Assets UNSCRIPTED | Episode 4 | Featuring Matthew Wise, ABB Electrification Service
What if the electrical assets powering your operations weren't just infrastructure but strategic business drivers?
That's the central question at the heart of Episode 4 of Assets UNSCRIPTED, where host Berend Booms sits down with Matthew Wise, VP and Head of Strategy and Business Development at ABB Electrification Service.
With over 140 years of history in electrification and a global portfolio of 80 million+ assets across 50 countries, ABB is uniquely placed to see where asset management is heading and where most organizations are still falling short.
From Input-Based to Outcome-Based
For decades, service contracts in asset-intensive industries have been built around inputs: response times, maintenance schedules, inspection frequencies. But as Matthew explains, this model misses the point entirely.
The real question isn't how often you service an asset. It's whether that asset is delivering the uptime, efficiency, and resilience your business depends on.
This shift - from managing inputs to guaranteeing outcomes - is at the core of what ABB calls assured asset performance. And it changes everything: how risk is priced, how value is measured, and how service partnerships are structured.
Technology as an Enabler
The conversation explores how a convergence of technologies - real-time monitoring, AI, machine learning, and edge computing - is making outcome-based models not just possible, but practical.
Matthew is clear that it's not one single technology driving this change. It's the combination: data at scale, connectivity across asset lifecycles, and AI models that can forecast performance, predict failure risk, and optimise decisions at a system level rather than an asset level.
The result? A move from reactive maintenance to what Matthew describes as system orchestration - where electrical power assets are managed as interconnected, mission-critical systems rather than isolated units.
Where AI is Delivering - and Where it Isn't
One of the most valuable parts of this conversation is Matthew's honest assessment of AI in practice. The hype is real. But so are the pitfalls.
AI delivers genuine value when the data is mature, the use case is clear, and the output is directly connected to a business outcome - whether that's reduced energy costs, improved uptime, or better trading decisions in battery storage.
Where it struggles is in fragmented data environments, siloed organisations, and deployments that never quite bridge the gap between insight and action.
Sustainability and Performance: Not a Trade-Off
A common assumption in asset management is that sustainability and operational performance pull in different directions. Matthew challenges that directly.
When organizations develop cross-functional governance frameworks - bringing together maintenance, energy procurement, and sustainability teams around shared metrics - they often find that the decisions that reduce carbon footprint are the same ones that reduce cost and improve resilience.
It's not a trade-off. It's an alignment problem.
Building Resilience for an Unpredictable World
The episode closes with a forward look at the next 12 to 18 months. In a world shaped by geopolitical instability, volatile energy markets, and rapid technological change, Matthew's message is direct:
"It's not just about how well your assets perform under conditions you can predict - but how well they perform when things are unpredictable."
That mindset shift - from optimization under ideal conditions to resilience under uncertainty - may be the most important one asset-intensive industries can make right now.
Episode 4 of Assets UNSCRIPTED is available now:
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