How utilities can harness AI to drive customer engagement and operational excellence
Four imperatives for utilities seeking to adopt AI and automation with efficacy and humanity.
Utilities are under mounting pressure from every direction: Grow program participation, modernize the grid, improve customer experience, and do it all more efficiently. AI and automation offer a path forward with powerful tools that can personalize outreach, decipher customer motivations, and optimize program delivery at a scale previously impossible.
To explore how utilities can effectively harness these capabilities, ICF convened a group of utility marketing and communications leaders for a hands-on AI workshop. The day included:
- Advanced AI prompt engineering training
- AI applications that connect people, culture, and community
- Hands-on sessions testing advanced AI applications
- Practical applications and use cases for AI for utilities
Insights from this workshop and a targeted event survey reveal four critical imperatives for utilities seeking to adopt AI and automation with efficacy and humanity within their marketing operations.
1. Build the strategy before scaling the tools
A gap persists between strategic planning and AI and automation adoption across the utility marketing sector. Survey responses indicate that most utility marketers are already using AI or automation tools within their organizations. Common applications include customer engagement optimization, data reporting and analytics, content creation and personalization, and customer segmentation.
However, strategic planning lags behind: Only a small portion of respondents reported having a dedicated budget for AI projects, and a minority have a 12-month AI plan. This enthusiasm without organizational preparedness creates risk around duplicated efforts, inconsistent customer experiences, and compliance issues.
“We’re seeing AI adoption at the team level, but without the organizational infrastructure to support it. Everyone’s experimenting, which is great, but we need strategic alignment to turn those experiments into scalable solutions that work across the entire customer journey.”
The takeaway: There is great opportunity for utilities to move from grassroots experimentation to strategic formalization of AI and automation efforts.
2. Use data-driven insights to target resources where they matter most
AI’s most powerful, immediate impact lies in its ability to analyze patterns at scale. This can give utilities a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of their customers than ever before, which forms the crux of any successful marketing or engagement strategy.
Survey responses show that over half of utility marketers are already using AI and automation for data reporting and analytics. Looking ahead, a majority of respondents expressed interest in expanded applications, including customer segmentation, customer service optimization, and predictive data analysis.
As utilities broaden their use of AI and automation for segmentation and predictive analysis, the technology can also simulate customer personas to quickly reveal motivations and barriers. This enables teams to identify high-potential customer segments, accurately predict program uptake, and recognize patterns across thousands of customer interactions.
Propensity modeling exemplifies this capability, helping utilities move from guessing to knowing who’s ready to act by analyzing factors like energy usage, program participation, and building type. When combined with real-time data—such as email clicks or chatbot interactions—AI and automation can reveal where to prioritize outreach and which segments are likely to engage.
The takeaway: AI enables utility marketers to make the most of data-driven insights by targeting the right customers and optimizing engagement strategies.
3. Scale personalization without sacrificing humanity and authenticity
Once utilities understand their customers, the next step is using that insight to connect with them in meaningful and relevant ways. This is where personalization comes in—and where AI offer transformational value when applied thoughtfully.
Utility marketers are prioritizing personalization for their operations: most respondents are interested in personalized marketing applications, and over half are focusing on customer experience over the next two to three years. Customers respond best to communications that feel tailored to their wants and needs, and AI and automation offer powerful capabilities to deliver this at scale by identifying engagement patterns and tailoring outreach based on existing customer data (energy usage, program history).
But the human element remains critical. AI and automation should enhance decision-making and creativity, not become a substitute for it. Technology can analyze patterns in customer responses and identify why messaging is or isn’t working. But human judgment remains essential for acting on those insights and ensuring that communications feel natural and authentic.
“AI gives us incredible power to personalize at scale, but we can’t lose sight of what makes marketing resonate in the first place—genuine human connection. The technology should amplify our creativity and empathy, not replace it.”
The takeaway: Personalized, data-driven outreach is possible at scale with AI—while human insight keeps messaging relatable.
4. Interactive learning and peer collaboration are essential for AI capability building
As utilities explore practical applications of AI and automation across the marketing lifecycle, hands-on, collaborative learning will accelerate effective and creative adoption. Demonstrations and interactive sessions can help utility staff translate AI and automation concepts into practical skills they can use immediately.
Applied learning formats such as workshops, tutorials, webinars, advanced feature training, and peer-to-peer exchanges go beyond theory and show AI in action. This helps align teams around goals and challenges, and it strengthens AI and automation capabilities across different operational sectors.
The takeaway: Collaborative learning can turn AI concepts into real-world skills, driving faster and more effective adoption across utility marketing operations.
Looking ahead
AI adoption is already happening, but utility marketers need strategic planning and skill-building to maximize impact. By combining customer engagement insights with operational intelligence, utility marketers can enhance program participation, operational efficiency, and overall service quality. The biggest opportunity lies in making outreach feel less like marketing and more like a partnership—using AI and automation as a bridge between utilities and customers that helps teams listen, learn, and respond with greater authenticity and trust.