How to Improve Customer Experience in Energy & Utilities: Strategies, Opportunities, and AI Innovations 

In the past, delivering reliable energy and water services was the primary benchmark for utilities. Today, customers expect much more. Transparent billing, flexible digital payments, real-time updates on usage and outages, seamless digital self-service across omnichannel communication options, interact with their utilities on mobile apps and the assurance that their personal data is secure, have become baseline expectations. Studies show that over 70% of energy and utility customers now prefer to manage their services digitally, with many willing to switch their providers if given a choice, for a smoother, more convenient digital experience. 

This shift reflects the evolving energy and water customer. Today, customers are more informed, empowered, and digitally connected than ever before. Utilities face increasing pressure to meet these expectations while navigating rapid electric vehicle (EV) adoption, rising distributed energy resources (DER) participation, AI and data centers demanding more energy, and the growing impacts of extreme weather.  

To stay ahead, industry leaders are leveraging new advancements in AI technology, from GenAI to Agentic AI to Vertical AI Platforms as a core differentiator for utilities. This is helping utilities to deliver hyper-personalized engagement, automate customer interactions, and provide proactive, data-driven service across every touchpoint. Proactive, omnichannel, and personalized engagement is no longer a differentiator – it’s a necessity.

This article explores strategies and opportunities utilities can adopt to elevate customer service, improve customer experience (CX), and redefine the customer-utility relationship. We will examine the evolving trends shaping customer expectations and illustrate how AI, particularly Vertical AI designed specifically for energy and utilities, is enabling smarter, more human-centered experiences. 

Customer Service vs. Customer Experience in Energy & Utilities 

Customer service focuses on resolving individual issues efficiently, such as fixing billing errors, answering outage questions, or addressing payment problems. Its effectiveness is often measured through metrics like first-contact resolution. 

Customer experience (CX), on the other hand, goes beyond individual interactions. It manages the complete end-to-end journey, from receiving transparent bills and managing digital payments to receiving outage alerts and participating in sustainability programs. Unlike isolated service interactions, CX connects every touchpoint, creating a seamless and personalized journey across channels. 

Energy and utilities that rely solely on call centers or reactive support risk losing the trust of today’s digital-savvy, mobile-first customers. A customer-first CX model integrates every service and experience, making every touchpoint simple, personalized, and consistent. 

Measuring Success

• Customer service is measured through metrics like first-contact resolution.
• Customer experience uses indicators such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), CSAT, and Customer Effort Score (CES).
• Behavioral metrics such as payment failures, repeat service calls, outage response times, self-service adoption—provide deeper insight into performance.

True transformation comes when service and experience are integrated across the organization, ensuring accountability and ownership for a complete, connected journey. 

Evolving Trends Shaping Utility Customer Experience 

The energy and utility sector is amid a major transformation, shaped by rapid advances in technology, regulatory pressures and rising customer expectations. To remain trusted partners in the customer’s energy and water journey, utilities must adapt to several shifts: 

• Industry Shifts - Distributed energy resources (DERs) such as rooftop solar, battery storage, and smart home devices are reshaping how energy is produced and consumed. This has given rise to prosumers who play a dual role as both consumers and producers. Water utilities are also seeing a shift as smart meters and conservation technologies empower customers to monitor and reduce usage.
• Electrification, AI, and Growing Energy Demand - The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), combined with the increasing deployment of AI technologies and expanding data centers, is driving higher energy consumption. Utilities must rethink grid planning, customer programs, and engagement models to accommodate these pressures while maintaining reliability and meeting customer expectations.
• Customer Demands - Customers today expect instant, real-time access to information, such as usage data, service notifications, and personalized updates via intuitive mobile apps and self-service platforms. Experience through transparent and easy-to-understand billing, flexible payment options and 24x7 AI agent support are no longer “nice to have”, they have become baseline expectations.
• Market Trends – The industry is responding by accelerating digital transformation, with increasing adoption of self-service platforms, AI-powered chatbots, mobile applications, and personalized engagement strategies. Utilities that implement these solutions can deliver seamless, proactive experiences, reduce operations friction, and strengthen customer satisfaction.
• Operational Gaps - Many utilities struggle with legacy systems, fragmented customer journeys, reactive service models, and limited analytics. These gaps prevent them from delivering the unified, predictive, and proactive customer experience customers expect.  

