Ernesto Ciorra, Director of Innovation at Enel: “Corporate hubs for digital culture”

«At Enel, we destroyed the ICT area hit by the technician syndrome and created digital hubs in all areas to renew the old culture and bring innovation to the company’s DNA. All this training 96% of colleagues with 3.2 million hours of training”. Ernesto Ciorra, director of Innovability at the energy company, explained the impact of the digital transition at Enel.

A practical example of application is the Enel X health platform based on the principle that 40% of people hospitalized for Covid could stay at home, monitored by special devices. The instrument was used by Gemelli and, if all hospitals had used it, there would be many more “white” regions forced into red or yellow by the high occupancy rate of hospitals. But digital also enables changes towards sustainability. “We use it to reduce the cost of generating electricity from renewable sources by 60%, but also for monitoring activities. In fact, we can see with a drone through photos and artificial intelligence processing whether a wind turbine needs to be serviced,” added Ciorra. Digital is also in favor of human resources. “One example is deaf colleagues who are able to converse and participate in videoconferences because an application, developed by a startup called Pedius, allows them to hear what is being said thanks to conversion into text and to respond in writing to concepts that are converted into voice” , commented the director. The solution was born from a deaf employee at Enel who developed it and will also help other colleagues with the same problem. Not only. Deaf customers can communicate with Enel today unhindered. “We are the first in the world to develop it and this gives us a concrete competitive advantage over this target customer”, explains Ciorra, who adds “being inclusive allows us to be better and have a competitive economic advantage”.

Now artificial intelligence and business intelligence are the new frontiers for companies that want to stay ahead of the competition. It is necessary to imagine the use of these technologies for a new relationship with the reference market itself. “We manage the development of these technologies in a non-bureaucratic, non-hierarchical, non-traditional logic. We have people who freely join our communities, made up of competent, passionate people who want to contribute to these frontier issues. They could work in completely different areas, but they share a passion and work like the “impressionists”, united by passion ». About 60% of the digital apps we’ve released in recent years have emerged from these communities, including commercial utility solutions through artificial intelligence. For example, saving the life of a colleague who may be falling asleep by forcing him to wear a helmet. Or avoid accidents by illustrating, across the metaverse, the consequences of a fall impact if a safety rope is not attached. “We are going to experience what can happen if safety regulations are not respected,” she concluded.