Verified
National Grid
Experimenting- UK and US energy networks
- 33,026 employees
- Vendor AI tools and Copilot
- CTIO from Sep 2026
- $100M AI startup commitment
National Grid deploys AI mainly through vendor tools in its UK and US network businesses, several backed by its venture arm, National Grid Partners, while staff use Microsoft Copilot and an internal chat service, GridGPT. AI scores every New England contact-centre call, satellite-imagery AI cut tree-related outages there by nearly 30%, and trials with GridCARE and Emerald AI target grid capacity for data centres. Alice Delahunty became Chief Technology and Innovation Officer on Sep 1, 2026, with National Grid Partners in her team.
nationalgrid.comTheir approach to AI
- The platform
- National Grid buys most of its AI inside vendor tools such as AiDASH and NICE CXone, several from startups backed by its venture arm, National Grid Partners; staff use Microsoft Copilot in regulatory, finance and legal work (Sep 2024) and an internal chat service, GridGPT (Oct 2024).
- The models
- National Grid has not named a large language model provider; Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that National Grid uses Microsoft Copilot and builds generative AI on Azure, and the rest of its AI arrives inside vendor products such as satellite-imagery models for vegetation and GridCARE's grid simulations.
- The reach
- National Grid has not published how many of its 33,026 employees use AI tools; a Data and AI Academy trains staff at every level, and AI evaluates 100% of New England contact-centre calls (Jun 2026).
- The catch
- National Grid reports AI results as operating outcomes, such as nearly 30% fewer tree-related outages in New England, and has published no financial return from AI for any use case or for the group in its results or filings.
Snapshot
- Employees
- 33,026
- Mar 31, 2026, up from 31,654 a year earlier (2025/26 Form 20-F)
- Technology budget
- Not disclosed
- Research and development of £38M in 2025/26; capital plan of at least £70bn to 2030/31 is not broken out for technology
- AI/ML headcount
- Not disclosed
- Data and AI Academy trains employees at all levels of AI competence (Jun 2026)
- Who owns AI
- Alice Delahunty, CTIO
- Chief Technology and Innovation Officer on the Group Executive Committee from Sep 1, 2026
- Platform
- Vendor tools and Copilot
- AiDASH, NICE CXone, Rhizome, GridCARE and Air Space Intelligence, plus Microsoft Copilot and an internal GridGPT chat service (2024)
- Models
- Not disclosed
- Microsoft Copilot on Azure (Sep 2024) and vendors' satellite-imagery, call-scoring and grid-simulation models
- Reach
- Not disclosed
- AI evaluates 100% of New England contact-centre calls (Jun 2026)
- Venture investment
- $600M+ since 2018
- National Grid Partners, Sep 2026; more than $150M in 18 AI startups by May 2025, plus a $100M AI commitment
Key findings
National Grid named Alice Delahunty, previously President of UK Electricity Transmission, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer on an eight-member Group Executive Committee from Sep 1, 2026, accountable for deploying technology at scale, and National Grid Partners, its venture arm, moved under her.
National Grid credits satellite imagery and AI with cutting tree-related outages in New England by nearly 30%, and AI on the NICE CXone platform evaluates every New England contact-centre call, according to its 2025/26 results and annual report (May and Jun 2026).
National Grid Partners had invested more than $600 million since 2018 by Sep 2026, including more than $150 million in 18 AI startups by May 2025 and a further $100 million committed to AI startups in 2024/25, and nearly 80% of its portfolio companies have worked with National Grid.
National Grid's newest AI work targets grid capacity for data centres: Zoë Yujnovich said on the May 2026 results call that GridCARE found up to 650 MW of potential flexible connection capacity in New York, and a Dec 2025 London trial with Emerald AI, NVIDIA, Nebius and EPRI cut an AI cluster's power by 30% in under 40 seconds on a grid signal.
National Grid has published no financial return from AI in its results or filings and no count of employees using AI tools; Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that National Grid runs much of its IT estate on Azure and uses Microsoft Copilot, and National Grid's AI rules sit in a Responsible AI policy overseen by an AI Governance Council.
Where National Grid sits
- Stage
- Experimenting
National Grid has reported no business return it credits to AI, for any use case or for the group: the AI results in its 2025/26 results and annual report are operating outcomes, such as nearly 30% fewer tree-related outages in New England from satellite imagery and AI (May 2026) and AI scoring of every New England contact-centre call, and the only cost figure, about $2 million in efficiencies from less vegetation work with AiDASH, came from a vegetation manager in Sep 2022 and has not been repeated since. National Grid has not reported a company-wide AI rollout with a user count either: it has not said how many of its 33,026 employees use Microsoft Copilot, GridGPT or any other AI tool, though Alice Delahunty has owned technology and innovation as Chief Technology and Innovation Officer since Sep 1, 2026. National Grid therefore stays at Experimenting; one return it credits to AI, or an official count of employees using its AI tools, would move it to Piloting.
