Artificial intelligence is already helping Australians write emails, plan holidays and decide what to cook for dinner. Increasingly, we're also willing to let it play a role in something much closer to home: our energy.
New research from EY found 57% of Australian energy consumers surveyed are already using AI for energy-related tasks, with 36% expecting to increase their use in the future.
That comes at an interesting time for home energy. Solar, batteries and EVs are giving households more control over how they generate, store and use electricity. But they're also creating more decisions about what to do with that energy and when.
Increasingly, AI and automation can make some of those decisions for us.
Home energy isn't as simple as it used to be
For most of the history of Australia's electricity market, energy at home was relatively straightforward. Electricity came from the grid, you used what you needed, and you received a bill for it.
Solar changed that equation. Home batteries changed it again. Now EVs are adding another large and flexible source of energy to the mix.
A household with solar and a battery can generate, store, use and export electricity. When it does each of those things can make a significant difference to the value it gets from its energy.
The electricity market itself is dynamic too. Wholesale prices move throughout the day in response to supply and demand. When renewable energy is abundant, prices can fall very low or even go negative. When demand is high and supply is tight, they can rise sharply.
There are more opportunities for households to benefit from those changes, but also more decisions involved in managing energy well.
EY found 81% of Australian consumers say they're already doing everything they can to manage their energy costs. At the same time, only 40% believe their energy provider is helping them reduce those costs.
As home energy becomes more complex, the opportunity for AI isn't simply to give households more information. It's to help manage some of that complexity for them.
AI is moving from advice to action
There's already plenty AI can do without taking control of anything.
EY's global research found strong consumer interest in using AI to research energy providers and price options, monitor energy use and provide advice, and recommend energy-saving products and programs.
But the research gets more interesting when AI moves beyond providing information and starts making decisions.
Globally, 57% of consumers surveyed were interested in AI adjusting household devices to reduce costs or prioritise renewable energy. The same proportion were interested in having AI switch energy plans based on their preferences and usage, while 55% were interested in having it review bills and make payments on their behalf.
For homes with solar, batteries and EVs, that shift from advice to action opens up a much bigger role for AI.
Take a household with solar and a battery. Should the battery charge from excess solar now, or should that electricity be exported? Should it hold onto stored energy for the evening? Is electricity likely to be cheaper later? How much solar is expected tomorrow? How much electricity will the household actually use?
The best answer can change throughout the day. Making those decisions well means balancing what's happening in the home with what's happening in the electricity market.
That's exactly the kind of work automation can take on.
What energy automation can actually do
At Amber, that's what SmartShift is designed to do.
Amber gives customers direct access to wholesale electricity prices. SmartShift uses machine learning to forecast things like household energy use, solar generation and wholesale prices, then automatically manages compatible batteries and EVs around those forecasts.
For a home battery, that can mean charging when electricity is cheap, holding onto stored energy when it's likely to be more valuable later, and exporting when wholesale prices are high.
For an EV, it can mean automatically charging at cheaper times rather than simply drawing electricity as soon as the car is plugged in.
These decisions aren't made once a day. The inputs are constantly changing, from electricity prices and household consumption to solar generation and how much energy is already stored in a battery.
Automation can keep responding as those conditions change, without the customer having to make every decision themselves.
Australians want automation, but they still want control
EY's research also makes clear that an appetite for automation doesn't mean people are willing to give up control altogether.
Eight in 10 Australian consumers would consider signing up to at least one energy management program. But only 18% would hand control of their smart devices to their energy provider in return for rewards.
Another 31% said they wouldn't enrol any home devices in automated energy management, even if doing so could save them money.
EY's global research provides more context on what consumers want from automation. Savings and rewards are important, but so are reliability and trust, privacy and security, the ability to opt out or override adjustments, and transparency about when changes are being made.
In other words, automation still needs boundaries.
SmartShift is designed so customers can set preferences for how compatible batteries and EVs are managed and override the automation when they want to. The technology can handle the constant optimisation happening in the background, while customers retain control over how their energy is managed.
More batteries mean more energy to manage
This is becoming particularly relevant as Australia adds more home batteries.
EY found 42% of Australian consumers planned to invest in battery storage over the next three years, up from 35% in 2023.
The Australian Government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program is accelerating that shift by reducing the upfront cost of eligible home battery installations.
A battery can store excess solar generated during the day for use later. But with the right electricity plan and automation behind it, it can play a much more active role in how a household uses energy.
It can charge when electricity is abundant and cheap, reduce demand from the grid when prices are higher, and export stored energy when it's more valuable.
That flexibility can benefit individual households, but it also has implications for the wider electricity system. EY points to International Energy Agency research showing that demand flexibility can improve system efficiency by up to 30%.
As millions more flexible devices connect to the grid, the opportunity is significant. The challenge is coordinating them without expecting millions of people to actively manage every energy decision themselves.
The best automation should mean less to think about
EY's research points towards a future where AI in energy isn't simply another source of information.
The report describes the opportunity for energy providers to move towards actionable insights and device automation based on customer preferences. It recommends creating "set-and-forget" energy management experiences that reduce effort while preserving control, privacy and security.
Some of that future is already here.
A battery can respond to changing electricity prices without its owner checking them. An EV can charge when electricity is cheaper without someone working out the best time to do it. Solar, batteries, EVs and the grid can increasingly work together without the household manually coordinating each decision.
As Australian homes become more electrified, there will be more decisions to make about when and how energy is generated, stored and used.
AI doesn't need to make any of that feel more technical. Used well, it can do the opposite.
The smartest home energy technology should handle more of the complexity in the background, while leaving people in control of the things they actually care about.
Let SmartShift do the thinking for you
If you have a compatible home battery or EV, SmartShift can automatically manage when you charge, use and export energy based on wholesale electricity prices, your household energy use and your preferences. See how SmartShift works.