Leading energy and utility providers are addressing these challenges through digital transformation powered by Vertical AI. By integrating customer insights with operational data and real-time analytics, utilities can predict needs, drive omnichannel engagement, and deliver predictive, personalized, and proactive services across every channels. 

Opportunities with AI in Energy and Utility Customer Experience

Generic AI may automate interactions, but it often delivers a one-size-fits-all experience with generic responses and limited personalization. Vertical AI, on the other hand, is purpose-built for energy and utilities. Trained on industry-specific data such as smart meter readings, outage histories, customer behaviour, weather forecasts, grid performance, and regulatory requirements, it delivers interactions grounded in real operational context. 

This deep industry knowledge enables utilities to send proactive outage updates, provide clear bill explanations, offer tailored savings tips, and maintain regulatory compliance. The result is not just automation, but a customer experience that feels intuitive, relevant, and built on trust. 

By combining industry-grade machine learning, natural language processing, and advanced analytics, Vertical AI delivers far more than basic automation: 

• Tailor-Made for Energy and Utilities: Designed specifically for the energy and utility industry, addressing unique operational and customer experience challenges that generic, industry-agnostic platforms cannot.
• Built-In Integrations & Configurations: Unlike generic AI which requires heavy customization, Vertical AI comes pre-configured for critical utility functions such as grid management, energy monitoring, outage management, and customer engagement - accelerating deployment while ensuring deep operational alignment.
• Advanced, Utility-Specific Use Cases: Supports predictive maintenance, prosumer empowerment, demand response forecasting, and more industry-specific use cases. This enables energy and utilities to anticipate outages and spikes, optimize grid performance, and proactively engage customers with hyper-relevant services.
• Security and Compliance: Ensures enterprise-grade protection of sensitive utility and customer data at scale, aligned with regulatory requirements. 

SEW.AI’s SmartCX platform, powered by Vertical AI, purpose-built for energy and utilities brings these opportunities to life, transforming customer experience while enabling utilities to operate with intelligence, agility, and trust. 

Practical Use Cases with Vertical AI and SmartCX 

• Intelligent Self-Service: Deliver one unified experience across mobile, web, wearables, IVR, AI agents and chatbots. Customers can start a request on one channel and finish it on another, whether checking service request status on an app, paying bills through an AI agent, or updating account details online.
• Predictive Support: Use real-time and historical data to anticipate issues and send proactive alerts. Customers stay informed about outages, restoration timelines, or unusual consumption before problems escalate.
• Omnichannel Engagement: Enable seamless communication across SMS, email, push notifications, IVR, WhatsApp, AI agents, and chatbot, keeping customers connected on their preferred channel at every step.
• 24/7 Intelligent Support: With AI agent capability, customers get conversational, multilingual assistance that feels human-like, understanding intent and context. From resolving billing queries to reporting outages, or checking the status of service requests, support is instant, consistent, and available anytime, anywhere.
• Personalized Engagement: Leverage customer usage patterns, preferences, and history to deliver tailored interactions. From explaining bill fluctuations in simple terms, to offering energy- and water-saving tips, recommending the right EV charging plans or conservation programs, and sending timely offers, every touchpoint becomes relevant and contextual to the individual.
• Multi-Persona Support: Serve diverse customer groups with experiences tailored to their needs, from residential households to commercial enterprises, builders, landlords, and agencies. Each persona receives the right information, dashboards, and experiences designed to meet their unique needs.
• 360° Customer View: Integrate customer and grid data to generate actionable insights. Utilities can segment customers, predict behaviors, and design targeted campaigns that improve engagement and service delivery at scale.
• Operational Optimization: Streamline CRM, campaigns, and reporting with AI-driven automation, agentic intelligence, and predictive analytics. This reduces manual effort, speeds up decision-making, and improves efficiency across operations.
• Future-Ready Innovations: Introduce next-generation experiences such as demand response programs, rewards, AI-driven water conservation alerts, EV charging optimization, rooftop solar integration, and digital marketplaces - enhancing customer engagement while driving sustainability  and supporting emerging innovations.
• Scalable by Design: Built to adapt to evolving needs and scale across billions of customers, diverse geographies, and dynamic regulatory environments, ensuring reliable, consistent experiences without performance trade-offs. 

