Education, Autonomous AI Agents and the Energy Transition

Albert School, the first European school combining Business, Data & AI, and Sense Reply, a Reply Group company, are collaborating for the second consecutive year on a Business Deep Dive dedicated to the energy transition and the intelligent orchestration of heterogeneous assets.

The project, starting on November 2, 2026, gives students at Albert School’s Milan campus the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge to real business challenges in the Energy & Utilities sector.

In a radically changing energy landscape, organizations are now called upon to rethink how they manage, optimize and orchestrate their assets. A new generation of AI-native platforms is emerging, enabling the intelligent orchestration of heterogeneous assets (photovoltaic plants, BESS storage systems, flexible industrial loads) through a cloud-edge architecture. These platforms integrate autonomous AI agents and Digital Twins for real-time asset state management, with distributed reasoning capabilities running directly on the edge gateway. It is no longer just about bringing AI to the Cloud, but about bringing it to the edge of the grid, into factories and industrial sites, making it capable of acting, adapting and coordinating autonomously. This is the ground on which Albert School students are being asked to work.

The program proposed by Sense Reply is divided into two distinct tracks, designed for first-year and second-year students.

First year – Market Analysis
Students will be asked to step into the shoes of business consultants supporting the commercial launch of an AI-native platform for edge gateway governance in the energy sector. The assignment involves three strategic challenges: identifying target customers and defining the Ideal Customer Profile; mapping the competitive landscape against EMS/SCADA solutions, cloud-native platforms and AI-based systems; and designing a sustainable, scalable business model, including pricing and go-to-market strategies.

Second year – Multi-Agent Performance Assessment
Students will work as data and operations analysts, tasked with conducting a rigorous performance assessment of a platform already deployed at a pilot industrial site. They will analyze operational telemetry time series, from PV production to the BESS state of charge, from power flows to grid signals, to compare two operational configurations: a single cost-optimization agent and a dual-agent configuration that also includes a sustainability agent. The goal is to quantify the incremental value of the second agent and provide data-driven operational recommendations.

“We are particularly pleased to continue our collaboration with Albert School and to once again involve its students in a concrete business experience,” says Andrea Ranchino, Partner at Sense Reply. “We strongly believe in the educational value of these experiences, which allow young talents to tackle real challenges and get closer to the transformations that are reshaping the business world. For us, it is also an opportunity to explore the frontiers of data, technology and artificial intelligence together with the new generations.”

Floriano Bollettini, Director of Albert School Italy, adds: “We are proud to continue our journey with Sense Reply, which has once again chosen to test our students on a real and formative case. In the age of AI, the value of a young person no longer lies in knowing how to execute, but in knowing what to build and why. Projects like this give our students the chance to engage with concrete challenges, with industry professionals and with the technologies that are redefining businesses.”

The program includes several touchpoints between students and Sense Reply experts: a kick-off, an intermediate coaching session and a final presentation on November 20, when students, divided into groups, will showcase their solutions to the Sense Reply team and Albert School's faculty. The winning groups will have the opportunity to connect directly with the Sense Reply team for possible internships and collaborations, strengthening the link between education, innovation and the professional world.