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Artificial Intelligence and the Next Leap for the Global South
Nandan Nilekani: Founder and Patron of Networks for Humanity
Ashish Khaana: Director-General of the International Solar Alliance
In large parts of the Global South, electricity is a crucial resource. While the energy transition is often framed from a climate perspective, billions of people primarily understand it as a means to expand opportunities, ensure affordability, and improve service delivery.
As such, the next phase of the clean energy revolution will not be led by countries that build more solar panels, but by those that update their networks, markets, and institutions accordingly. Modernization will be the main priority, as cleaner grids are inherently more complex.
The old electricity model was straightforward: power plants generated energy that was transmitted directly to consumers from businesses and homes. The new model is different. Electricity has become decentralized, with homes, farms, and private enterprises increasingly relying on rooftop solar panels, battery storage systems, and electric appliances. Citizens are no longer passive consumers; they have become “prosumer” generators who produce and consume energy simultaneously.
Decentralization and renewable energy complicate matters. While expectations for a consistently high-quality service remain, solar and wind energy are more volatile, and energy system assets are distributed more widely. To meet these needs, clean grids require digital pathways—similar to the internet—where diverse assets communicate over an open and interoperable core network.
Indeed, grids equipped with artificial intelligence, built on interoperable pathways with real-time data and capabilities, will be just as vital for the development efforts in the Global South as traditional infrastructure like roads and ports. Leveraging AI applications in energy delivery is essential. This technology is ideally suited for improving demand forecasts, streamlining procurement and delivery processes, and minimizing technical losses. It already facilitates predictive maintenance to prevent power outages, simplifies billing and collections, and enhances the financial health of utilities.
The anticipated gains are substantial. For far too long, operational deficiencies and distribution losses have imposed an implicit tax on developing economies, resulting in higher electricity costs and reduced reliability. In this context, an integrated grid with AI could play a critical role: transforming clean energy into tangible benefits for citizens in the form of higher service quality, lower costs, fewer service interruptions, and faster delivery. Energy will become more accessible than ever before.
Moreover, AI-powered systems require a diverse skill set, so their adoption will expand opportunities for entrepreneurs and workers contributing to sector growth. However, realizing these gains requires a more inclusive approach. Currently, the AI-supported landscape is fragmented, featuring pioneering projects aimed at creating a new dashboard in one city, a predictive model in a single facility, and a new “smart meter” in a neighboring city. These projects seldom “communicate” with each other, often relying on proprietary systems, meaning they cannot easily scale. The result is redundancy and elevated costs.
The Global South has faced this issue before, particularly in constructing essential digital infrastructure. Past experiences have shown that modernization without interoperability can trap you in rigid systems that are challenging to update, audit, and are vulnerable to cyber threats.
Thus, effectively harnessing AI in the energy sector represents both a technical challenge and a strategic necessity. Whether the energy sector modernization ultimately serves the interests of prosumer producers depends on whether the systems are interoperable or fragmented.
To ensure success, India has launched a major strategic initiative to create the India Energy Stack as part of its broader public digital infrastructure. The India Energy Stack is designed to align with globally scalable frameworks, such as the proposed Digital Energy Network by Networks for Humanity, which will ensure interoperability across the energy value chain. This work lays the foundation for the future, as does the Indian Ministry of Power’s initiative to install 200 million smart meters, enabling real-time measurement at the national level.
In response to the tremendous growth in rooftop solar usage, the India Energy Stack aims to establish the digital foundations for multiple new uses and markets, including peer-to-peer trading. Similar to digital payment technologies, interoperable energy platforms can empower millions of entrepreneurs—from installers, aggregators, and battery owners to energy service providers—to generate new income sources, particularly in underserved Tier 2 and Tier 3 regions. Equally important, these digital foundations will strengthen the grid, as interoperable platforms and unified asset identities allow utility operators to optimize millions of distributed resources in real-time.
This comprehensive approach reflects India’s strategy in developing public digital infrastructure to create new competitive ecosystems. Public platforms in the country will enable startups and service providers to drive innovation without starting from scratch, while utilities will obtain modular solutions that help them avoid dependence on a single supplier. The goal is to improve existing systems rather than pursue a complete overhaul.
In fact, India provides a model for the rest of the Global South. The mindset of developing countries regarding market infrastructure will determine whether they can leap directly to the next stage of the digital revolution instead of remaining digitally dependent on others. Naturally, least developed countries and small island developing states face many challenges, from fragmented markets and fragile economies to limited budgets. However, the International Solar Alliance may help overcome these obstacles. With 125 countries committed to collaborating in solar energy proliferation, the alliance promises to become a global engine for transformations in AI-driven energy networks that center on citizens everywhere through a global mission to harness AI for energy enhancement.
The recipe for success is not a secret. We need organized programs to update regulatory controls, build capacity, experiment with interoperable digital systems, stimulate seed financing for innovation, and mobilize blended financing to support scalable solutions. All of these steps must be taken simultaneously as part of a national or even regional mission. This way, the Global South can transition from isolated experiments to large-scale system building.
The shift to clean energy is entering the platform era. The Global South does not need to replicate the old grid model (which wealthy countries are updating at great expense). Instead, it can leap to the next phase by integrating renewable energy, artificial intelligence, and public digital infrastructure. India is already guiding the way.
