AI can improve forecasting, maintenance prioritisation, and market operations. The risk is not the recommendation, it is the irreversible or high-energy action taken without deterministic policy checks.
IT/OT convergence raises the stakes
When recommendations flow into work orders, switching logic, or operator consoles, you need the same discipline as mechanical interlocks: nothing moves unless policy and state allow it. Monitoring dashboards cannot substitute for authorization on the hot path.
Regulatory and safety context
Operators must evidence resilience, cyber security, and safe management of change. An execution gateway produces tamper-evident records of what was permitted or blocked, supporting both internal assurance and supervisory dialogue.
Internal links
Read AI governance for energy & utilities, integration & architecture, and trust center for deployment patterns. For decision semantics, see architecture.