After years of hearing about it, I finally made the trip to Energy Trading Week – Americas (ETWA) for its 2026 conference held October 27-28 in The Woodlands, TX. ETWA is the largest dedicated energy trading event in the U.S., bringing together industry experts and software providers from across the American energy market.
The trip also felt a bit like a homecoming. I spent the first 10 years of my career in the DFW area, so I came back to Texas with three goals in mind: catch up with old colleagues, make some new connections, and gain some insights on where the technology in our ever-evolving industry is heading.
Beyond a belly full of Texas food (that I deeply missed), a bag filled to the brim with vendor swag, and a toy spaceship to cover the “leaving home tax” owed to my almost-2-year-old, I left with three big takeaways from the conference. First, AI is here to stay, but the industry is still working out the role it will play. Second, AI has made it easier than ever to quickly build software, leading to a new wave of vendors with big promises and short track records. And third, that wave is running into a market that has spent a large portion of the last decade trying to consolidate. Here’s what I saw and why I think it matters.
AI is here to stay. Now what?
At this point, if someone tells you they aren’t using AI in some capacity, they are either not being honest with you or falling behind. We are at the dawn of a real technological shift, and the opportunities are as scary as they are exciting.
One theme that came up in nearly every conversation I had: AI tools are only as good as the inputs that you provide. Blindly trusting an LLM is asking for trouble, so any decisions we let AI make need rigid guardrails and checkpoints for user intervention and review. And from a security standpoint, AI should never be able to do more than the user it’s working on behalf of.
Done right, though, the upside is real. I had some great conversations with the team at CommodityAI about how AI can digest the flood of information users deal with every day and turn it into faster, better decisions. One of their areas of focus revolves around streamlining commodity operations such as confirmations, documentation, and reconciliations. The inputs in this area are consistent and have a clear set of rules. Customers get rid of the busy work, and the AI isn’t left to figure out what to do or given free rein to do whatever it wants. It’s a calculated win for all parties.
I’ll admit I’ve typically been an AI skeptic, but I find myself using it more these days. The energy industry has always been risk-averse when it comes to adopting new technology, and here that caution is healthy, because the stakes are high. So the real question isn’t whether to use AI. It’s how we make life better for the people using our software without letting them become less hands-on.
Beware of the shiny new toy
There were far more software vendors at ETWA than I expected. The big players and consulting firms were all there, of course, but there was also a wave of newcomers: trading applications, weather forecasting tools, and a long list of niche solutions. I’m not here to speculate on how these applications were built, but AI has made it faster and cheaper than ever to stand up software. The barrier to entry in our industry has never been lower.
I’ll be upfront with you about my bias here. PCI has been in this space for over 30 years, so take this with a grain of salt. I have no doubt that these newer teams bring fresh perspective and real industry experience, but software selection is a major time and financial investment. A slick demo only tells you what a product can do today. Before you sign, it’s worth asking a few hard questions. Will this work for my business as it grows and changes? Will this company still have the resources to support me in five years? Will I matter as much to them after the sale as I did before it?
Those are fair questions for any vendor, PCI included. AI can help a company build software quickly, but it can’t build a track record. That still takes time.
Consolidation vs. bolt-on
One thing I noticed about many of the newer vendors is that their products are built to solve a specific problem. They aren’t end-to-end platforms like the more established systems in the industry. They solve that one problem and push to specialize in that domain.
That puts them on a collision course with a trend that’s been building for years. Not long ago, it was common for companies to buy one piece of software for this and another for that, then build an ecosystem of applications that tied everything together. This approach carries IT overhead, and when something breaks, figuring out which vendor owns the problem can turn into a real wild goose chase. Over the last seven or eight years, customers have pushed hard to cut down on the number of vendor integrations, and with costs continuing to rise, I don’t see that changing.
So how can a niche solution fit into this market? AI does make it easier to build tools that pair well with existing systems, and I think that there’s opportunity there. But like I said before, the energy industry is risk-averse, and I expect most companies will keep consolidating wherever they can. For a bolt-on application to earn its place, it needs to be a seamless experience for the end user, with a clear line of responsibility when something goes wrong.
The best new tool in the world won’t win if it makes someone’s job more complicated or costs too much to maintain.
Bringing it home
The common thread across all three takeaways is this: AI is changing how software gets built, who builds it, and how it fits together. There will continue to be excitement around this shiny new technology, but in an industry where the stakes are so high, the core of how we operate will not change. Customers will still ask for tools they can trust, partners who will be around for the long haul, and software that makes their jobs easier rather than harder.
Many thanks to the organizers, panelists, and volunteers who helped ETWA live up to all the hype. I had a great time returning to Texas, and I look forward to coming back, even if the leaving home tax goes up.
If you were at ETWA, I’d love to hear what stood out to you. And if you weren’t, I’m curious whether what I saw matches what you’re seeing in your corner of the industry. Feel free to comment on PCI’s LinkedIn post here to start a conversation.