How the stages are defined - Ownership
- Alice Delahunty, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, on the Group Executive Committee since Sep 2026
- Platform
- Bought: Vendor AI tools and Microsoft Copilot; internal GridGPT chat service (2024)
- Models
- No LLM provider named; Microsoft Copilot and vendors' models
- Hosting
- Microsoft Azure, where National Grid moved much of its IT estate and builds generative AI (Sep 2024); vendor SaaS such as NICE CXone
- Reach
- Not disclosed; AI scores 100% of New England contact-centre calls
How they deploy
Technology, data and AI as one of three big shifts
Zoë Yujnovich, Chief Executive since Nov 17, 2025, set out a strategic framework in the 2025/26 Annual Report with three big shifts, one of them scaling technology, data and AI to raise productivity and connect customers faster. National Grid's Chair Paula Reynolds wrote in May 2026 that the company both supports the energy requirements of AI and is a major user of its capabilities. Zoë Yujnovich's 2026/27 objectives include scaling technology and innovation, and CFO Andy Agg's include embedding technology and innovation.
Back startups, then deploy their tools
National Grid sources much of its AI through National Grid Partners, a corporate venture arm launched in 2018 and headquartered in Silicon Valley. National Grid said in May 2025 that it deploys many of its portfolio technologies across its own networks, and National Grid Partners said in Sep 2026 that nearly 80% of its portfolio companies have worked with National Grid. AiDASH, GridCARE and Emerald AI, all backed by National Grid Partners, are behind three of National Grid's most cited AI results.
AI to find grid capacity for large loads
National Grid aims much of its newest AI work at connecting data centres and other large loads faster on existing wires. GridCARE's generative AI grid simulations in New York, Air Space Intelligence's planning models in New England and the Emerald AI data-centre flexibility trial in London all test how much demand the networks can take before new build. Steve Smith said in Mar 2026 that the London trial showed data centres can be connected and managed without major new network capacity.
One owner for technology from Sep 2026
National Grid's Aug 3, 2026 operating model cut the Group Executive Committee from 13 to 8 members and created a Global Technology and Innovation team under Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Alice Delahunty, accountable for deploying technology at scale to improve productivity, network capacity and customer experience. National Grid said National Grid Partners would be core to that team, moving successful pilots into global deployment, and Global Venturing reported in Oct 2026 that Alice Delahunty had set the venture arm's priorities as grid resilience, lower customer costs and scaling innovation across the UK and the US Northeast.
Employee tools on Microsoft
National Grid's disclosed AI sits mostly in network operations, customer service, risk and finance. Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that National Grid had moved much of its IT estate into Microsoft Azure, was rolling out Azure AI tools, and used Microsoft Copilot for automation, document management and report generation in regulatory, finance and legal work. National Grid staff presented GridGPT, an internal chat service that also retrieves information from documents, at Utility Analytics Week in Oct 2024. National Grid has not said how many employees use either tool.
- Deployment model
- National Grid runs AI inside its business units, UK Electricity Transmission, UK Electricity Distribution, New York and New England, which buy and deploy vendor tools for their own operations. National Grid Partners, the venture arm, finds and funds startups and brokers trials with the business units. From Sep 1, 2026 a group Global Technology and Innovation team under Alice Delahunty is accountable for scaling proven technology, with business units grouped under a President, UK (Cordi O'Hara) and an interim President, US (Sally Librera). Chief Data Officer Gavin Goodland leads National Grid's data strategy and capability. Group-level rules come from a Responsible AI policy, due diligence on National Grid and its partners, and an AI Governance Council.
- Model providers
- National Grid has not named a large language model provider or said which models sit behind GridGPT. Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that National Grid uses Microsoft Copilot and builds generative AI on Azure, without naming models. The rest of the AI National Grid describes comes inside vendor products: AiDASH's satellite-imagery models for vegetation risk, NICE CXone's automated call scoring, GridCARE's generative AI models that simulate grid operating scenarios, Rhizome's gridFIRM wildfire risk platform, Air Space Intelligence's predictive grid model and Emerald AI's Conductor software for data-centre power. The Dec 2025 Emerald AI trial ran open models such as OpenAI's GPT OSS 20B and Meta's Llama as test workloads on NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs at Nebius's London AI Factory, but those were the data centre's workloads, not National Grid's.
