As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms industries, the utilities sector finds itself at a crossroads. We’re balancing the promise of innovation with the responsibility of ethical application.
At LET’S GO! 2024, HData’s own Jason Stevenson got together with longtime industry veteran Tom Peterson, Managing Director of KPMG’s Power & Utilities Advisory, to unpack this nuanced challenge. The duo offered insights into how regulated energy professionals can harness AI responsibly to foster collaboration, innovation, and trust.
Here’s how the discussion went:
Transparency and Trust
One central theme was the role AI can play in creating transparency. Because AI tools make specific insights so much more discoverable amid huge quantities of data, it’s easier than ever for regulators, intervenors, and utilities to operate off the same key findings. This is an incredible opportunity for better policy development, gains in efficiency and operational logistics, and consumer satisfaction.
But that transparency is only useful if the AI tool’s answers are trustworthy. The responses and insights generated have to be explainable. If stakeholders don’t understand how AI’s responses were generated, trust erodes quickly and parties are back to operating independently.
Both Tom and Jason stressed the need for clear documentation (like our platform’s citation feature) and human validation processes to ensure that AI outputs are reliable and interpretable.
Augmenting (Not Replacing) Human Expertise
Jason and Tom were in agreement: AI should augment human decision-making, not replace it.
While AI can process vast amounts of data quickly, it’s still limited by the scope of the questions it gets asked and the data it’s trained on and has access to. So, AI may excel at answering specific queries, but it lacks the deep, industry-specific understanding and nuanced perspectives that only humans bring to the table. Human judgment will stay essential for interpreting results in the broader contexts that AI can’t fully grasp.
Tom emphasized that AI is a tool to assist, not diminish, professional expertise. In fact, he thinks that as the volume of data grows, so will the opportunities for collaboration and the need for strategic thinking. "Jobs don’t go away. They just change a little bit," he said.
Building Ethical Frameworks
To address these challenges, the panel emphasized the importance of keeping a critical eye and a commitment to ethical AI adoption. Specifically, Tom and Jason talked about:
- Guidelines for data use to ensure data privacy, security, and representativeness
- Validation standards so humans are regular testing and validating AI models
- Stakeholder involvement so regulators, customers, and community representatives are engaged in developing policies related to AI
AI will continue to evolve and, as an industry, our approach will have to evolve too. That means embracing transparency, minimizing bias, and maintaining human oversight. This discussion from LET’S GO! 2024 reminds us that the future of utilities isn’t just about innovation—it’s about doing what’s right.
This is just one of many talks from the event. Watch the presentations on demand any time.