Accelerating sustainability for a green and vibrant future

Climate change is the dominant macroeconomic concern for energy and utilities clients in 2022, followed by technology and digital acceleration to meet customer expectations. The energy transition and carbon neutrality are among top trends and priorities along with cybersecurity, digitalisation, performance improvement and IT modernisation.

View key findings from our conversations with energy and utilities executives in 2022 below, or download the report.

For more insights on macro trends, including social demographics, climate change, deglobalisation, technology acceleration and supply chain reconfiguration, read our summary.

Top trends and priorities

Top macro trends

  1. Climate change, including the energy transition and the acceleration toward de-carbonisation

  2. Technology and digital acceleration, notably rising customer and citizen digital expectations

  3. Changing social demographics, including aging populations and talent shortages

Top industry trends

  1. Protecting through cybersecurity

  2. Drive to carbon neutrality and distributed energy resources

  3. Becoming digital for customers

Top business priorities

  1. Energy transition and climate change

  2. Cost reduction and performance improvement programs

  3. Digitising to improve customer experience

Top IT priorities

  1. Protecting through cybersecurity

  2. IT modernisation to lower costs and increase agility

  3. Operational efficiency and excellence

 

Talent, sustainability and culture change are in focus

88%
say they are experiencing an IT talent scarcity challenge
77%
of C-level executives rank sustainability’s impact on future value creation as high
57%
of industry executives say culture change and change management is the top constraint to achieving business priorities

What digital leaders do to accelerate results

Among the 29% of energy and utilities executives who report achieving expected results from their digital strategies, some common attributes emerge. The table below compares responses to questions from these digital leaders to those from executives whose organisations are still building or launching digital strategies (digital entrants).

Learn more about the attributes of digital leaders.

Common attributes of digital leaders

Digital leaders

Digital entrants
Have implemented robotic process automation 88% 50%
See sustainability as core to creating value for customers 77% 55%
Produce results from cyber strategies 70% 37%
Align business and IT operations 63% 25%
Modernise >20% of applications 54% 39%

Download our 2022 Energy & Utilities report

 

View past reports