This interview is part of our new AI in Energy series, where we interview the world's top thought leaders on the front lines of the intersections between AI and energy.

In this interview, we speak with Steve Chambers, Chief Marketing Officer at Sense, to understand how his company is using AI to transform energy, and what the future of the energy industry holds.

 

1. What's the story behind Sense? Why and how did you begin? 

SC: Sense was founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, led by CEO Mike Phillips. Mike is a pioneer in machine learning and an innovator in mobile speech recognition and text-to-speech technology. After co-founding Speechworks (subsequently acquired by ScanSoft/Nuance), he co-founded Vlingo. Then in 2013, he turned his AI focus to energy signals in the home with the founding of Sense (www.sense.com).

2. Please describe your use case and how Sense uses artificial intelligence:

SC: Sense provides a smart home energy monitor that tells you what’s on in your home, right now, so you can save money and live more sustainably. Customers rely on Sense to keep track of their energy usage, see if they left appliances running and find the energy drains in their homes.

Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not “smart.” Installed in the home's electrical panel, the monitor measures current and voltage one million times per second, collecting high-resolution data (about 84 million times more data than the average “smart” meter collects). The data is analyzed using advanced machine learning algorithms that disaggregate the electrical signatures of individual devices in the home.

Over time, Sense recognizes individual devices in the home and shows their real-time activity in the Sense app.

3. Could you share a specific customer/user that benefits from what you offer? What has Sense done for them?

SC: You can find customers' energy saving stories on Sense Saves. Also, Sense customer Chris Heath saves energy in North Carolina (see blog and video here). Heather S. has a solar home in CA.