Machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT) are two of the hottest terms out there today for utilities. Both have the power to create an increasingly autonomous grid that can eventually handle billions of endpoints on utility networks. But is the utility industry maximizing the benefits of these disruptive innovations? How can utilities best leverage these technologies today?

SAS and Zpryme reached out to 200 North American utilities to learn more about their approaches toward IoT and machine learning.

In this paper, you’ll learn:

• How utilities are using IoT and machine learning today, as well as their plans for the future
• The utility industry’s understanding of IoT and machine learning
• Recommendations for utilities to improve their abilities to adopt these technologies on a larger scale

 Key findings include:

• Utilities agree that both IoT and machine learning are critical for their organizations, but they have a better understanding and are more likely to be using IoT than machine learning.
• More than 55% already use IoT for metering/meter data management (MDM), and 31% are already using machine learning for this area, too.
• Network security and data privacy are major IoT concerns for utilities. Areas of least concern are lack of expertise and sufficient budget.
• The top benefits associated with IoT are more likely to be customer-facing, such as customer service and energy efficiency, whereas the benefits named for machine learning are more grid-oriented, including areas such as service restoration and cybersecurity.