- Data and infrastructure
- Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that National Grid had migrated much of its IT estate into Microsoft Azure and was still moving workloads there. National Grid's 2025/26 Form 20-F says it relies on third parties for IT infrastructure, software-as-a-service applications and cloud services, without naming them, and lists the increasing use of AI as part of its IT risk. UK Electricity Distribution moved its contact centre onto Amazon Connect with a new knowledge management platform, New England runs its contact centres on NICE CXone, and National Grid announced in 2025/26 that Kraken will replace its US customer platform, after converting all six million US customers to a single platform in 2024/25. Air Space Intelligence's work combines grid data into one predictive model of the grid, and Keen AI will host the FoSMo shared inspection models in the UK, with data controlled within each operator's environment. National Grid has not said whether any AI runs in its own data centres.
Platforms and internal tools
Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI toolsBy Sep 2024
National Grid uses Microsoft Copilot for automation, document management and report generation in regulatory, finance and legal operations, and was rolling out Azure AI tools after moving much of its IT estate into Microsoft Azure, according to a Microsoft customer story. Planned uses included knowledge-mining tools for legal and finance teams and less administration for call-centre agents.
GridGPTBy Oct 2024
GridGPT is an internal platform where National Grid employees use AI-powered chat services and retrieve information from documents, presented by National Grid staff at Utility Analytics Week in Oct 2024 with a generative AI survey analysis dashboard and an email pilot. National Grid has not published its users or models.
AiDASH vegetation management
AiDASH uses satellite imagery and AI to predict vegetation threats to National Grid's New England electric network so crews can remove them before they cause outages. National Grid Partners lists AiDASH in its portfolio.
NICE CXone call scoring
National Grid implemented the NICE CXone platform in its New England contact centres, where AI evaluates every call and links call quality to customer satisfaction.
- Users
- 100% of New England contact-centre calls (Jun 2026)
UK Electricity Distribution data portal chatbot
UK Electricity Distribution runs an AI chatbot that makes data on its public data portal easier to find and read, alongside predictive analytics that forecast customer service scores.
Risk and compliance AI agentsBy Mar 2026
National Grid's risk team built an AI agent that combines endpoint data with known vulnerabilities and exploit reports to rank security risks, and a second agent that tracks regulatory change in the UK and the US states where National Grid operates. Jody Elliott said the vulnerability agent was built in about an hour and that operational teams spent several days validating its findings.
AI-enabled financial planning system
National Grid is deploying a new financial planning system that it expects to improve forecasting and decision-making through AI-enabled capabilities; the 2025/26 Annual Report says deployment is on track.
Board paper portal2024/25
National Grid introduced a paper writing portal with AI features to help authors of papers for its Board, alongside training for paper authors.
Vendors and partners
MicrosoftBy Sep 2024
Azure cloud for much of National Grid's IT estate and generative AI work; Microsoft Copilot
AiDASH
Satellite imagery and AI for vegetation management in New England · AiDASH is a National Grid Partners portfolio company; ESG Today reported on Jul 31, 2026 that Schneider Electric agreed to acquire it.
NICE
CXone contact-centre platform with AI call scoring in New England
RhizomeDec 2025
gridFIRM AI wildfire risk platform across US and UK networks · National Grid said the work covers its networks in Massachusetts, New York and the UK.
GridCAREMar 2026
Generative AI grid simulation to find capacity for large loads in New York · GridCARE is in National Grid Partners' portfolio and was the first startup from Aina Climate AI Ventures, in which National Grid Partners invested in Oct 2025.
Air Space IntelligenceMay 2026
AI decision support for grid planning and operations, with National Grid New England Network Management · Supported by a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center InnovateMass grant.
Emerald AISep 2025
Data-centre power flexibility trial in London · Emerald AI is a National Grid Partners portfolio company; the Dec 2025 trial also involved NVIDIA, Nebius and EPRI.
Keen AIJun 2026
Technical steward of FoSMo, a shared AI model for inspecting network assets · Keen AI develops, maintains and hosts the FoSMo models in the UK.
NVIDIADec 2025
GPU partner in the London flexibility trial; fellow founding member of the AI Energy Management Alliance
EPRIDec 2025
Research partner; the London trial ran under its DCFlex initiative
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Connect contact centre for UK Electricity Distribution · National Grid does not describe its Amazon Connect deployment as AI.
LineVision
Dynamic line rating, a National Grid Partners portfolio company · National Grid Partners called LineVision an AI-related investment in Sep 2026; National Grid lists dynamic line rating as a grid-enhancing technology, not as AI.
