When people, AI and the energy transition come together.

Vattenfall’s broad operations created for her opportunities to work with challenging questions and apply AI across the entire energy system – from generation and distribution to energy markets and customer solutions. These questions rarely concerned technology alone; they also involved dimensions such as safety and security, sustainability, climate and biodiversity. It was never just about AI for AI’s sake, but about bringing together data, technology, engineering and business knowledge to create value for people, the business and society.

“For me, AI is never about the technology alone. It is about the problems we can solve and the difference we can make with it - whether that means making better decisions, using our assets and resources more intelligently, or creating new opportunities and services. Being able to address such questions across the entire energy value chain – from how energy is produced and distributed to how it is traded and meets customers’ needs – gives the work a real sense of purpose.”

Today, AI is a natural part of the conversation in many organisations. But for Athanasia, the work began much earlier. Together with colleagues, she has spent many years exploring AI in practice, testing different approaches and building knowledge about both its potential and its limitations.

She says: “We didn’t wait for AI to become a trend. We brought forward ideas, tested them, learned from them and sometimes, started all over again. Through that process, we gained the experience to recognise what actually works, what can make a real difference to our operations, contribute to the energy transition, and how to take promising solutions from concepts to large-scale use.”

Different perspectives lead to better solutions

Athanasia’s working days rarely follow a straight line. One day, the focus is on business needs and strategic roadmaps; the next, on technology, innovation or conversations with colleagues from across Vattenfall. Bringing operational experience, business and domain knowledge together engineering, R&D, data science and AI creates a fuller, shared understanding of each challenge. It helps clarify priorities, sharpen the questions and explore different ways forward, leading to solutions that people can use and trust. Some of the most important advances happen not within an AI model itself, but in the conversations around it, where curiosity and experience meet.

Athanasia adds: “Behind every analysis or model, every insight and every innovation, there are people who want to make a difference. At Vattenfall, there is a generosity when it comes to sharing knowledge and a willingness to solve things together. When different experiences and perspectives meet, we not only find better answers, we begin to ask better questions.”

Part of something bigger

The energy transition requires new solutions and the courage to rethink established ways of doing things. For Athanasia, digitalisation and AI open new ways to understand challenges, explore opportunities and develop solutions together with others. Not all answers are available from the outset, but each idea, experiment and lesson learned helps shape the way forward.

She says: “The energy system of the future has not yet been fully mapped out. It is being shaped step by step by people who bring together different perspectives, use technology with purpose and have the courage to explore new possibilities. Helping to share that future is both a responsibility and an opportunity to work on something that matters.”