The growth of computers and especially Artificial Intelligence has been exponential in recent years. The robot butlers predicted in the 1960’ didn’t happen but we’re within one or two years of self-driving autonomous cars being common place on our streets, even if they do have to have a driver behind the wheel.
One of the attractions for delegates at the Energy Live Expo this month is the ‘Innovation Igloo’ where attendees can get a taste of the new and innovative ideas and technology coming to the energy industry. One of these ideas is to utilise the learning abilities of AI, artificial intelligence, to analyse energy bills, consumption patterns and match customers with preferential rates from suppliers.
All this sounds like a great idea for the end user who increasingly just wants a cheap price and be done with it. Like all things in life, there will be those business owners who will not take kindly to change. So long as there are enough of them out there, the real people will still have a role to play.
It will be a different market though. Just like music downloads have seen the decimation of the traditional high street record stores there will always be a place for the specialist retailer with expert knowledge, just maybe not a very profitable one. Will this mean brokers adopting the technology for themselves? I hope so. With increased efficiency and a potentially quicker turnaround of energy audits, for the short term at least, there will be a sweet spot where broker and A.I. can work together. People dealing with people and computers crunching the numbers. I for one am sure that the personal touch will never leave our industry.