Leadership
AI, data and platform leaders
Executives
Board
AI org map
Group technology and innovation team from Sep 2026; AI tools bought and run by the business units; startups sourced by a venture arm
National Grid's Aug 3, 2026 announcement cut the Group Executive Committee from 13 to 8 members from Sep 1, 2026: Zoë Yujnovich, Andy Agg, Cordi O'Hara (President, UK), Sally Librera (interim President, US), Carl Trowell (President, Global Capital), Alice Delahunty (Chief Technology and Innovation Officer), Emma Hardaker-Jones (Chief People Officer) and Justine Campbell (Chief Legal Officer). National Grid created a Global Technology and Innovation team under Alice Delahunty with National Grid Partners core to it, and Global Venturing reported in Oct 2026 that the venture arm now sits under her. Before the change, technology sat with Chief Information and Digital Officer Talvis Love and venture investing with Steve Smith, both on the 13-member committee listed in May 2025. National Grid continues to report UK Electricity Transmission, UK Electricity Distribution, New York, New England and National Grid Ventures as separate segments.
National Grid has not disclosed how many data, analytics or AI specialists it employs. National Grid's AI work sits in four places: the business units, which run vendor AI tools in their own operations; a group Global Technology and Innovation team led since Sep 1, 2026 by Alice Delahunty; a Chief Data Office under Chief Data Officer Gavin Goodland; and National Grid Partners, the venture arm headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Boston, London and New York. National Grid listed increasing its workforce AI and data capabilities as a priority in its 2025/26 Annual Report and runs a Data and AI Academy for employees.
Reporting lines
Chief Executive
Chief Financial Officer
Finance holds sole accountability for strategy, M&A and growth from Sep 2026
Global Technology and Innovation
Alice Delahunty, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer
Accountable for deploying technology at scale across the group from Sep 1, 2026
National Grid Partners
Pradeep Tagare, Interim President
Moved under the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (Global Venturing, Oct 2026)
New England Network Management
John Franklin
The business unit named in the Air Space Intelligence collaboration (May 2026)
National Grid's Aug 2026 announcement does not say where the Chief Information and Digital Officer, the Chief Information Security Officer, the Chief Data Officer or the AI Governance Council sit under the new model; the 2025/26 Annual Report says the Chief Information and Digital Officer owns cyber security risk and attends the Audit & Risk Committee with the Chief Information Security Officer.
Named people
Use cases
National Grid has disclosed AI use cases mostly in its network businesses: vegetation management and contact-centre call scoring in New England, customer service forecasting and a data portal chatbot in UK distribution, wildfire risk across the US and UK, grid capacity studies with GridCARE and Air Space Intelligence, a data-centre flexibility trial with Emerald AI, and AI agents in risk and compliance, plus Microsoft Copilot and an internal GridGPT chat service for staff. National Grid reports no financial return for any of them or for AI as a whole in its results or filings; the results it reports are operating outcomes, led by nearly 30% fewer tree-related outages in New England (May 2026).
| Use case | Area | Status | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetation management with AiDASH National Grid uses AiDASH's satellite imagery and AI to predict and remove vegetation threats on its New England electric network, and credits the work with reducing tree-related outages by nearly 30%. | New England | In production | |
| AI scoring of contact-centre calls AI on the NICE CXone platform evaluates 100% of calls in National Grid's New England contact centres and links call quality to customer satisfaction. | New England | In production | |
| Microsoft Copilot for documents and reports Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that Microsoft Copilot was helping National Grid with automation, document management and report generation in regulatory, finance and legal operations. | Regulatory, finance and legal | In production | |
| GridGPT employee chat service GridGPT lets National Grid employees use AI-powered chat and retrieve information from documents, according to a session National Grid staff gave at Utility Analytics Week in Oct 2024. | Workforce | In production | |
| Customer service score forecasting UK Electricity Distribution uses predictive analytics to forecast its customer service scores, part of an AI program the business says is aimed at customer experience. | UK Electricity Distribution | In production | |
| Data portal chatbot An AI-powered chatbot makes data on UK Electricity Distribution's public data portal easier to find and understand. | UK Electricity Distribution | In production | |
| Automated curtailment reporting UK Electricity Distribution is automating curtailment reporting with AI, which it says will shorten project lifecycles, and uses AI to improve outputs from its distribution system operator role. | UK Electricity Distribution | Announced | |
| Wildfire risk with Rhizome gridFIRM Rhizome's gridFIRM platform helps National Grid identify where its assets could ignite fires, rank wildfire risks and plan prevention across its networks in Massachusetts, New York and the UK. | US and UK networks | In production | |
| Grid capacity for large loads with GridCARE GridCARE's generative AI models simulate grid operating scenarios on National Grid's New York network to find hours of constraint and flexible capacity for data centres; Zoë Yujnovich said the first collaboration identified up to 650 MW of potential flexible connection capacity. | New York | Pilot | |
