How AI is accelerating digital initiatives for water utilities

Posted : September 30, 2025

Water organizations continue to struggle with aging infrastructure, increasing climate pressures and disruptions to their workforce, among other challenges.  To meet these challenges, water organizations must prioritize investments and resource allocation.  However, this prioritization can be challenging without clear insights into how water systems are performing or are at risk, insights necessary to make the best decisions about what is needed to optimize operations.

Data is an underutilized asset many water organizations could make use of more effectively to inform prioritization decisions and even provide continuous operational guidance to minimize the effects of adverse conditions.

Introducing the Industry Accelerator for water, which combines several water-related use cases to accelerate time to value. Using CONNECT, water organizations can take advantage of opportunities in leak detection, influent water, efficiency analytics, and energy optimization.

By contextualizing both current and predicted water health states and associated energy consumption costs in relation to corporate financials and sustainability goals, CONNECT can enable optimization of the entire water distribution value chain, while minimizing potential supply disruptions.

The Industry Accelerator for water facilitates eight pre-built use cases for water and energy management. Utilizing CONNECT’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to harness both historical and real-time data, it provides future predictions and data-driven insights, enabling more efficient decision-making. The eight use cases are:

1. Smart water leak detection: Actively detect water leaks within the water distribution network by analyzing historical and real-time flow and pressure data, enabling timely repairs and minimizing water loss. By detecting leaks in real time and providing actionable insights such as leak location and size, it helps water utilities proactively address issues before they escalate.
   
   
2. Prediction of main breaks: Leverage historical maintenance data and real-time flow data and perform predictive analytics (AI) to forecast potential pipeline main breaks, enabling proactive maintenance and minimizing service disruptions for reduction in water losses and enhanced network reliability.
   
   
3. Predicted water demand forecasting: Utilizing advanced analytics (AI), predict water demand for the next seven days (or any specified period) by leveraging historical data and external factors, ensuring optimal resource allocation and supporting real-time decision-making.
   
   
4. Pump performance and efficiency analytics: Analyze pump performance data to identify inefficiencies and optimize pump operations. By optimizing pump operations, water utilities can enhance energy optimization and maximize energy savings. Leveraging real-time efficiency data ensures the utilization of the most efficient pumps first, thereby reducing overall operational costs.
   
   
5. Energy optimization with early purchase: Utilizing advanced analytics (AI) to predict energy demand enables early energy purchases for assets, ensuring cost savings from off-peak operation and efficient energy management.
   
   
6. Energy-optimized pump scheduling: Create an optimized pumping schedule by leveraging real-time and historical data to prioritize required high-efficiency pumps and perform early energy purchases for predicted demand.
   
   
7. UV optimization: Utilize AI/ML technology and historical data to predict the optimal UV dosage needed for water disinfection. This reduces operational costs through increased energy efficiency and reduced manual adjustments while still ensuring regulatory compliance.
   
   
8. Flow equalization: Leverage historical weather data to help water treatment plants maintain consistent flow rates, regardless of weather conditions. This enhances biological process efficiency, predicts and manages peak flows during storms, and allows for significant energy and cost savings.