Building energy resilience through reinvention

At the turn of the 20th century, global energy demand spiked. Cities installed tramways and streetlights while factories adopted electric motors over steam. At the same time, oil consumption surged with the rise of automobiles, trucks and early aviation. Nearly 100 years later, we’re again seeing an energy spike – this time from AI.

While promising growth and productivity, our research reveals that AI’s energy consumption is on track to grow over 10 times by the end of the decade, reaching 612 terawatt-hours annually. The International Energy Agency (IEA) places data centre demand even higher, closer to 945 terawatt-hours. Putting that into context, this demand would be slightly higher than Japan’s consumption today.

To meet this rising energy demand, the United Arab Emirates is building one of the largest data centres in its aim to become an AI hub. In a region long adapted to navigating geopolitical shifts, commodity cycles and evolving consumer needs, this move offers a compelling example of building long-term resilience – one that prioritises a shift from legacy infrastructure to future-ready systems.

For CEOs, the imperative is clear: resilience must evolve from a reactive stance to a proactive strategy. As leaders navigate a new era of disruption with advanced AI – generative, agentic and physical – the learning is not just about diversification but about embedding resilience throughout the enterprise.

Realising advanced AI’s potential across the business

The third edition of Accenture’s Resilience Index, a proprietary analysis of 1,600 of the world’s largest companies on key business and technology dimensions, revealed a sobering finding this year: while overall resilience rebounded, it’s also increasingly fragmented as less than 15% of companies achieve long-term profitable growth and leaders balance different priorities across technology, people, operations and commercial models.

With technology as the foundation of reinvention, additional Accenture research surveying the C-suite found 85% are already planning to increase their generative AI investments, which is good news. Two-thirds (67%) view AI as a driver of revenue growth. Business leaders in EMEA are even more bullish, with 40% of the C-suite saying AI is already changing roles significantly.

To realise the full potential of advanced AI, leaders must then invest in and grow their people. In EMEA, one in three (35%) people have regularly worked with AI agents, signalling an opportunity to ensure employees are equipped with both the tools and training necessary to thrive alongside this technology. More good news, companies that invest in both technology and people are four times more likely to sustain profitable growth. The UAE is already executing this approach by expanding generative AI access for its population. At the same time, leaders faced with commercial pricing pressures, demand shifts and regulatory changes can consider leveraging AI for dynamic pricing and scenario building to help make difficult decisions on what costs to absorb and what to pass on. With supply chains under strain, a quarter (25%) of executives have already begun their journey toward autonomy. Those that are reconfiguring their operations for resilience see a 62% decrease in response time, and they recover 60% quicker than conventional networks.

From endurance to long-term, profitable growth

As AI today becomes as ubiquitous as streetlights and steam engines became 100 years ago, preparing for the increased energy demand requires building agility into every layer of resilience. For high-performing companies, these moments of disruption are not just about endurance. Instead, the leaders of tomorrow use change as a launchpad for growth and a way to establish a competitive edge over their peers that doesn’t just withstand the future, but that helps reinvent it.