DIGITAL & AI MATURITY REPORT 2026 / INDUSTRY FOCUS
Digital & AI Maturity Index in Utilities
Utilities manage critical infrastructure where reliability, safety, and compliance are non-negotiable. While the sector has strong operational discipline, legacy debt and data fragmentation often stall digital workflows.
To lead in 2026, utilities must shift from reactive to predictive, automated networks. Success requires modernizing core platforms and creating a unified operational view to transform a “reliability culture” into a scalable, data-driven advantage.
Figure 1: Digital & AI Maturity Index (DAIMI) Study Results:
Utilities Industry Score, Averages, Leaders, and Laggards
DAIMI Findings: Reliability Discipline vs. Legacy Lock-In
Utilities demonstrate a vitality pattern where agility (Velocity) and foundational resilience (Endurance) increase together, though most organizations currently cluster around mid-level maturity.
- Core Strengths: Maturity is highest in regulated operational routines, network monitoring, and safety processes, where reliability requirements have forced a disciplined approach.
- The Velocity Gap: Progress is frequently hindered by legacy environments and the complexity of orchestrating field operations across large, diverse geographies.
- Data Bottlenecks: Telemetry, asset, and customer data often remain disconnected, preventing the scaling of analytics-led decision-making.
- Industrializing AI: While interest is high for predictive maintenance and outage prediction, scaling is limited by foundational governance and data readiness.
A Comprehensive Analysis of Digital & AI Maturity in Utilities Industry
To win in 2026, utility executives must anchor their digital strategy to measurable outcomes such as reliability, resilience, and safety. Success requires a disciplined focus on integrating IT and OT environments to enable real-time visibility. By upskilling field teams and engineers, utilities can ensure that AI-driven tools actually reduce effort and improve restoration times rather than adding noise to an already complex operational heartbeat.
Download the full report to access the detailed DAIMI benchmarks and the strategic roadmap to turn infrastructure pressure into a sustained, predictive operational edge.
The DAIMI Methodology
DAIMI (Digital and AI Maturity Index) is Digitopia’s framework for assessing how effectively organizations build capability and value in the digital and AI era. It measures maturity across six dimensions—Customer, Operations, Innovation, People, Governance, and Technology—to capture both business outcomes and the foundational capabilities required to deliver them consistently.
Discover how our methodology can transform your strategy.
The Global Perspective
The Utilities Focus Report is part of a larger, global study on the state of transformation. Based on six years of research, 1,300+ assessments, and insights from 20+ countries and 10+ industries, the full report offers a truly global perspective.
While AI adoption is accelerating, organizational capability is not. The “Digital & AI Maturity Report 2026” quantifies this gap and provides the strategic blueprint required to close it.
