Bain & Company guiding Hera Group through Gen AI strategy and roll-out

Italian multi-utility company Hera Group has launched a strategic program to upgrade its business through generative artificial intelligence technology, with Bain & Company serving as its strategy and technology advisor.

With more than 10,000 employees and a $5.8 billion market cap, Hera Group is a leading provider of energy, water, waste management, and related utility services, operating in Italy.

As part of its digital strategy, the company is exploring and adopting generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) solutions across its business. That process is being support by Bain & Company, which serves as one of Open AI’s leading consulting partners worldwide.

In the first phase of the program, Bain & Company worked with the Hera Group’s management teams to identify how generative AI can help enhance performance. Together, a joint project team developed a comprehensive roadmap, prioritizing around 150 generative AI use cases into three waves of implementation across seven areas of the business.

The consultants also helped Hera Group to build a flexible, innovative, and technology-agnostic platform to support its AI vision and align the organization behind evolving opportunities and operating principles.

Salvatore Molè, Chief Innovation Officer of Hera Group said: “In just three short months, our collaboration with Bain & Company has enabled us to grasp the key technological drivers for implementing generative AI solutions and to fine-tune the effectiveness of a first AI product with feedback from our users.”

That first AI product was a contact center chatbot, which has proven itself to support interactions with customers and employees across the company.

With a roadmap now in place, Hera Group and Bain & Company will work on bringing the next batch of most valuable use cases to life. Key bottlenecks for generative AI, such as data quality and governance, have already been addressed and prepared for, said Molè. “With Bain & Company’s support we have swiftly addressed most of our technological uncertainties regarding generative AI, focusing solely on the critical factors that make AI solutions successful.”

As Bain & Company prepares for the second phase of the program (a wider roll-out), Bain & Company partner Roberto Prioreschi (who just returned from COP29) said the firm is proud on the progress booked so far – and on what is yet to come. “Hera Group is one of the major players in the Italian multi-utility sector, and this innovation puts it at the forefront of the industry while enhancing both its customers’ and employees’ experiences.”

“With phase one of the initiative complete, we look forward to rolling out even more AI-backed solutions together in the coming months.”

Globally, Bain & Company has over 1,500 experts that are trained in AI and related technologies.