| Operational AI with Air Space Intelligence Air Space Intelligence is building a continuously updated predictive model of the grid for National Grid, starting with distributed energy siting and interconnection, resilience planning and outage mapping, with a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant. | New England | Pilot | |
| Data-centre power flexibility with Emerald AI National Grid Electricity Transmission and EPRI sent 22 live dispatch events over five days in Dec 2025 to a 96-GPU NVIDIA cluster at Nebius's London AI Factory, where Emerald AI's Conductor cut power by 30% in under 40 seconds and met more than 200 power targets. | UK Electricity Transmission | Pilot | |
| Shared asset-inspection AI model (FoSMo) National Grid leads FoSMo, a project with Keen AI and four other UK network operators to pool anonymised imagery into one shared AI model for inspecting pylons, cables, insulators and fittings; its Alpha phase won £355,985 from the Strategic Innovation Fund in Jun 2026. | UK networks | Announced | |
| Pipeline x-ray image analysis National Grid piloted x-ray imaging of gas pipelines, and National Grid Partners invested in training AI models to identify pipeline weaknesses in x-ray imagery. | Gas networks | Pilot | |
| Vulnerability management agent An AI agent built by National Grid's risk team combines endpoint data with known vulnerabilities and exploit reports and overlays HR data to rank security fixes by business impact; operational teams validated its findings over several days. | Risk and cyber security | Pilot | |
| Regulatory change agent A second AI agent tracks policy changes in the UK and the US states where National Grid operates, compares them with internal controls over a rolling 12 months and projects the year ahead. | Risk and compliance | Pilot | |
| AI-enabled financial planning National Grid is deploying a new financial planning system expected to improve forecasting and decision-making through AI-enabled capabilities. | Finance | Announced | |
| Board paper writing portal National Grid gave authors of Board papers a writing portal with AI features in 2024/25. | Corporate governance | In production |
Adoption
National Grid has spread AI through its business units one tool at a time. The disclosed production uses cluster in New England (AiDASH vegetation management, AI scoring of every contact-centre call) and UK Electricity Distribution (customer service forecasting, a data portal chatbot), with wildfire risk work across both countries since Dec 2025. For staff, Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that National Grid used Microsoft Copilot in regulatory, finance and legal work, and National Grid presented an internal GridGPT chat service in Oct 2024. Grid capacity work with GridCARE, Air Space Intelligence and Emerald AI began as trials between Dec 2025 and May 2026. National Grid has not published how many of its 33,026 employees use AI tools; it says it has rolled out AI training from executives to technical specialists and launched a Data and AI Academy for employees at all levels of AI competence.
By the numbers
Rollout, first pilot to today
2018
National Grid launched National Grid Partners, a corporate venture capital arm in Silicon Valley, to invest in startups and bring their technology into its networks.
Feb 2024
National Grid Partners reorganized under President Steve Smith, with Pradeep Tagare running investments and Brett Chandler running engagement with National Grid's business units.
Sep 2024
Microsoft said National Grid had moved much of its IT estate into Microsoft Azure, was rolling out Azure AI tools and used Microsoft Copilot in regulatory, finance and legal work.
Oct 2024
National Grid staff presented GridGPT, an internal AI chat service for employees, at Utility Analytics Week.
Jan 2025
National Grid's Board held an enrichment session on generative AI, and during 2024/25 National Grid added AI features to its board paper writing portal.
May 2025
National Grid reported a Responsible AI policy and an AI Governance Council, more than $150 million invested in 18 AI startups, and a new $100 million commitment to AI startups.
Dec 2025
National Grid launched an AI wildfire risk initiative with Rhizome across its US and UK networks and ran a five-day data-centre flexibility trial in London with Emerald AI, NVIDIA, Nebius and EPRI.
Mar 2026
National Grid began its first collaboration with GridCARE in New York, and its risk team described AI agents for vulnerability management and regulatory change.
May 2026
National Grid began working with Air Space Intelligence in New England and reported nearly 30% fewer tree-related outages there from satellite imagery and AI.
Jun 2026
National Grid's 2025/26 Annual Report said AI evaluates 100% of New England contact-centre calls and that a Data and AI Academy trains employees at every level.
Sep 2026
Alice Delahunty took office as National Grid's Chief Technology and Innovation Officer on a reduced Group Executive Committee, with National Grid Partners part of her team.
Economics & controls
Spend and ROI
Technology budget
National Grid does not publish a technology or AI budget. National Grid's directly incurred research and development was £38 million in 2025/26, down from £43 million in 2024/25, and its five-year framework commits at least £70 billion of capital investment to 2030/31, citing data centre demand and the rise of AI among its drivers but not breaking out technology. National Grid said New York's controllable costs rose in 2025/26 partly from increased IT spend on new digital platforms, and Massachusetts regulators approved about $600 million under the Electric Sector Modernization Plan for networks, supporting technology and non-wires alternatives.
