Guest: Gavin Goodland, Chief Data Officer at National Grid

AI is creating extraordinary opportunities for businesses, but it is also creating an enormous new demand for energy.

In this episode of Databricks Diaries, Andy Davis sits down with Gavin Goodland, Chief Data Officer at National Grid, to explore the relationship between AI, data centres and the infrastructure required to power an increasingly digital economy.

As hyperscale data centres add significant new loads to the electricity network, National Grid is simultaneously using AI, real-time data and advanced optimisation to help manage a grid that is becoming more complex, distributed and dynamic.

Gavin explains how AI is being applied across National Grid — from predicting equipment performance and optimising network capacity to physical AI, drones, workforce training and intelligently managing demand from data centres.

The conversation also goes beyond individual use cases into a bigger question facing every enterprise: how do you turn rapid AI innovation into sustainable business value?

They discuss:

• Why AI and data-centre growth are becoming a major consideration for the electricity grid
• How AI can help balance demand, generation and network capacity
• Using real-time operational data to get more value from existing infrastructure
• Physical AI, robotics and drones across critical infrastructure
• Why National Grid starts with the business problem rather than the technology
• The importance of keeping the “human in the lead”
• Moving employees from curious, to comfortable, to confident with AI
• Where organisations should build AI themselves versus buy from technology providers
• Why legacy technology shouldn’t prevent organisations from innovating
• The emerging importance of an AI control plane for integration, observability, lineage and governance
• Managing the rapidly changing economics of AI and consumption-based technology
• Why Gavin believes organisations should establish an AI Value Office to evaluate value and risk consistently

A fascinating look at AI from an organisation sitting at the intersection of two of the biggest technology and infrastructure shifts happening today: the growth of AI and the transformation of the energy system.