In an article for The AI Journal, Richard Price, ECA Board Member for Technology and Innovation, looks at how AI and greater automation could reshape the energy broker market, from the way smaller contracts are processed to the role consultants play in more complex procurement.
His message is not that technology will remove the need for energy consultants. Instead, it could change where their expertise delivers the greatest value.
Simple deals, complex decisions
Richard’s argument starts with where AI is already doing real work. Simple SME deals are going transactional, with comparison tools matching straightforward businesses to fair tariffs with little need for a phone call. Complex procurement is different. Structuring a contract, timing a rate lock, managing risk across multiple sites, these still need a person willing to own the call.
As Richard puts it, “AI can gather and analyse that information faster than any person, but someone still has to be willing to stand behind the recommendation, because complex procurement is a judgement call.”
Faster processing and better data don’t automatically make the market more trustworthy. An AI system reflects whatever it’s built to prioritise, and a poorly incentivised one can push the same bad outcomes a poorly incentivised person can. Richard makes the point directly: “An AI agent can be trained to push the longest contract with the most commission just as easily as a person can.”
Where regulation needs to catch up
Regulation hasn’t caught up with that risk yet. Richard’s read is blunt: “Ofgem’s early guardrails tend to regulate what is already visible, while the technology itself moves at a pace no single rule can fully keep up with.”
That gap is exactly where the ECA has a role to play, feeding direct sector insight to regulators so any guardrails reflect how brokers, consultants and suppliers are actually using AI today, not how the market looked when the rules were written. Standards move fastest when the industry itself helps write them, rather than waiting for regulation to catch up after the fact.
Brokers need to be part of the change
AI is already changing how energy is bought and sold, and the brokers who adapt fastest – by automating straightforward processes while strengthening the areas where consultants provide expertise – stand to benefit most.
The ECA will continue to engage with its members and wider industry stakeholders as technology changes the way energy is bought, sold and managed.
Richard explores these issues in more detail in The AI Journal: AI is changing energy procurement. Brokers need to change with it
Richard Price is an ECA Board Member focused on Technology and Innovation and Managing Director of Tickd, a digital energy switching platform for SMEs.
