5 questions to...
Ines Pagliuca
Interview with the Energy & Utilities Director of Engineering.
Ines Pagliuca, at Engineering since 2023 as Director of the Utilities Business Area, is responsible for driving the growth of utilities through innovation and digitalization. In this role, she defines strategies and coordinates initiatives that support companies in the Energy & Utilities sector in becoming more flexible, sustainable, and ready to face the challenges of an ever-evolving market.
She has gained solid professional experience by holding leadership positions in both technological and managerial fields.
Throughout her career, she has supported utilities and energy operators in adopting advanced technologies, promoting digital transformation as a lever for value creation.
1. WHAT REAL OPPORTUNITIES DOES ELECTRIC FLEXIBILITY OPEN UP FOR ENERGY SUPPLIERS?
In the current context, flexibility is no longer just a technical issue related to grid management. It has become a strategic lever for energy suppliers, who can build new service models, differentiate their offerings, and generate value in a more dynamic way.
The ability to modulate demand, integrate storage and distributed generation, and participate in flexibility markets opens up new scenarios - even for retail players. It’s not just about selling energy, but about offering solutions that help customers manage it better, more efficiently, and more consciously.
From an operational standpoint, flexibility requires advanced monitoring systems, aggregation capabilities, and digital tools that make it possible to read and interpret consumption behaviors in real time. But above all, it requires an evolved commercial vision - one that can turn a technical service into a competitive advantage.
Flexibility is an open door: not only toward efficiency, but toward new forms of customer relationships, built on collaboration, adaptability, and shared value.
2. AI IS NOW EVERYWHERE. BUT WHERE IS IT TRULY USEFUL FOR ENERGY SUPPLIERS?
In the world of energy sales, Artificial Intelligence can be an effective tool - but only when applied with clear objectives and reliable data. Too often, it is used as a label for projects that don’t really need it. The point is not to “use AI,” but to understand where it can genuinely improve decisions and processes.
The most concrete applications concern customer portfolio management, with predictive models that help identify consumption behaviors, churn risk, and the propensity to purchase new services. AI can support the personalization of offers by integrating consumption data, contractual profiles, and external variables such as weather or price trends.
Another strategic area is demand forecasting, which allows for anticipating variations and optimizing procurement. But the impact of AI also extends to back-office operations, where it can automate repetitive tasks such as handling requests, validating contractual data, or reconciling invoices - freeing up resources for higher-value activities.
All this only works if AI is integrated into operational processes, not confined to experimental projects. What’s needed is a data-driven culture, clear governance, and the ability to translate outputs into concrete actions. AI is useful when it is discreet yet impactful - when it improves decision quality, simplifies complexity, and helps build a smarter and more sustainable relationship with the customer.
This is precisely the approach we’ve taken at Engineering in developing EngGpt, the company’s suite of Large Language Models (LLMs) based on Private Generative AI. It enables the use of Artificial Intelligence through a solution natively optimized for the Italian context, ensuring full data control, privacy, regulatory compliance, and perfect alignment with specific business contexts. With EngGpt, we bring Artificial Intelligence into the real processes of energy suppliers - not as an experiment, but as a concrete tool to boost efficiency, enhance data value, and support people in their daily activities.
3. LEGACY SYSTEMS ARE STILL THE OPERATIONAL CORE OF MANY UTILITIES. HOW CAN THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL MODELS BE MANAGED WITHOUT LOSING CONTINUITY?
Many utilities today are in a phase of technological transition, where long-standing systems - often robust but rigid - coexist with new, more flexible, and scalable digital solutions. The challenge is not only technical but also operational and strategic: how to ensure continuity, reliability, and security while introducing new models?
The answer does not lie in immediate replacement, but in the ability to make systems communicate - building hybrid, interoperable architectures that allow evolution without disruption. It requires a clear vision of what to keep, what to transform, and what to phase out, as well as governance capable of managing complexity without losing control.
We have supported several utilities along this journey, for example by integrating new digital contract management modules into legacy platforms without interrupting operations or impacting the customer experience. In another case, we implemented an orchestration layer between CRM and billing systems, enabling advanced customer engagement functionalities while keeping back-end systems intact.
These interventions are not just technical - hey are strategic choices that enable sustainable evolution, protecting existing investments while unlocking new capabilities.
4. IS CUSTOMER CENTRICITY STILL A RELEVANT CONCEPT FOR UTILITIES?
The true center of the customer lies in their experience - how they access services, receive information, and interact with the company. Too often, that experience is fragmented, opaque, and difficult.
Utilities have made progress, but the real leap forward is yet to come: moving from being contract managers to relationship builders. This means simplifying processes, making communication transparent, and anticipating customer needs. But above all, it means shifting from a mindset of control to one of trust.
Technology can help, but it’s not enough. Advanced CRMs, chatbots, and consumption management apps are useful tools only when part of a broader strategy that places understanding the customer - not just profiling them - at the center. The customer is not a data point to be managed; they are a person to be engaged. And engagement means listening, adapting, and giving back value.
This is the direction we pursue every day alongside utilities, integrating digital solutions that enable smooth, personalized, and omnichannel experiences. From simplifying onboarding processes to proactively handling requests, and using AI to anticipate needs and enhance relationships - our goal is to help companies build trust, not just efficiency. Because truly putting the customer at the center means rethinking how value is created - together.
5. THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE IS CLEAR TO EVERYONE. HOW ARE UTILITIES TACKLING THIS CHALLENGE?
In recent years, we have witnessed extreme weather events that have put infrastructures, processes, and service models under significant stress. The response from utilities is often reactive: intervening after damage occurs, restoring operations, analyzing the causes. But the real challenge is to anticipate - not just to absorb.
Building resilience means rethinking network design, integrating climate scenarios into forecasting models, investing in preventive maintenance, and adopting technologies that enable a dynamic response. It also means accepting uncertainty as part of the system and developing a culture of risk that is not only technical but also organizational.
Resilience is not a project - it’s a mindset. And today, it’s a strategic capability that utilities can no longer postpone.
At Eng, we support utilities on this journey with digital solutions that integrate environmental data, predictive models, and intelligent automation. Our goal is to enable proactive risk management, strengthen operational continuity, and build infrastructures and processes capable of adapting to increasingly complex scenarios.
Supporting utilities in their digital transformation means combining innovation, sustainability, and customer value.
Ines Pagliuca
Energy & Utilities Director of Engineering
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