Digital reengineering for the next era of energy and utilities

Energy and utilities organizations are operating in one of the most complex environments the industry has ever faced. Demand patterns are changing. Supply is no longer linear. Grids, supply chains and asset infrastructures are all under pressure. Cyber risks are rising. Climate, regulatory and sovereignty expectations continue to grow. At the same time, talent shortages are making transformation harder to deliver at scale.

This year’s CGI Voice of Our Clients shows an industry moving beyond modernization, toward reengineering its operating core.

Across our 2026 conversations with energy and utilities executives, resilience, operational efficiency, decarbonization, cybersecurity and AI emerged as top priorities. The organizations that succeed in the next era will be those that can connect trusted data, intelligent automation, modern platforms and secure IT/OT operations into one adaptive operating model.

Key Voice of Our Clients insights

The 2026 CGI Voice of Our Clients insights reflect input from 160 energy and utilities executives across utilities and oil and gas.

1. AI is moving from pilots to production.

When executives ranked trends based on their impact on the business, AI topped the list. Organizations are moving beyond experimentation and IT-only use cases, with 62% embedding AI into core business and operational processes. Traditional AI and generative AI are advancing rapidly, with 34% and 31% of executives respectively reporting implementations. However, the challenge is shifting from experimentation to scaling use cases with clear governance, change management, measurable ROI and operational accountability.

2. Efficiency, decarbonization and regulation are advancing together.

Operational efficiency, cost control and simplification are the top business priorities, cited by 71% of executives. Meanwhile, 66% identify energy transition, decarbonization and electrification as key industry trends, while 52% cite regulation, policy, compliance and sovereignty as major priorities.

3. Resilience is now on the C-suite agenda.

Resilience now extends beyond supply chains to include energy security, data sovereignty, workforce continuity and both cyber resilience and regulatory compliancy. Leaders cite shifts in the world economic order and reconfiguration of supply chains as highly impactful, at 61%.

4. Talent remains a critical constraint.

Energy and utilities executives report high difficulty recruiting IT talent (67%), and 51% add that this is having a high impact on their business. As a result, partner-enabled delivery, managed services and knowledge transfer have become more strategic to transformation, as AI- and data-skilled people are in demand across all industries.

5. Data readiness will determine success.

While 57% of executives report having a holistic data strategy for the internal enterprise, only 36% extend that strategy to the external ecosystem of partners and suppliers. As AI moves deeper into mission-critical operations, trusted, governed and sovereign data foundations become essential.

6. Cybersecurity and compliance remain critical.

Third-party control is now the baseline expectation, with 97% applying data privacy and compliance requirements across the organization and 96% applying cybersecurity requirements to partners including cloud providers. Security is increasingly being built into operating models and no longer treated as a standalone control function.

What will drive the future of the energy sector

The future of energy and utilities will be shaped by organizations that can sense, adapt, protect and act in real time.

First, the sector’s top performers are working to unify trusted IT/OT data. Whether improving supply chains, outage prediction, optimizing dispatch, managing assets or enabling AI-assisted field work, high-quality, governed data is the foundation.

Second, these leaders are industrializing AI. Success will come from embedding AI into everyday operations with defined use cases, safety first, clear KPIs, explainability, compliancy, security controls and ROI discipline.

Third, they also are modernizing core platforms and assets. Legacy systems remain a significant challenge for 47% of executives. Reengineering modernization efforts need to support resilience, cost predictability, operational flexibility, sustainability and customer value.

Fourth, the top organizations are securing converged IT/OT environments by design. As distributed energy resources, connected assets and ecosystem data exchange expand, security, privacy, sovereignty and compliance must be integrated from the start.

Finally, the most advanced energy and utilities organizations are planning how to enable a human-plus-agent workforce. AI and automation will augment planners, engineers, operators, field teams and service teams, helping them make safer, faster and more informed decisions.

From rebuild to digital reengineering

The industry’s immediate priority is the great energy and utilities rebuild: digitally reengineering the operating core to become more resilient, efficient and secure. Business and IT must work together, innovation must move beyond pilots and AI must be scaled around measurable outcomes.

Looking ahead, the industry will move toward real-time, event-driven data exchange across increasingly complex ecosystems. Value will come not only from infrastructure, but from the ability to orchestrate trusted data flows across markets, partners, assets and consumers.

As our 2026 Voice of Our Clients research shows, organizations are already laying the foundations for the next phase of the energy transition. The investments being made today in data, AI, cyber resilience and modern platforms will play a critical role in determining how effectively organizations adapt, compete and create value in the energy systems of tomorrow.

I invite you to contact me to learn more and to watch the video, Energy & utilities: The Decentralized Grid, for foresights on the essential elements to attract and keep customers and grow the business.