When AI Meets Infrastructure with Duke Energy SVP & CIO Richard Donaldson

Episode notes

On the 55th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser ( Abnormal AI ) and Saam Motamedi ( Greylock Partners ) welcome Richard Donaldson , Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Duke Energy . Richard explains how one of the largest regulated utilities in North America is embracing AI to reshape its digital infrastructure and accelerate enterprise-wide transformation. He shares concrete use cases, like Duke Energy Explorer for regulatory responses and generative AI authoring relicensing documentation, and conceptualizes a future where AI-powered drones and intimate co-pilots redefine operational productivity. Quick hits from Richard: On strategic clarity for AI: “Everybody’s waiting for me to say we did this AI thing straight out of a science fiction book, but the most valuable stuff doesn’t always come with the spice.” On AI’s impact at Duke: “We built a conversational AI that harvests data across hundreds of sources for regulatory Q&A. It’s not banan, but it moves the needle every single time.” On business framing for AI usage: “We spent 2024 doing the unsexy work: protecting data, governing AI platforms. That was the homework.

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