Australian Energy Week 2025 wrapped up in Melbourne, and while the agenda was packed, a few key messages were clear: as an industry, we’re not short on ideas, but scaling them, investing in them, orchestrating them is the challenge. As someone focused on energy platforms every day, AEW gave me a valuable look at how our sector is aligning, particularly across digital systems, automation, and AI.
Here are some reflections and musings on the key opportunities and priorities for the industry.
Software Is Now Centre Stage
One big shift I noticed this year: the conversation around software has matured. It’s not just “support infrastructure” anymore but is seen as the engine room of the energy transition.
Smart platforms are now critical for integrating solar, EVs, community batteries, and flexible loads. The industry requires intelligent orchestration to scale and remain stable.
This is exactly the space we’re focused on at Hansen. From real-time data layers to cloud-native billing and DER orchestration tools, our Hansen CIS product and Digital Suite modules are helping retailers and networks stay one step ahead of growing system complexity.
AI Has Arrived and It’s Delivering Value
AI was everywhere at AEW 2025. While some sessions stayed pretty surface-level, a few stood out by showing that AI is moving beyond the buzz with real examples now of it being operationalised and scaled in the field.
What stood out most to me was the growing consensus around where AI is delivering today:
- Customer service: Modern AI virtual assistants are starting to manage complex calls, solving issues faster, and reducing cost-to-serve.
- CER orchestration: AI-driven optimisation is helping platforms enables smarter battery charging, VPP participation, and real-time pricing signals.
- CX automation: Personalised onboarding, guided flows, and intuitive self-service are being quietly revolutionised behind the scenes.
At Hansen, we are well past the buzz! Right now, we’ve got over 50 AI pilots running across the business, ranging from smart DevOps automation to customer-facing initiatives. Our engineering teams are using AI to modernise codebases, accelerate testing, and automate config generation.
AI Call Centre Agents are now embedded across multiple CIS platforms, providing multilingual, proactive customer support, handling billing questions, service transfers, and setting up payment plans.
On the product side, we’ve introduced AI-generated bill summaries, predictive plan recommendations, and real-time tariff optimisation.
We’ve also got AI agents coordinating behind the scenes, querying usage data, triggering workflows, closing the loop with customers, with automation and orchestration.
Trust, Affordability, and the Digital Retail Gap
The other big theme that kept cropping up, was trust. One stat stuck with me: 86% of energy consumers don’t trust their retailer. That’s a brutal starting point in a market trying to sell electrification, smart tariffs, and energy services.
Affordability is also front and centre. Between rising debt levels, energy hardship, and compliance burdens, retailers are facing pressure from every side.
But here’s the thing: the answer isn’t just regulation or rebates. The opportunity lies more so in platforms that can help people understand and control their energy use, simply and transparently.
That’s why we’re investing in tools like:
- Plain-language bill summaries powered by AI.
- Self-service UX with proactive notifications (before the bill shock hits).
- Real-time usage insights and smart plan recommendations.
If, as an industry, we want customers to stay engaged (and not churn the second they’re confused), we must build platforms that meet them where they are and earn their trust with every interaction.
Where Hansen Goes Next
AEW 2025 reinforced that the real advantage isn’t just having tech, it’s being able to adapt it quickly to a moving landscape. That’s why, at Hansen, we’re focused on:
- Modular, cloud-native systems that evolve with regulation and demand
- Real AI tools that lower operating costs and improve CX
- CER and DER orchestration that’s simple for customers and scalable for retailers
- Composable platforms that play well with others
We’re not just building software, we’re contributing to a bigger shift, helping our customers and the wider ecosystem become more agile, more connected, and better equipped for a complex, customer-driven energy future.
