RELIABILITY, VERTICAL AI, AFFORDBILITY
(NORTH AMERICA) SUMMIT 2026
Charlotte hosted a different kind of energy and utility gathering this spring. At a time when the energy and water sectors are navigating rising demand, affordability pressure, aging infrastructure, customer expectations, workforce disruption, and the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence, WE3 East 2026 convened industry leaders around one central question:
What must energy and utilities do now to lead the next decade?
Held at Duke Energy Headquarters, the summit brought together more than 200 executives from utilities, municipalities, technology organizations, and operational leadership teams across North America.
The Defining Themes That Shaped WE3 East 2026
Reliability, Affordability and Trust
Executives discussed how energy and utilities are being asked to deliver more while keeping service dependable and bills manageable. Reliability remains non-negotiable, but the path forward now also requires stronger customer trust and smarter cost structures.
Customer Experience Becomes Strategic
Customer experience was framed not as a communications function, but as a core operating priority. Sessions explored how leading utilities such as Duke Energy are moving beyond fragmented systems toward connected, intelligent experiences that improve satisfaction, speed, and engagement.
AI Moves From Hype to Utility Value
Major water authorities serving millions of Australians - where reliability, affordability, and customer trust are a community mandate, not a marketing message.
The Expanding Role of Technology Leaders
CIOs and digital leaders described how their mandate is evolving beyond infrastructure oversight into enterprise transformation, operational redesign, and business growth.
Grid Edge Growth
As electrification accelerates, utilities examined how to unlock value from electric vehicles, distributed energy resources, and new forms of demand while preserving system stability.
One Connected Utility Model
Multiple sessions centered on breaking historic silos between customer, workforce, and grid functions. AMI investments, field intelligence, analytics, and customer platforms were discussed as parts of one connected operating model rather than separate programs.
People Still Matter Most
Even in a summit centered on AI, the human dimension remained constant. Workforce readiness, leadership alignment, change management, and culture were repeatedly cited as the factors that determine whether transformation succeeds.
That combination gave WE3 East its distinct tone.
As the sector enters a defining era, WE3 East underscored a larger shift already underway: the future utility will be built not only on infrastructure, but on intelligence, connected operations, and people prepared to lead change.
The Keynote That Framed the Entire Summit
The summit opened with a direct and timely conversation led by Deepak Garg, Chairman, Founder and Co-CEO of SEW.AI, and Michael O'Donnell, Co-CEO of SEW.AI.
The keynote centered on the leadership decisions energy utilities must make now as the industry enters a more demanding era of growth, complexity, and accelerated change.
A key message emerged early: organizations that continue to treat AI as a side initiative risk missing its real value. The greater opportunity lies in embedding intelligence into day-to-day operations, decision-making, and customer engagement.
The strongest path forward is not automation for its own sake, but combining experienced utility talent with intelligent systems that help teams move faster, act earlier, and operate with greater precision.
People + AI, they argued, is not a technology strategy. It is the new operating philosophy. The best outcomes for utilities will not come from AI replacing human expertise. They will come from the two working in genuine collaboration - where human judgment, domain knowledge, and institutional understanding combine with AI-driven intelligence to produce outcomes neither could reach alone.
Deepak Garg
Chairman/ Founder/ Group CEO
Duke Energy Sets the Stage for WE3 East
Before the day moved into executive panels and strategy discussions, the host utility welcomed attendees to one of the most important conversations facing the sector today.
As one of the largest energy companies in the United States, Duke Energy serves millions of customers across a fast-growing and operationally complex footprint. The challenges discussed throughout the summit are not abstract for Duke Energy. They are lived realities, from rising demand and grid modernization to evolving customer expectations, workforce transformation, and the continued focus on affordability and reliability.
Hosting WE3 East reflected Duke Energy’s commitment to engaging with the ideas, partnerships, and leadership conversations shaping the future of the industry. It also reinforced a broader truth echoed throughout the day: energy and utilities leading through change are not waiting for the future to arrive. They are helping build it.
With that, the summit moved into a full day of candid dialogue on how the sector can modernize operating models, strengthen customer trust, and turn innovation into measurable outcomes.
The Vertical AI Divide is Real
Summit Insights: A New Operating Logic
One answer kept surfacing from every direction. The day moved through grid load growth, organizational silos, energy affordability, workforce complexity, customer trust, payments, eMobility, and distributed energy - each topic distinct, each conversation grounded in real operational pressure.
The utilities making the strongest progress are not treating these issues as standalone programs. They are approaching them as connected business challenges that require connected execution.
Across multiple sessions, leaders discussed how customer operations influence grid outcomes, how field teams depend on better system intelligence, how affordability is linked to engagement and payment experience, and how trust increasingly depends on visibility, responsiveness, and seamless service.
What emerged was less a single theme than a new operating logic: Utilities perform better when customer, workforce, and grid functions work together rather than apart.
By the close of the summit, the conversation had moved beyond whether AI and connected platforms belong in the sector. Attention had shifted to implementation, speed, and how leaders can modernize without adding new layers of complexity.
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Celebrating the Success of WE3 East (North America) Summit 2026
Thanks to our Partners
The Conversation Continues
Mega Energy and Water Event of The Year
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The global flagship event for energy and water - where the conversation that started in Charlotte scales to the world.
If WE3 East was the room where it came together, WE3 Las Vegas is where the industry moves.