Why GenAI Will Redefine the Next Decade of Energy Innovation by Rhys Jacob, CTO at D55.

Why GenAI Will Redefine the Next Decade of Energy Innovation

‍

Data is everywhere, but insight is scarce. Today’s energy leaders face rising pressure to deliver growth, efficiency, and actionable insight all at once. Yet legacy systems, fragmented platforms, and poor data quality still hold back innovation and profitability.
Generative AI is poised to redefine energy innovation over the next decade, but success will require more than hype. It demands a strategy that is technically grounded, commercially sharp, and outcome-focused, with strong data foundations in place from day one.

If your data is not in good shape, you will not be able to use AI or GenAI meaningfully.

No clean data. No trusted insight. No scalable AI.

‍

From Experiments to Everyday Impact

‍

After years of experimentation, Generative AI is shifting into everyday business impact. In energy, this means moving beyond pilots and proofs-of-concept to solving real, operationally embedded problems.

When systems and data move as fast as the market demands, everything accelerates: insight, efficiency, innovation, and competitive advantage. In practical energy use-cases, GenAI now enables:

• ‍Customer intelligence at scale: In CRM environments, GenAI can generate real-time customer account summaries, analyse sentiment across all customer communications, and highlight risk, churn indicators, and service opportunities. Anywhere a human touches the customer, GenAI adds value. ‍
• Enhanced Customer Experience: With better data and AI-driven insights, you can personalise billing, optimize energy recommendations, and respond to customer needs proactively. The payoff is higher customer satisfaction and retention in an increasingly competitive market. ‍
• Operational resilience: AI helps anticipate failures, optimise maintenance schedules, and react to supply and demand changes in real time, keeping critical services reliable and reducing downtime. ‍
• Commercial agility: By automating manual workflows and surfacing insight instantly, GenAI frees teams to focus on strategy and new revenue opportunities rather than reconciliation and reporting. ‍
• Enhance forecasting and decision-making speed: Machine Learning and advanced analytics can drastically shorten forecasting cycles and improve accuracy, from demand prediction to grid management.

Each of these outcomes is within reach, but only for organisations that lay the groundwork first. GenAI delivers value when it is built on strong data and platform foundations, not bolted onto broken systems.

‍

Laying the Foundations for AI-Readiness

‍

To harness GenAI at scale, energy firms must first get their house in order. Three enabling foundations are non-negotiable:

• ‍Clean, real-time data: High-quality, well-governed, real-time data is the fuel that powers GenAI. Breaking down silos and uniting data into a single source of truth is essential. Modern data platforms and pipelines unlock real-time insight, support automation, and provide the foundation for advanced analytics, AI, and GenAI. ‍
• Well-governed platforms: With great power comes great responsibility, especially with GenAI. Robust data governance, security, and cost-optimisation must be built in from the start. A well-governed cloud platform ensures AI remains compliant, sustainable, and commercially controlled.

Together, these foundations create true AI-readiness: the ability to experiment quickly, scale safely, and realise value without increasing risk.

‍

D55’s Three Pillars of Energy Innovation

‍

At D55, we take an integrated approach to help energy organisations modernise and innovate. Our services span the entire transformation lifecycle from strategy to execution to continuous optimisation. We focus on three core pillars:

Application Development

We modernise outdated applications and build new cloud-native solutions so teams can release features faster, innovate confidently, and introduce new services without friction. From core billing engine modernisation to next-generation customer platforms, we deliver resilient, scalable software engineered for operational excellence.

Data Services

We build modern data platforms and data pipelines that turn fragmented information into real-time insight. We integrate critical systems and automate workflows to create a trusted single source of truth, unlocking advanced analytics, automation, and AI readiness.

Managed Services

We keep everything running smoothly with proactive monitoring, governance, security, cost optimisation, and continuous improvement. We do not just build and walk away. We remain accountable for availability, performance, security, and cost control.

These three pillars reinforce each other. Together they give energy organisations the confidence to move at startup speed without sacrificing reliability or compliance.

‍

Outcomes: From Hype to Real Results

‍

The true measure of GenAI is not experimentation. It is commercial impact. When GenAI is aligned with strong foundations, we consistently see:

Operational resilience: Platforms that scale, self-heal, and remain reliable under volatility.

AI-readiness: Unified data estates that allow new GenAI use-cases to move from idea to production in weeks, not months.

Enhanced customer experience: CRM insight, communication sentiment analysis, proactive service, and personalised engagement at scale.

Faster decision-making through advanced analytics: Automated insight replaces manual reporting. Leaders receive answers in hours instead of days.

Commercial agility: Technology becomes an accelerator rather than a constraint. New propositions, pricing models, and regulatory changes can be delivered faster than competitors.

These outcomes are not theoretical. We see them delivered when organisations modernise platforms, unify data, and apply GenAI with purpose.

‍

From Vision to Action: The GenAI Inspire Workshop

‍

Talking about AI is easy. Taking meaningful action is harder. That is why D55 offers the GenAI Inspire Workshop: a half-day workshop with senior stakeholders designed to align on desired GenAI outcomes and demonstrate how GenAI can enable the business. Many organisations may also qualify for funded early-stage support.

The session includes:

• A clear overview of GenAI and how it differs from traditional AI
• Practical use-cases across the business
• Illustration of tangible commercial impact from GenAI adoption
• Alignment on where GenAI can deliver real value quickly

It is a funded discovery engagement designed to produce a clear, realistic action plan.

‍

Charting the Next Decade – Together

‍

The next decade of energy innovation will be defined by those who turn emerging technology into real-world results. Generative AI will reshape customer engagement, operations, and commercial performance. But the winners will not be those who rush to adopt tools. They will be the organisations that build the right foundations first.

At D55, we partner with energy leaders to modernise systems, unify data, and apply GenAI responsibly and commercially.

Let’s explore the possible, together.

Rhys Jacob
CTO, D55

‍