In a wide-ranging interview, Philippe Rambach, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at Schneider Electric, shares how the global energy management and automation company is scaling AI across more than 160 factories and 140 countries. The key, he explains, is a disciplined business-first approach that prioritizes real-world value over technological novelty.
Business Value Over Technology
Rambach warns against “technology tourism”—the temptation to run hundreds of pilots without a clear business case. Instead, Schneider Electric starts by identifying a specific business impact, then asks if AI can help. Each use case passes through gate reviews that test both technical feasibility and business value. Projects are halted immediately if either criterion fails.
“We do a pilot that keeps in mind what we want to deliver at scale,” Rambach notes. This rigor prevents “pilot purgatory” and ensures that lab successes translate to real factory results.
Agentic AI and the Sera Assistant
Schneider recently launched Sera, an AI agent that transforms how users interact with environmental data. However, Rambach cautions against overhyping generative AI. “Generative AI agents do not replace forecasting, anomaly detection, prediction or optimisation—we still need that,” he asserts. Sera adds a conversational layer, allowing operators to ask complex questions in natural language, moving beyond rigid dashboards.
Critical Thinking as a Core Skill
To counter blind faith in AI outputs, Schneider has introduced an “AI for All” training program with the same institutional rigor as safety training. The centerpiece is critical thinking. “We want people to keep critical thinking when AI gives an answer,” Rambach says, acknowledging that AI can be wrong or partially wrong. The company also hosts “promptathons” and a virtual “Genius Bar” for employees to share prompting strategies.
Edge vs. Cloud: A Matter of Physics and Policy
Deciding where to run AI depends on data sovereignty and latency. In industrial settings, sensitive data often must stay local, and real-time applications like visual inspection require edge processing for speed. Schneider’s solutions are designed to be versatile enough for both environments.
Addressing the Energy Density Crisis
Schneider Electric, which builds data center infrastructure, is acutely aware that AI training consumes vast energy. Rambach notes the irony: AI is part of the solution. The company uses AI to optimize power management for its own factories and partners like NVIDIA to precisely manage energy in AI factories. He also advocates treating AI as an “unreliable component,” building reliable systems with human-in-the-loop checks, as in customer care where AI drafts responses but humans verify them.
Navigating Regulation and Ethics
Operating under the EU AI Act, Schneider has published an external Trust Charter that explicitly bans facial recognition. Rambach says compliance with the Act does not slow the company down. The ethical framework is backed by a dedicated responsible AI team within the AI Hub.
The Future of the CAIO Role
Rambach admits he is “very scared of becoming the bottleneck” as AI becomes pervasive. He sees the CAIO role evolving toward defining technical policy and supporting large, bespoke use cases. His overarching message is to not forget centuries of human wisdom: “My big message is we should not forget everything we have learned in the last 2,000 years, just because there’s a new technique.”
For industrial giants, AI is not a replacement for human engineering but its most powerful tool—and mastering it lies in the critical mind of the user.