Venture spending on AI
National Grid Partners had invested more than $500 million in more than 50 startups and funds by May 2025, including more than $150 million in 18 AI startups, and committed a further $100 million to AI startups in 2024/25. National Grid reported 41 active portfolio companies, investments in five strategic venture funds and more than $550 million invested in its 2025/26 Annual Report, and National Grid Partners put the total above $600 million in Sep 2026. National Grid said on Oct 5, 2026 that one-off fair value gains from two capital market transactions in the National Grid Partners portfolio, with stronger interconnector performance, would lift first-half results in National Grid Ventures and other activities by about £130 million; the update did not name the companies or link the gains to AI.
Reported ROI
National Grid has published no financial return credited to AI in its results, annual reports or filings, for a use case or for the group. The AI results National Grid reports are operating outcomes: nearly 30% fewer tree-related outages in New England from satellite imagery and AI (May 2026), and up to 650 MW of potential flexible connection capacity in New York found by GridCARE, which Zoë Yujnovich cited on the May 2026 results call. The only cost figure found is older: a National Grid vegetation manager told TechTarget in Sep 2022 that about a year of acting on AiDASH's findings brought about $2 million in efficiencies from doing less vegetation work in Massachusetts, a figure National Grid has not repeated since. National Grid credits dynamic line rating on more than 600 km of UK transmission lines with saving £21 million in constraint costs over five years, but lists it as a grid-enhancing technology beside AI, not as AI.
Productivity and headcount
National Grid ties AI to productivity in its strategy, naming the scaling of technology, data and AI as one of three big shifts, but has not quantified the effect. Andy Agg exceeded National Grid's efficiency targets for 2025/26, according to the 2025/26 Annual Report, which does not credit AI for the result. National Grid's workforce grew from 31,654 employees in Mar 2025 to 33,026 in Mar 2026 as investment rose, and National Grid has made no statement linking headcount to AI.
Governance and risk
Responsible AI policy and council
National Grid's Business Management Data Standard is reinforced by a Responsible AI policy and controls, due diligence assessments of National Grid and its external partners, and an AI Governance Council, according to its 2024/25 and 2025/26 Annual Reports. National Grid says it uses AI only where appropriate, as a tool to accelerate ways of working, and always with human accountability and intervention.
Training and human checks
National Grid has rolled out AI training from executive leadership to technical specialists and launched a Data and AI Academy for employees at every level of AI competence. Jody Elliott warned in Mar 2026 that staff using AI risk believing they are subject matter experts when they are not, and National Grid's operational teams spent several days validating the output of its vulnerability agent before acting on it.
Board oversight
National Grid's Board held an enrichment session on generative AI in Jan 2025 and, at its Feb 2025 strategy offsite in Menlo Park, California, met Google and NVIDIA to discuss AI and its effect on the energy market. The Chief Information and Digital Officer owns cyber security risk and, with the Chief Information Security Officer, attends the Audit & Risk Committee and briefs the Board at least once a year, according to the 2025/26 Annual Report.
Disclosed risks
National Grid's 2025/26 Form 20-F says the increasing use of AI adds to its IT risk, that AI may expose it to more cyber events, that employees may lack the experience to spot weaknesses in AI-generated data, and that third parties supporting its cloud and software services may not prevent disruptions or attacks. National Grid also lists the threats and opportunities of emerging technology, including AI, among the factors that could change its results.
AI as a source of demand
National Grid treats AI as a regulatory and planning question as well as a tool: its 2025/26 climate disclosures say data centres are already a major contributor to connection queues, it supported the UK Government in developing AI Growth Zones, and it joined the AI Energy Management Alliance as a founding member in Sep 2026, a group pressing for policies that encourage data centres able to cut power at peak demand.
Recent signals
Oct 15, 2026
Global Venturing reported that National Grid Partners now sits under Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Alice Delahunty, who set its priorities as grid resilience, lower customer costs and scaling innovation across the UK and the US Northeast, with Pradeep Tagare as interim president.
Oct 9, 2026
GridCARE's Power Acceleration Index said GridCARE qualified 650 MW in New York working with National Grid, citing Zoë Yujnovich's remark on the May 2026 results call that GridCARE identified up to 650 MW of potential flexible connection capacity.
Sep 18, 2026
National Grid became a founding member of the AI Energy Management Alliance with Google, NVIDIA and Anthropic, and National Grid Partners, under Interim President Pradeep Tagare, said it had invested more than $600 million since 2018.
