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Ex-CIO Of Dept of Energy and EPA Ann Dunkin: Why Leaders Must Weigh AI Energy Demands As A Core Business Risk
Ann Dunkin, Distinguished Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, framed energy reliability as a CIO-owned strategic risk as AI demand collides with grid instability.
AI has upended a basic assumption of enterprise technology. Power can no longer be treated as cheap or assured, and as grid instability collides with always-on digital operations, energy has become a strategic risk landing squarely on the CIO’s desk.
Ann Dunkin, a Distinguished Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology with deep experience across the public and private sectors, brings a rare vantage point to the question of energy risk. A four-time enterprise CIO, she previously served as CIO for both the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, where she worked at the intersection of digital infrastructure, policy, and grid operations. That experience now informs her view that energy reliability has become a core technology leadership issue, not a background operational detail.
"Many CIOs have never thought about energy. That's changing fast. More organizations are exposed to energy risk, and leaders need to know what those risks are and who owns them," Dunkin said. She believes CIOs should start by rethinking their understanding of the grid as a cyber-physical system.
Digital and physical: "The grid is not just a bunch of physical assets," she explained. "It’s physical and digital assets, and you need both the transmission lines and the data lines, along with the tools to optimize power and data flows, to make the system reliable." The concern reflects a core challenge in the power supply chain, as reliability increasingly hinges on software, data, and orchestration, not just steel and concrete.
The queue conundrum: During her time at the DOE, Dunkin gained direct insight into the operational realities of the U.S. grid. She noted that while data center demand for power is growing, bringing new energy sources online is a gamble, forcing grid operators to adapt. "About 70% of projects fall out of the interconnection queue. So how do we ensure that we have enough power in the right place to meet demand in a timely fashion?"
