demand. Together, these new technologies can help reduce costs for existing utility customers as we drive more AI connections to boost the economy.
The opportunity is enormous. But seizing it requires something utilities and other industries are now scrambling to secure: AI talent.
Make no mistake: Skilled AI experts are in high demand. Meta, Google and OpenAI are offering record-setting compensation packages to top AI researchers—deals that can exceed $100 million for the most sought-after talent.
Critical industries like government, healthcare, education and energy won’t—and shouldn’t—enter this sort of bidding war. But the talent gap threatens to slow the application of AI to some of society's biggest challenges. The majority of utility leaders we surveyed, for instance, say the shortage is holding back deployments that could improve operations, cut costs and boost grid resilience.
To close the gap, we need both to help workers embrace AI and to attract new talent by showcasing why critical industries matter. Here's how:
According to the World Economic Forum, executives believe 40% of their workforces need reskilling because of AI. Companies must train current employees on how to use it, then celebrate progress. Leaders in regulated industries need to work with educational institutions to showcase the careers we have to offer, provide hands-on student experiences and support continuing education for employees. And the public sector has a critical role to play as well: The governor of New York recently announced a new program to train and place college students in AI-enabled careers and to provide AI training for small business owners.
While there are early adopters in every workforce, real progress necessitates setting goals for AI utilization, tracking performance and even requiring AI use where possible. Utilities, for example, must partner with regulators to ensure artificial intelligence is central to our shared strategy—and to incentivize deployments (with human oversight, of course). The regulated healthcare industry has embraced AI for use cases ranging from imaging and diagnostics to drug discovery and even writing prescriptions; we should be able to find similar shared ground in our industry.
Traditional-minded industries like utilities need go-to experts from the tech world who can guide employees learning the AI ropes, facilitate deployments and promote use cases internally. Forward-deployed engineers from AI innovators can learn the business challenges utilities face and adjust AI models to meet those needs.
Utilities perform a powerful societal function. No tech startup launches without power; AI queries don't run without data centers. Our world-class engineers manage massive, dynamic grids with real-world stakes. We need to message this better and team with regulators to emphasize the importance of this work. Careers in energy (and in developing the AI to support it) shouldn't feel second-tier; they should be sought after.
The greatest threat isn't AI potentially eliminating jobs—it's our inability to deploy AI fast enough to solve critical problems, from aging infrastructure to surging energy demands.
Likewise, the companies that will thrive in the next decade won't be the ones that can outbid tech giants for talent—they'll be the ones that create environments where AI talent wants to work.
Ensuring reliable, affordable power is an invaluable benefit to society. And the emerging future of energy represents a generational opportunity to reshape modern life. That kind of challenge attracts world-class thinkers and doers.
Utilities and other critical industries can still compete for talent on purpose, impact and the chance to build the vital infrastructure on which society depends. That's a pitch worth making—and one that just might win.
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