Sep 17, 2026
National Grid Partners made a strategic investment in Terragrit, an AI platform for simulating changes to physical operations, with Arun Chetty speaking for the venture arm.
Aug 3, 2026
National Grid cut its Group Executive Committee from 13 to 8 members and named Alice Delahunty Chief Technology and Innovation Officer from Sep 1, 2026, with National Grid Partners core to her team.
Jul 1, 2026
National Grid Ventures agreed to invest $1.75 billion for 35% of Joulent, which develops power for US large load customers; its first project will supply a Microsoft-operated data centre campus in West Texas, and Zoë Yujnovich called Joulent infrastructure for the AI-driven large load economy.
Jun 12, 2026
National Grid won £355,985 of Strategic Innovation Fund money to lead the Alpha phase of FoSMo, a shared AI model for inspecting pylons, cables and fittings built with Keen AI and four other UK network operators.
Jun 3, 2026
National Grid's 2025/26 Annual Report named scaling technology, data and AI as one of three big shifts and reported a Data and AI Academy and AI scoring of every New England contact-centre call.
May 14, 2026
National Grid's full-year results credited satellite imagery and AI with cutting tree-related outages in New England by nearly 30%.
May 6, 2026
National Grid and Air Space Intelligence announced a collaboration to deploy AI decision support for grid planning and operations, backed by a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant.
Mar 25, 2026
National Grid and GridCARE announced their first collaboration, using generative AI grid simulations to find capacity for data centres on National Grid's New York network.
Mar 12, 2026
Jody Elliott described at the ServiceNow AI Summit in London the AI agents National Grid's risk team built for vulnerability management and regulatory change, and said the company had rolled out AI training from executives to specialists.
Mar 3, 2026
National Grid announced that the Dec 2025 London trial with Emerald AI, EPRI, Nebius and NVIDIA cut an AI cluster's power demand by more than a third in under a minute without disrupting critical workloads.
Dec 2, 2025
National Grid launched an AI wildfire risk initiative with Rhizome's gridFIRM platform across its networks in Massachusetts, New York and the UK.
Nov 17, 2025
Zoë Yujnovich became National Grid's Chief Executive, succeeding John Pettigrew after almost ten years in the role; her strategy later named scaling technology, data and AI as one of three big shifts.
Quick answers
- How does National Grid deploy AI?
- National Grid deploys AI mainly through vendor tools in its UK and US network businesses, several backed by its venture arm, National Grid Partners, while staff use Microsoft Copilot and an internal chat service, GridGPT. AI scores every New England contact-centre call, satellite-imagery AI cut tree-related outages there by nearly 30%, and trials with GridCARE and Emerald AI target grid capacity for data centres. Alice Delahunty became Chief Technology and Innovation Officer on Sep 1, 2026, with National Grid Partners in her team.
- What does National Grid use AI for?
- National Grid has disclosed AI use cases mostly in its network businesses: vegetation management and contact-centre call scoring in New England, customer service forecasting and a data portal chatbot in UK distribution, wildfire risk across the US and UK, grid capacity studies with GridCARE and Air Space Intelligence, a data-centre flexibility trial with Emerald AI, and AI agents in risk and compliance, plus Microsoft Copilot and an internal GridGPT chat service for staff. National Grid reports no financial return for any of them or for AI as a whole in its results or filings; the results it reports are operating outcomes, led by nearly 30% fewer tree-related outages in New England (May 2026).
- Who leads AI at National Grid?
- AI at National Grid is led by Alice Delahunty (Chief Technology and Innovation Officer); Gavin Goodland (Chief Data Officer); Talvis Love (Chief Information and Digital Officer (role after Sep 2026 unconfirmed)). Ownership of AI on the org chart: Alice Delahunty, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, on the Group Executive Committee since Sep 2026.
- What AI platform does National Grid use?
- National Grid buys most of its AI inside vendor tools such as AiDASH and NICE CXone, several from startups backed by its venture arm, National Grid Partners; staff use Microsoft Copilot in regulatory, finance and legal work (Sep 2024) and an internal chat service, GridGPT (Oct 2024).
- Which AI models does National Grid use?
- National Grid has not named a large language model provider; Microsoft said in Sep 2024 that National Grid uses Microsoft Copilot and builds generative AI on Azure, and the rest of its AI arrives inside vendor products such as satellite-imagery models for vegetation and GridCARE's grid simulations.
- How many National Grid employees use AI?
- National Grid has not published how many of its 33,026 employees use AI tools; a Data and AI Academy trains staff at every level, and AI evaluates 100% of New England contact-centre calls (Jun 2026).
- How far has AI spread at National Grid?
