Leveraging AI to Drive Efficiency and Nudge Sustainable Behavior: Tactics for Product and Technology Innovators

As the physical and digital worlds continue to expand, the quest for efficiency is not just about doing more with less, it's about embracing sustainability and smart innovation. Here, we explore how integrating cutting-edge technology, especially AI, can lead to more sustainable consumer behaviors and products that don't just serve us but also our planet.

Change the Product to Increase Efficiency

In the area of digital and electronic innovation, efficiency is a critical consideration. Take, for example, the advancements in smart home technology. Modern AI-powered home systems learn from your habits to optimize energy consumption, adjusting heating, lighting, and even water use to your actual needs, significantly reducing waste.

Consider Electric Vehicles (EVs), exemplifying how integrating technology like regenerative braking and battery management systems can dramatically increase range and overall performance while minimizing environmental impact.

Unfortunately, there are a couple risks to adoption of more efficient products–first, efficient products are usually more expensive. Educating consumers on the total cost of ownership can help them make an informed decision (see the Save Money Design Strategy). Second, sometimes there are unintended psychological effects of your products. For example, people who have an electric car may think they can now drive more than when they had a gas-powered vehicle due to what’s called the ‘direct rebound effect.’ 

Change People’s Behavior to Reduce Consumption

Transforming consumer behavior through digital innovation offers a powerful path to resource conservation. Here’s how:

Provide a Benchmark

Leveraging data from smart devices, AI can create personalized benchmarks for energy consumption. Research suggests that benchmarks, especially when personal, can be effective ways to change people’s behavior. Imagine an AI-powered device, similar to Google’s Nest, that compares your home's energy usage with similar households and provides tailored suggestions for improvement, thereby making conservation a shared community goal.

Give Real-Time Feedback

As mentioned, AI-driven devices can provide immediate feedback on energy use or water consumption, making users aware of their consumption habits in real-time. Smart thermostats or shower heads that visualize water and energy use can inspire users to make more eco-friendly choices instinctively. Consider other gamification tactics to share this type of feedback with consumers and nudge them to act.

AI can create insight into the energy use of individual appliances as each appliance has its own unique energy usage fingerprint. AI extracts these fingerprints to create energy profiles for every appliance. Bidgely is pioneering this kind of behind the meter load disaggregation technology, empowering energy, gas and water utilities to better manage their networks and available resources.

Bidgely enables integration of disaggregated energy data into energy utility companies’ pre-existing business processes or applications.

Make Predictions

The future of digital technology lies in anticipation. AI systems in smart homes can predict your energy needs based on past behavior, local weather conditions, and your schedule. This ensures that energy is used efficiently, charging your EV during off-peak hours or utilizing renewable sources when available, thus optimizing personal and grid-wide energy use.

In the journey towards efficiency and sustainability, technology is our ally. By designing products that not only meet consumer needs but also encourage responsible consumption, we can pave the way for a future that values resourcefulness as much as innovation.

This article is is part of a series of 24 articles sharing practical, actionable tips on how to design tech products that people don't just use, but love. The articles build on the world’s leading design methods for designing successful tech products, as described in the book “Design Things that Make Sense”. Visit www.designthingsthatmakesense.com to learn more or download the free toolkit.