The Home That Runs Itself
Alex Baggallay: data, AI, and customer trust
On Next Time Around, Lauren and I spoke with Alex Baggallay, Growth Partnerships Lead for UK & Ireland at Salesforce. Before Salesforce, he spent a decade in management consulting on operating-model and front-office transformation. That background, combined with his work today on data and AI with enterprises, gives him a clear view of how industries are shifting.
That was the reason we wanted him on. At Powerverse, we see the same themes playing out in energy: data, platforms, and ecosystems reshaping what companies are and how they serve. Alex brought an outside-in perspective on how those shifts actually take hold.
Patterns from media, automotive, and energy
Alex drew on patterns from other sectors.
Media and communications were among the first to reorganise. Telecoms moved from fixed-line utilities to broadband platforms, then into bundled streaming and content. Companies that once sold “minutes” or “cable boxes” became subscription businesses wrapped around user experience.
Automotive is transforming right now. As Alex put it, “cars are moving from being offline products to being part of lifestyle experience companies.” That captures the scale of change. The industry isn’t just electrifying — it’s redefining itself around ongoing services and experiences.
Energy is entering the same moment. We still use transactional language — supplier, tariff, unit rate — but the direction of travel is toward home services that orchestrate heat, mobility, storage, and generation. As Alex framed it, “suppliers will evolve into home lifestyle companies, not just billing engines.”
The common thread is that once products become connected, industries reorganise around how people use them. That is the lens for energy too.
Why data comes first
Alex’s core point was simple: data has to come first. Too many organisations “install a system” and hope value follows. Without a trusted, unified picture of the customer, you can’t build reliable advice or new services.
In energy, this is critical. Send a household generic nudges, and they disengage. Trust is earned when the system proves, over and over, that it understands the rhythm of the home. Without that trust, the right to advise disappears.
Ease as the test that matters
There’s one test that matters most: is it easier for the customer? If ordering a takeaway is frictionless but getting a charger installed takes months, adoption slows. If households juggle five devices and five apps, the effort outweighs the benefit.
This is why orchestration matters. The win isn’t more dashboards — it’s better defaults. The home should quietly line things up so people don’t have to.
What orchestration looks like in practice
Picture a household with solar panels, a smart tariff, a battery in the garage, and an EV on the drive. If tomorrow’s forecast is sunny and the car usually sits idle on Tuesdays, the system should delay the overnight charge and use the sun instead.
That’s what orchestration means: stitch data together (tariffs, devices, behaviour, forecast), let AI make the call, and lower the bill without the family lifting a finger.
Trust is the product
Alex mentioned a service rule of thumb: it can take many good interactions to undo one bad one. Whether the number is nine or twelve doesn’t matter. If the system tells someone to charge at the exact time they’re commuting, trust is gone.
That’s the hardest part of this transition. We’re asking households to let software into their routines. The deal is straightforward: make my life easier and cheaper, consistently. Get it wrong often enough, and the relationship collapses.
AI as an assistant, not another dashboard
Alex broke AI into two layers:
Ingestion and hygiene — getting data in, cleaning it, spotting anomalies, recognising change.
Action with agents — moving from app-driven clicks to digital workers that act alongside people.
This is the direction we’re pursuing at Powerverse. Not more controls, but a home energy assistant that learns the house and quietly coordinates devices and tariffs. A good assistant reduces effort. It doesn’t create new chores disguised as features.
The broader label in industry is “digital workers.” Whatever the term, the point is that human labour is augmented, not replaced. Judgement remains vital. The aim is to free it from repetitive work.
Think big, start small, scale fast
Alex’s advice for leaders was practical: think big, start small, scale fast.
Decide what you want AI to change in your model.
Prove value with a low-risk use case.
Scale once the loop is working.
That mindset applies in energy. You don’t need a hundred-point plan. You need one outcome that makes life easier for households, then a way to repeat it.
The system effect
The most interesting part of the conversation was the ripple effect once homes become orchestrated:
House builders can design for performance and stay involved after handover.
Mortgage providers can price risk using real household efficiency data, not just EPC paperwork.
Servicing models can flip, with maintenance coming to the vehicle or the home, based on live data.
Installers, suppliers, and finance can coordinate instead of acting as separate projects.
No single company can do this alone. Ecosystems will decide the pace. The firms that collaborate to remove friction around the home will set the standard.
Three takeaways
Data is the product. Without clean, unified data, you can’t earn trust.
Ease is the measure. If it isn’t easier, adoption won’t happen.
Ecosystems matter. Builders, finance, mobility and suppliers all shape outcomes. Collaboration is essential.
Closing thought
The shift from supplier to home lifestyle company isn’t a rebrand. It’s a different posture. Success will be judged by whether the home simply works — warm, charged, affordable, and lower-carbon — with less effort from the household. That is the bar we have to clear.