Democratising AI

At Ørsted, artificial intelligence isn’t treated as a specialist discipline reserved for a few teams. Through the Democratise AI initiative, this transformative technology is becoming embedded as a practical, everyday capability across the company. The result is better decisions, higher productivity, and faster innovation.

The goal of Democratise AI was simple: give employees the knowledge, tools, and confidence to use AI responsibly and effectively in their daily work, while ensuring strong governance and alignment with business priorities.

Unlocking AI’s value beyond specialists

AI has the potential to transform how renewable energy assets are designed, built and operated, and how energy is traded. Yet in large organisations, that potential often remains concentrated in expert teams, limited by skill gaps, uncertainty about responsible use, and lack of access to the right tools.

For Ørsted, the challenge was thus not just to deploy AI, but to build truly broad-based AI literacy and adoption at scale – across disciplines, geographies, and levels of technical maturity, and in compliance with regulatory and ethical requirements.

A structured, people-centred approach

Democratise AI is our structured, people-centred approach to scaling AI across the company. It combines training, community-building, tooling, and recognition to create a shared foundation for responsible AI use.

At its core is a thriving internal AI community where colleagues actively share use cases, best practices, and lessons learnt. Monthly demo and knowledge-sharing sessions, both technical and non-technical, provide continuous opportunities to learn from real-life examples and spark new ideas. 

To ensure relevance and impact, we continuously evaluate and introduce AI productivity tools that fit real work needs, from coding support to advanced machine learning platforms. For more complex or high-impact use cases, a dedicated large language model taskforce supports deeper experimentation and development.

From tools to culture

Democratise AI is as much about culture as it is about technology. To reinforce this, we’ve created an AI Champion Awards programme that celebrates creativity, collaboration, and measurable impact. Awards recognise local AI ambassadors who inspire colleagues, teams that deliver tangible business value, high-quality prototypes with clear relevance, and individuals who excel at building AI knowledge and confidence.

These champions act as multipliers, helping to drive adoption within their own teams and functions, and ensuring that AI capability grows organically where our work takes place. 

Delivering value at scale

By lowering barriers to entry and building shared understanding, Democratise AI enables faster problem-solving, better use of data, and more consistent adoption of AI across Ørsted. It helps ensure that AI supports day-to-day decision-making as well as more advanced analytical and operational use cases.

Most importantly, it turns AI from a centralised expertise into a distributed capability, aligned with our business priorities and values. ​
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Built for responsibility and resilience
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Democratise AI reflects our broader approach to innovation: pragmatic, collaborative, and grounded in real-world impact. By combining strong governance with broad empowerment, we help ensure that AI is used responsibly, transparently, and with lasting effect.

The result is an organisation better prepared to adapt, innovate, and lead as AI becomes an integral part of future energy systems.