Proven Strategies to Elevate Utility Customer Experience 

Delivering a modern customer experience requires more than vision. It requires scale, innovation, and proven execution. Through global partnerships with 450+ utilities across 47 countries, SEW.AI has seen firsthand how SmartCX unifies every journey into a seamless omnichannel experience that puts people at the center. 

For years, energy and utility providers relied on siloed systems and multi-pointed solutions that left customer journeys fragmented and inconsistent. The shift to an integrated, data-driven approach is transforming this reality. Backed by 12+ years of global co-innovation, these strategies form a playbook any utility can adopt to remove friction, personalize communication, and build stronger customer relationships. 

• Lead with Customer-First Digital Transformation 
Unify customer journeys into one connected framework. Proven at global scale, this approach has driven 90%+ digital adoption in self-service channels, reduced costs, and strengthened engagement.
• Personalization at Scale with Vertical AI 
Move beyond generic automation to true personalization. With Vertical AI, utilities can deliver personalized customer experiences to diverse personas (residential, commercial, builders, landlords, agencies, property managers), support multilingual experiences, and deliver contextual communication. Examples include explaining bill fluctuations clearly, recommending EV charging plans, or tailoring conservation programs.
• Orchestrate Connected Journeys 
Customers move fluidly across multiple channels and devices - SMS, email, mobile apps, IVR, wearables, and AI agents. By shifting from fragmented interactions to orchestrated connected journeys, utilities can achieve higher adoption, lower service center costs, and stronger satisfaction
• Inclusive Experiences 
Design CX models that prioritize accessibility for all customers. This includes enabling multilingual and voice-enabled access for vulnerable groups, ensuring simple and inclusive interfaces, and embedding conservation nudges such as energy- and water-saving prompts. The outcome is a customer experience that is both equitable and inclusive.
• Harness Data-Driven Insights for Continuous Innovation 
Customer expectations evolve rapidly. Utilities must capture real-time feedback, leverage customer behavior analytics, and run Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs, to continuously refine their CX models, ensuring gains in satisfaction, loyalty, and efficiency.
• Trust, Privacy, and Responsible AI 
Safeguard sensitive data under GDPR, CCPA, and other global frameworks while ensuring fairness, transparency, and explainability in using AI models.
• Operational Resilience  
Connect customer, workforce, business, and asset data to unify operations around CX excellence, building reliability, resilience, and efficiency across diverse markets.
• Accelerate Industry Co-Innovation  
Utilities cannot transform customer experience in isolation. Partnering with technology providers, regulators, and peers fosters shared innovation, reduces risk, and speeds adoption of best practices. Proven co-developed AI use cases support emerging needs such as DER integration, EV growth, and new regulatory models, ensuring scalability and future readiness. 

SmartCX: Industry’s #1 Vertical AI Customer Experience (CX) Platform 

SmartCX is the only end-to-end Digital Customer Experience (CX) Platform designed exclusively for energy and utility providers. Built on Vertical AI, it delivers unified customer journeys across every channel - web, mobile, IVR, smartwatch, and AI agents while serving diverse personas from households to commercial enterprises, builders, landlords, property managers and agencies. 

Unlike generic AI solutions, SmartCX connects customer and operational data, integrates with 100+ utility systems, and comes pre-packaged with 3,000+ utility-specific use cases. This ensures faster deployment, deeper alignment with grid operations, and seamless expansion as customer expectations evolve. 

Where SmartCX makes a difference: 
 

• Unified Journeys: One connected platform covering billing, payments, outages, service requests, programs, EV management, and more – from a single digital platform.
• Adoption at Scale: Intuitive, 5-star rated apps and web experiences that drive digital-first and mobile-inclusive engagement and consistently achieve 90%+ self-service adoption.
• Beyond Customer Service: A complete shift from fragmented touchpoints to context-aware interactions such as bill clarity, tailored payment arrangements, predictive outage updates, and targeted program recommendations, building long-term trust and loyalty.
• Future-Proof Innovation: Built to support the next wave of utility transformation, from DER integration and EV growth to digital marketplaces, prosumer engagement, and personalized water and energy programs.