Smartlab is a lab created by Open to help utilities and telecommunications companies identify which artificial intelligence opportunities can generate the greatest value, validate their feasibility, and turn them into concrete projects ready to move into production.
Miami, 2026. Investment in artificial intelligence is growing rapidly, but most organizations are struggling to convert that investment into measurable business value at the same pace. According to National Grid Partners’ 2025 Utility Innovation Survey, conducted among 166 utility leaders worldwide, 96% consider AI a strategic priority, yet only 4% say they have a mature, well-funded program deployed across the enterprise.
The challenge does not end once a solution goes live. A TCS study of utility executives across 24 countries found that 94% have AI implementations that are planned, underway, or completed; however, only 21% believe they have sufficient metrics and KPIs for their current level of adoption. In addition, 73% acknowledge that they need better indicators to evaluate the success of these investments.
Smartlab was created to address precisely this challenge. Rather than starting with a tool or model, the lab begins with the organization’s priorities to determine whether there is an opportunity with sufficient value, available information, and technical feasibility to justify an AI initiative.
This approach helps organizations answer, early on, questions that often arise too late in a project: what benefits are expected, which processes need to be addressed, what information is required, how the solution will connect to the existing architecture, which risks need to be managed, and what level of financial and technological effort implementation will require.
Smartlab’s methodology combines a business perspective with the analysis of data, technology, costs, and future scalability, involving both functional areas and IT teams from the outset.
This approach is especially relevant in industries such as utilities and telecommunications, where processes including billing, customer service, metering, collections, field service management, and network operations depend on mission-critical systems, large volumes of information, and operations in which any AI initiative must be connected to the day-to-day realities of the business.
Felipe Corredor, AI Director at Open, explains: “There are many ideas about where artificial intelligence can be applied, but not all of them have the same impact or are ready to be implemented. At Smartlab, we start by understanding what the company needs to solve, review the opportunities, and narrow them down until we identify the ones that are truly worth testing. The idea is to invest time and resources where there is a real opportunity to create value.”
Throughout the process, Open teams work alongside business and IT leaders to understand existing metrics, processes, systems, and capabilities. Based on this assessment, the identified opportunities are compared according to their expected contribution, feasibility, and alignment with the organization’s priorities.
“Once we select an opportunity, we bring the idea into the real world: we assess whether the necessary data is available, how it would need to connect with existing systems, how much effort it will require, and what risks are involved. We then build an MVP so that the people who work with that process every day can test it and tell us whether it actually helps them before we consider a larger-scale implementation,” Corredor adds.
Smartlab complements the technology vision Open has developed with Smartflex. While the lab helps organizations discover, prioritize, and validate where AI can generate value, Smartflex provides an integrated platform where processes such as customer service, billing, metering, collections, and field service management can operate with connected information and a shared view of the business. Together, they help ensure that innovation does not remain limited to isolated models but is designed from the outset around how it will interact with the data, processes, and people running the operation.
In this way, Smartlab also expands how Open supports organizations throughout their technology evolution. An initiative may originate within Smartflex or involve other components of a company’s technology ecosystem; the lab’s objective is to determine the best way to move it forward based on each organization’s context, priorities, and architecture.
Smartlab does not end with a recommendation. Its deliverables include a prioritized use case, a validated MVP, solution design, infrastructure requirements, an implementation strategy, and an investment estimate, providing the organization with a concrete foundation to decide whether to move forward and how to do so.
In this way, Smartlab aims to ensure that artificial intelligence initiatives do not remain isolated experiments but can evolve into viable solutions that are connected to the operation and prepared to generate sustainable value.
