Energy has always been there, constant, indispensable, and almost entirely ignored. It powered homes, factories and cities without ever asking for attention, slipping into the background of daily life unless something went wrong. For decades, that invisibility defined the category. You did not choose energy, you consumed it. You did not engage with it, you depended on it.
That equation is beginning to shift, quietly but decisively. As homes get smarter, devices more connected and consumption traceable down to the smallest unit, energy is no longer something that simply flows in. It is something that can be seen, measured and, increasingly, managed. What was once abstract is becoming tangible. What was once passive is turning interactive. And with that, a category that never needed to behave like a consumer business is being pushed into one.
In a conversation with FE Brandwagon Online, Rajat Abbi, Vice President – Marketing at Schneider Electric India, frames this moment not as a spike in innovation, but as a deeper behavioural shift. According to him, the real change is not just in how energy is produced or distributed, but in how people are beginning to relate to it, as something they can influence, optimise and even take ownership of.
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The moment energy stopped being invisible
For a category that rarely dealt with perception, visibility is turning out to be a disruptive force. The change, Abbi suggests, is not subtle.
“Energy has traditionally been the invisible commodity behind the walls. You don't think about it until it stops working. But that’s changing now. Today, AI and digital technologies are making energy visible. This changes the relationship between brands and consumers. People aren't just paying for energy anymore; they are actively participating in that ecosystem,” he says.
That participation is already reshaping expectations. What used to be a linear relationship, supply and consumption, is turning into something more dynamic, where users track usage, adjust behaviour and expect outcomes they can measure. In that shift, energy begins to behave less like infrastructure and more like a consumer category, one where experience and control start to matter.
Selling what cannot be seen
For companies operating in this space, the challenge is structural. How do you build engagement around something that has no obvious interface?
Abbi’s answer is to stop treating energy as an abstract system and start presenting it as something people can experience. That thinking sits at the heart of Schneider Electric’s Innovation Summit, which has been positioned less as a showcase and more as a way to make complexity tangible.
“In a category where the product itself is not visible, innovation must make value clear. We are not just putting products on display. We are creating environments where people can see how solutions work together, across homes, buildings, data centres and industries,” he says.
The scale of the summit, with dozens of launches and hundreds of integrated solutions, is meant to do exactly that. But the larger play is outside the event. Through experience centres and innovation hubs, the company is attempting to create permanent touchpoints where customers can interact with systems rather than interpret specifications. The pitch is straightforward: if people can see outcomes in real time, adoption becomes easier.
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A consumer shift that is already underway
What makes this transition more consequential is that it is not being driven by brands alone. The consumer is already moving.
“What we are seeing today is a demand for smart devices and control, convenience, stylish yet safe and connected lifestyle. The shift has moved from awareness to action,” Abbi says.
In practical terms, that means a growing willingness to invest in systems that offer visibility and control. Schneider Electric’s Wiser platform is one such example, allowing users to monitor energy consumption at a device level and manage appliances through a single interface. But the significance lies beyond the product itself.
The category is starting to organise around ecosystems rather than individual devices. Consumers are not just buying functionality. They are buying into a way of living where efficiency, comfort and sustainability are embedded into daily routines. The expectation is no longer about whether something works, but how seamlessly it integrates into life.
India as more than a market
Within Schneider Electric, India is not just a demand centre for these shifts. It is a place where they are being shaped.
“India is one of our four global hubs and the third-largest market. What we build here is often designed for similar high-growth markets across the Global South,” Abbi says.
The reason is structural. The diversity of the Indian market forces sharper thinking around segmentation and use cases. Solutions have to work across income groups, geographies and levels of infrastructure maturity. That pressure produces systems that are both scalable and adaptable, qualities that translate well into other emerging markets.
In that sense, India is influencing not just product design but also how the category is approached globally, from pricing strategies to communication frameworks.
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When sustainability becomes behaviour
If visibility is changing how energy is perceived, behaviour is where the real challenge lies. Sustainability, as a concept, has broad acceptance. Acting on it is another matter.
Schneider Electric’s response has been to reduce the ask to something almost disarmingly simple.
“With the One Unit Mission, we encourage people to save one unit of electricity every day. It is a simple, measurable habit. If scaled, it can address a much larger national challenge,” Abbi says.
Campaigns like Green Yodha build on the same principle. The focus is not on messaging but on participation. By framing sustainability as a daily action rather than an abstract goal, the company is trying to make adoption less intimidating.
“If the action is clear and relatable, participation becomes much easier. This works because it is behaviour-first, not brand-first,” he adds.
It is a shift that recognises a basic truth. Large-scale change rarely comes from persuasion alone. It comes from making the desired behaviour easy enough to repeat.
Marketing moves closer to the product
This reorientation has also changed where marketing sits within the organisation. It is no longer an endpoint.
“Marketing today works right alongside product, innovation and commercial teams. It is not just about promotion. It is about relevance, adoption and ensuring that innovation delivers impact at scale,” Abbi says.
The role, as he describes it, is to act as a bridge. On one side are complex technologies. On the other are real-world outcomes that consumers can understand. The effectiveness of that translation increasingly determines whether adoption happens at all.
In categories like energy, where the stakes include infrastructure and cost, clarity becomes a prerequisite for trust.
The next phase
If the current shift is about visibility and control, the next one is about ownership.
“The biggest shift we will see is the evolution of consumers from passive users to active energy managers, and in many cases, prosumers. They will not just use energy. They will generate, store and manage it,” Abbi says.
That evolution changes the equation fundamentally. Energy stops being a one-way transaction and becomes a system that consumers can influence directly. It also raises the bar for brands, which now have to provide tools that support that level of engagement.
What emerges is a category in transition. Energy is moving out of the background and into everyday decision-making, becoming something people not only rely on but also interact with, question and optimise. For companies like Schneider Electric, the task is not just to build the technology that enables this shift, but to make sure people understand why it matters and how to use it.
