Kathmandu. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has come up with a plan to effectively advance technology-friendly service delivery along with the development of technology.

NEA is preparing to introduce the ‘NEA AE Saathi’ system (app) as per the long-term strategy to make the organization technology-friendly, simple, capable and future-oriented.

NEA is bringing the ‘NEA AE Saathi’ system (app) with a novel concept to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) not only as technology but also as an institutional partner.

The Authority has also informed that ‘Hackathon Event-2082’ has been organized with the objective of putting this idea into practice.

Hitendra Dev Shakya, Executive Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), said, “AI is not a complicated and far-fetched technology, but a friend who remembers and takes help when needed.” We aim to present the technology in an intimate, easy and user-friendly manner rather than complicated. As a ‘Helpful Friend’ of the organization, AE Saathi will help the service recipients in the necessary service. ’

He also expressed the belief that the culture of calling the service recipients as ‘AE Saathi’ and using them for various information and assistance required by the customers will gradually develop. The concept is designed with a long-term vision to establish AI as a collaborative partner, not just a technology.

The hackathon, which aims to institutionalize AI, featured 27 in-house proposals that focused on customer service improvements, administrative workflow simplification, data analytics, policy and legal facilitation, among others.

After the presentation of the proposals received through the hackathon, detailed evaluation will be carried out and the best and practical concepts will be selected through the evaluation process and they will be gradually implemented. “The selected concepts will be incorporated into the institutional system through a testing and development process,” said Shakya. Therefore, the organization also needs to move forward with the time, so we have brought this concept forward. ’

The concept of ‘AE Sathi’ has been developed with a long-term strategy and it has taken forward the initiative as an important initiation towards institutional innovation, digital transformation and service improvement. NEA plans to focus on customer service and information flow in the initial phase and gradually expand to technical analysis, load management, forecasting, and data-driven decision making. This is likely the first attempt by public entities to use AI.