- National Grid has reported no business return it credits to AI, for any use case or for the group: the AI results in its 2025/26 results and annual report are operating outcomes, such as nearly 30% fewer tree-related outages in New England from satellite imagery and AI (May 2026) and AI scoring of every New England contact-centre call, and the only cost figure, about $2 million in efficiencies from less vegetation work with AiDASH, came from a vegetation manager in Sep 2022 and has not been repeated since. National Grid has not reported a company-wide AI rollout with a user count either: it has not said how many of its 33,026 employees use Microsoft Copilot, GridGPT or any other AI tool, though Alice Delahunty has owned technology and innovation as Chief Technology and Innovation Officer since Sep 1, 2026. National Grid therefore stays at Experimenting; one return it credits to AI, or an official count of employees using its AI tools, would move it to Piloting.
Open questions
- How many of National Grid's 33,026 employees use Microsoft Copilot or GridGPT today, and which models sit behind GridGPT?
- Which clouds besides Microsoft Azure host National Grid's AI workloads and data, and does any AI run in its own data centres?
- Is Talvis Love still Chief Information and Digital Officer, and where do that role, the Chief Data Officer, the Chief Information Security Officer and the AI Governance Council report under the operating model that took effect on Sep 1, 2026?
- What financial return do National Grid's deployed AI tools deliver now, such as AiDASH vegetation management, NICE CXone call scoring and Microsoft Copilot, beyond the roughly $2 million AiDASH figure a manager gave in 2022?
- How much of the up to 650 MW GridCARE identified in New York has been offered to customers, and at what saving against conventional reinforcement?
- Will the Emerald AI flexibility trial lead to connection terms for UK data centres that agree to cut power on a grid signal?
- Who will lead National Grid Partners permanently, and what is Steve Smith's role after the Sep 2026 reorganization?
- How many of the startups funded from the $100 million AI commitment run in National Grid's own networks, and what have they returned?
- How many data, analytics and AI specialists does National Grid employ, and in which business units?
Sources
Filings and announcements
- National Grid 2025/26 Annual Report on Form 20-F (Jun 3, 2026)
- National Grid 2024/25 Annual Report on Form 20-F (May 29, 2025)
- FY2025/26 full-year results statement (May 14, 2026)
- Half-year results 2025/26 (Nov 6, 2025)
- National Grid simplifies its operating model (Aug 3, 2026)
- Chief Executive succession plan (May 1, 2025)
- Upgraded five-year framework and RIIO-T3 acceptance (Mar 2, 2026)
- Pre-close update ahead of 2026/27 half-year results (Oct 5, 2026)
- National Grid Ventures to invest $1.75 billion in Joulent (Jul 1, 2026)
- UK-first trial of AI grid technology, National Grid newsroom (Mar 3, 2026)
National Grid Partners
- 2026 Utility Innovation Survey and AI Energy Management Alliance (Sep 18, 2026)
- Utility Innovation Report and Aina Climate AI Ventures investment (Oct 9, 2025)
- New leadership structure (Feb 1, 2024)
- Team page (checked Nov 1, 2026)
- Portfolio (checked Nov 1, 2026)
- Power-Flexible AI Factories: a UK-first demonstration, Emerald AI, EPRI, National Grid and Nebius (Mar 2026)
Partners
- Microsoft: National Grid utilises Microsoft Copilot in the drive to net zero (Sep 25, 2024)
- GridCARE and National Grid collaborate on grid capacity (Mar 25, 2026)
- GridCARE Power Acceleration Index (Oct 9, 2026)
- Air Space Intelligence and National Grid deploy operational AI (May 6, 2026)
- National Grid launches AI wildfire risk initiative with Rhizome (Dec 2, 2025)
- Terragrit investment from National Grid Partners (Sep 17, 2026)
News and conferences
- Global Venturing: National Grid Partners takes bigger role in utility's technology strategy (Oct 15, 2026)
- ESG Today: Schneider Electric to acquire AiDASH (Jul 31, 2026)
- Transformer Magazine: Britain's first shared grid AI model advances (Jun 12, 2026)
- Think Digital Partners: National Grid turns to AI to tackle cyber risk and regulatory complexity (Mar 12, 2026)
- BeBeez: National Grid partners with Emerald AI on a UK data centre flexibility demonstration (Sep 15, 2025)
- DataIQ 100 2026: Gavin Goodland, Chief Data Officer, National Grid
- Utility Analytics Week: National Grid shapes the future of internal GenAI services (Oct 17, 2024)
- TechTarget: National Grid saves $2 million by partnering with AI startup (Sep 8, 2022)
Data confidence
- Confirmed
- Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
- Estimated
- Derived or approximated from public reporting.
- Unconfirmed
- Reported, but not yet corroborated.
National Grid profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 1, 2026
