CoP Structure
Recognising that AI can provide strategic opportunities for utilities of all sizes, SWAN launched the Community of Practice (CoP) focused on AI in May 2024. Members include industry experts and utilities seeking foundational and operational knowledge at the intersection of water, wastewater, stormwater and AI.
(1) Current and Near State
- Establishing a ‘AI for Water’ Knowledge Baseline / Focus on Existing Applications
- Helping utilities understand AI and how it relates to digital transformation with concrete definitions
- Understanding baseline is fundamental to understanding how to embrace technology (both current and emerging)
- Define terms, demystify this, showcase examples
- Ensuring relevant AI case study capture across the SWAN Knowledge Hub and other initiatives
- More SWAN Members contributions through calls/webinars (what is already being deployed, what is working, what is not, main risks and risk mitigation practices, etc.)
(2) Future State / ‘Lighthouse’
- Exploratory – LLMs, Chatbots and Beyond
- Tools and widgets that take/can take smart water technology to next level
- With fast pace of LLMs, SWAN can have a pulse on this moving forward, ‘horizon scanning’
- What progress is initially being made in this space, what could be beneficial to water, initial pilot results to share, increase in water equity, examples of smaller utilities doing more with less, etc.?
- What skill-sets are needed to embrace this? Are we prepared to evaluate/interpret the results? What gaps do we have to fully embrace these? How can we better democratise tools? Are they available to utilities of all sizes?
Announcing New CoP Leadership
- Jeff Diaz, Chief Information and Services Officer, (SJWD Water District)
- Prof. Martha White, Co-Founder and CTO (RL Core Technologies)
- Frank van der Hulst, CTO & Co-Founder (HULO.ai)
