Transforming the Power Sector and Harnessing AI for a Sustainable Future with Susie Turk, Salesforce [Power Perspectives Conversations at DISTRIBUTECH 2024]
At the forefront of today’s ongoing power industry's evolution lies a convergence of technological innovation, customer-centric solutions, and sustainability imperatives. The DISTRIBUTECH 2024 conference held during the last week of February 2024 highlighted these themes prominently. Susie Turk, Vice President of Solution Engineering at Salesforce, was one of the thought leaders extolling these virtues, both in her multiple speaking engagements and in a sit-down interview she afforded us at Energy Central.
Through these engagements, Turk provided invaluable insights into the emerging trends shaping the utility landscape. With a keen focus on AI integration, customer experience enhancement, and the relentless pursuit of optimization, her perspectives offer a compelling narrative for utility professionals regarding how to embrace the technological changes happening before our eyes.
As we delved into these key topics with Turk, she helped to shed light on these pivotal themes that are reshaping the modern power industry. From the transformative potential of AI-driven solutions to the imperative of fostering trust and transparency, Turk's discussion unveils actionable strategies for utilities to thrive in an era defined by rapid change and evolving consumer expectations. Moreover, her insights underscore the interconnectedness of sustainability goals, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction, painting a holistic picture of the industry's trajectory.
AI Integration in Utilities
The whole of the DISTRIBUTECH 2024 conference had a persistent buzz on the opportunities that AI is bringing to the power sector. Turk agreed, noting that at Salesforce they were seeing AI being integrated into the fiber of not just utilities, but all industries as people are trying to wrap their heads around what AI really means for their operations. While Turk noted that some in the industry may have anxiety about AI: will it replace jobs, for example? With that in mind, Turk shared a compelling analogy towards the power of properly-utilized AI.
“My pastor shared recently that he’s been having ChatGPT write his sermons for quite a while now,” commented Turk. “And when I first read that I was really taken aback. But he shared how this tool gets him 80% of the way and he fills in the remaining 20% himself to make it impactful and effective, but in doing so he saves about 20 to 30 hours per week. And with that additional time, he can perform actions that automation can never replace: be with somebody who is suffering, pray with somebody, help someone who’s not well. And so through that lens, it becomes clear that AI is there to make life easier and better and free us up to perform the type of tasks that only humans can do. So just like with a utility technician, the AI is not going to fix the major storm outages, but if it can help him with menial tasks like writing up the reports then that is real value gained.” - Susie Turk
Utilities, in particular, are exploring how AI can be harnessed to enhance their operations, improve efficiency, and better serve their customers. And Turk noted that while the conversations seemed to newly dominate the DISTRIBUTECH conversations, these were topics the Salesforce team had been embracing for about a decade.
“We realized AI was something to behold in the utility sector before much of the rest of the world did. And so, we’ve spent years thinking through our solutions and how AI can be used by our customers to take advantage and drive impact within their organizations. An example that I covered in one of my sessions was around the power of generative AI to take the burden off non-value add tasks. When we think about our mobile workforce or our technicians that are responding to disasters and outages, we want to be sure they are well positioned to do so as efficiently as possible, and leveraging AI to handle the low-value, tedious tasks is key to that.” - Susie Turk
Throughout this conversation and during sessions at DISTRIBUTECH, Salesforce spent time emphasizing the importance of combining AI with CRM, data, and trust to deliver impactful solutions. Trust, especially, is a critical factor in AI adoption, ensuring data security, accessibility, and ethical use. The Salesforce team highlighted the evolving landscape of AI, moving from predictive to generative and towards autonomous agents. Future opportunities lie in leveraging AI to perform tasks autonomously, with contextual understanding and tailored to specific business needs.
Susie Turk Sharing Intel on the Einstein AI Platform at a Breakout Session