When I first joined Schneider Electric over a decade ago, my job was to transform commercial strategy and operations in the Pacific; when I left, my work took me to the solar and IT industries. But no matter the business, the same question always arises: how do we navigate rising energy costs, grid instability, and climate pressures?

For the next phase of my career, I’m rejoining Schneider Electric as its new EVP for the global Home Solutions division to answer that question.

Homes already constitute 20% of global emissions, mostly from energy use, and the UN projects that cooling demand alone will triple by 2050 if nothing changes and temperatures continue to rise. For example, my home country of India is expected to become the world’s largest consumer of cooling by the same year, 2050, as heat waves become longer and hotter.

As both the world’s most sustainable company and a global business, it’s clear to me that Schneider Electric not only can play a major role in reshaping the home energy landscape, but must do so.

I envision the home as an intelligent energy ecosystem that’s constantly learning and evolving alongside its occupants. In my new role, I intend to make that vision a reality for our customers around the world.

Energy in homes

Although smart home devices have helped us build more convenient lives, we can advance further by pursuing whole-home coordination and optimization- without sacrificing the comfort we desire at home or raising energy bills.

Imagine a home where each room already knows your ideal lighting, heating, and cooling preferences and automatically adjusts energy usage to meet those preferences, all while simultaneously balancing bigger loads such as hot water heating, EV charging or appliance usage to reduce spend.

This isn’t a pipe dream. It’s reality.

AI-powered Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), like Schneider Electric’s Wiser ecosystem and its Wiser Home AI, analyze usage data and more to discover opportunities to reduce energy consumption without compromising comfort.

Energy in hands

The more visibility our customers have into how they’re using energy, the easier we can make it for them to manage their usage. Our job is to make that possible.

With a HEMS centralizing control of every digitalized, electrified or smart device into one app, users have more insight into their energy consumption and greater oversight to make changes.

AI can further upgrade user control by constantly analyzing data from behavior, usage, real-time pricing, weather and even more, synthesizing patterns and trends. Once a user inputs their own energy goals, AI can use its findings to create personalized recommendations for the user to implement as they see fit.

Just using Schneider Electric’s Wiser Home AI optimization can create savings of up to 25% on energy bills, and we are adding new opt-in features for even more optimization.

EV charging is a great example of this. Many need their EVs charged by a certain time (like when they’re leaving for work) and charge their EV within the same window during the afternoon and evening. To charge their EVs at the most cost-efficient time, they’d need to constantly monitor real-time electricity tariffs and prices. An AI-powered HEMS, meanwhile, can delay or pause charging until the prices have lowered, translating into daily savings.

Energy from homes

Our energy grid is transforming every single day. 10% of South Africa’s power-generating capacity is now from solar panels after just 7 years. Solar was the EU’s biggest power source for the first time ever in June 2025.

Consumers are therefore becoming something new: prosumers, who both produce and consume energy, simultaneously reducing their reliance on their grids and creating more clean energy. They only need to buy energy in certain situations, can bank energy for later with a battery backup, and can sell their excess energy back to the grid.

Their actions are creating a new, more decentralized grid putting power back into consumer hands.

Just as with energy consumption, AI-enhanced HEMS can also manage energy production, monitoring solar production levels and times and even learning specific household details to optimally manage usage.

For example, say your EV charges at 7kW, but your solar capacity is generating a 3kW surplus. Wiser Home AI can lower or “dim” your EV charging rate down to 3kW, meaning it charges solely using solar power. It may take a little longer, but Wiser Home AI knows your EV routine and can ensure it’s ready when you need it.

Our holistic vision: Celebrating energy

As your energy technology partner, Schneider Electric’s goal is to help you reinvent your relationship with your home and your energy usage.

We want to help you power warm winter nights and cool summer days. We want to ensure that your home is safe, comfortable and ready for anything. We want to help you make your home more intelligent and put energy management back into your hands to help you shape your life today and the world tomorrow.

We want to celebrate your energy. I’m honored to rejoin Schneider Electric as we build the new home energy landscape together.