PG&E CIO Ajay Waghray on Building Trusted Data for Predictive AI

Ajay Waghray (0:00)

At the PG&E level construct, we have created AI literacy programs that have educated 6,000 plus of our team members to have co-pilot and other automated training capabilities ready and ready with that journey.

Peter High (0:18)

Welcome to Technovation. I'm Peter High, President of Metis Strategy.

My guest today is Ajay Waghray. Ajay is the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of PG&E.

PG&E is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States, generating nearly $25 billion in annual revenue and providing energy to more than 16 million people in California. Ajay oversees information technology and cybersecurity with a mandate to use technology to improve safety, reliability, operational performance and customer experience. He joined PG&E in 2020 at a pivotal moment in the company's history as it was emerging from bankruptcy, and he's helped lead a multi-year transformation centered on operational excellence and an increased data-driven understanding of the company's vast physical infrastructure. Ajay brings more than three decades of technology leadership experience across multiple industries. Prior to his current role, he was Chief Technology Officer of Assurance and prior to that, the CIO of both Verizon Enterprise Solutions and Verizon Wireless. In today's conversation, we'll discuss PG&E's transformation, why trusted data has become foundational to safety, and how AI is creating new possibilities across wildfire prevention, grid reliability and cybersecurity, among several other topics we'll cover together. Ajay, welcome to Technovation. It's great to speak with you today.

Ajay Waghray (1:33)

It's great speaking with you too, Peter. It's great to reconnect after all this time.

Peter High (1:38)

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Well, I thought, Ajay, maybe we'd begin with an overview of PG&E's business. For those who may be less familiar with it especially, could you take a moment and describe the business?

Ajay Waghray (2:59)

Absolutely. And I think as I described that business, I think PG&E's business, I think really, it's the mission of PG&E that has got very much, as I started my career at Verizon, we had connecting people. At PG&E, our purpose is to really power people's lives. So what attracted me here and as I covered the PG&E's role, to provide energy to 16 million Californians in Northern and Central California. And we are a purpose-driven company.

Our purpose is deliver for hometowns, so we're a planet leading with love. And it anchors and ties all over 23,000 co-workers and extended contractors into unified way accomplishing that mission.

And my role as part of accomplishing that mission is technology and security leader, I'm the EVP and Chief Information Officer, enabling that mission. So it's really the technology role is to enable that mission and purpose of PG&E.

Peter High (4:13)

Talk a bit about the team you lead, if you would, Ajay. How is it structured?

Ajay Waghray (4:18)

The team is structured. I got both technology and security teams, and we are structured to have enterprise architecture and strategy.

Then we have a group that is essentially delivering all the platforms and services for all the functions across our electric gas and generation and entities supporting that role. And then we have data and physical and cybersecurity team.

Peter High (4:49)

Excellent.

And take me back to September of 2020 when you joined the organization, Ajay. It had just been emerging from bankruptcy after some devastating wildfires. Describe the company you found and some of the actions it was taking and that you would help lead an undertake on its behalf upon arrival.

Ajay Waghray (5:09)

As I joined the company back in 2020, we had a reactive posture. I think we would essentially be, I think, and that was the same case for all utilities in some ways, right? We in the early days, we would have an outage or an impact and we would react and go fix the situation. So as I joined in, we had a whole different situation in the California construct, I think, and especially as with this weather conditions and all of the, we needed to start building our predictive and proactive response posture capabilities to respond to this new needs that we had.