About the Company
A leading U.S. regulated utility is a century-old energy company headquartered in Indiana, serving nearly 4 million natural gas and electric customers across six states. With over 7,400 employees operating under two major brands, the company manages a large, distributed workforce spanning field operations, engineering, customer service, and corporate functions.
As the company moved to adopt AI and generative AI tools enterprise-wide, including Microsoft Copilot, it faced the challenge of preparing a diverse, non-technical workforce to use these tools responsibly and effectively. Without a structured skilling program, the risk of misuse, low adoption, and compliance gaps was significant.
Business Challenges
A leading U.S. regulated utility was deploying AI and GenAI tools across all departments, but employees lacked the foundational knowledge to use them safely and effectively. The gap between tool availability and workforce readiness created real risks around data leakage, AI bias, and inconsistent adoption.
Key challenges included:
- No AI Literacy Baseline: Employees had no structured foundation in AI concepts, ethics, or responsible use practices.
- Adoption Stalled Without Skills: Copilot licenses were available, but employees lacked confidence to use AI tools in daily workflows.
- Compliance and Risk Gaps: Without awareness training, AI misuse risks including bias, data leakage, and ethical lapses were unaddressed.
- Workforce Diversity Barrier: A highly varied employee base spanning field ops to corporate required a solution accessible to non-technical roles.
The core challenge was not just tool deployment but building a culture of responsible AI adoption across a large, distributed workforce.
