06 Tech Trend

AI will drive energy usage while unlocking new energy networking and efficiency paradigms

More companies are committing to net zero goals, but only 4% of them meet the UN criteria, according to Net Zero Tracker. Energy networking and energy efficiency can help reduce the world’s energy needs and emissions by 2050 and help control global emissions of greenhouse gases. Sustainable energy is vital for addressing climate change. The International Energy Agency indicates that energy efficiency can achieve more than 40% of emissions reductions by 2040. Smaller AI models with fewer layers and filters can reduce energy consumption costs compared to general systems. These models are trained on smaller, accurate data sets and accomplish specific tasks. Deep learning models need vast amounts of data to get results.

The fast-emerging category of energy networking, which combines the capabilities of software-defined networking and an electric power system made up of direct current micro grids, will contribute to energy efficiency, delivering increased visibility, insights, and automation. Energy networking will help organizations measure energy usage and emissions more accurately, automate many functions across IT, smart buildings, and IoT sensors, and unlock inefficient and unused energy. With embedded energy management capabilities, the network will become a control plane for measuring, monitoring, and managing energy consumption.

Read more about Mary’s 5 environmental sustainability trends for 2024.

We know that AI workloads increase demand for electricity and water as they place enormous demands on data center infrastructure. (Source: The AI Boom Could Use a Shocking Amount of Electricity). But the benefits of AI for sustainability have the potential to outweigh that impact. Like many other areas, data will be crucial to tackling sustainability challenges. With the promise of AI to make sense of data and offer crucial insights, sustainability could benefit greatly from the application of AI.

Mary de Wysocki, Chief Sustainability Officer

Empowering organizations with energy networking is the key to unlocking a sustainable future. Adopting a right-sized approach to AI models and applying networking to power and connecting it with data, companies can reduce their overall energy consumption even with rising usage and accelerate their net-zero targets. Together, we can pave the way for a greener, more sustainable world.

Denise Lee, Vice President of Engineering Sustainability Office