Sharjah:The Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority (SEWA) has been honored with the Digital Transformation Power Utility of the Year - UAE award at the Asian Power Awards 2026. This marks the second consecutive year that SEWA has received this recognition for its significant advancements in digital services and customer experience enhancement.
According to Wam, the award was presented during a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where energy and utility organizations across Asia participated. SEWA's digital transformation program has facilitated over 735,000 transactions through its smart services as of August 2026. Currently, digital transformation constitutes approximately 95 percent of customer service management operations, with automation achieving nearly 90 percent efficiency in selected processes.
Dr. Hussein Al Askari, Director-General of Customer Service at SEWA, attributed this achievement to the support from the authority's senior management and the persistent efforts of the teams to redesign customer journeys, thus making services more accessible and user-friendly. SEWA's strategic focus is on transcending traditional procedures to embrace fully redesigned customer journeys, aligning with the UAE's and Sharjah's visions for digital governance, artificial intelligence, and simplified processes.
A notable outcome of these efforts is the reduction in processing time for eligible instalment applications from 60 days to just one minute through an integrated digital system. Furthermore, digital integration with government entities has minimized the need for customers to resubmit information already available with those authorities. Since August 2023, the expansion of digital channels has prevented more than 1.3 million in-person visits to service centers, allowing SEWA to reduce its customer service center network from nine to five locations.
SEWA continues to evaluate center performance, customer demand, and channel usage to guide future operational strategies and maintain service accessibility. The authority's AI-powered virtual assistant, Naffaa, has engaged in over 250,000 interactions and facilitated more than 35,000 service requests, contributing to a roughly 30 percent reduction in contact center demand. This virtual assistant supports multilingual communication and preliminary case assessments before formal service requests.
Khaled Diab, Customer Service Management Operations Consultant at SEWA, emphasized the strategy's goal to eliminate redundant procedures rather than merely digitize existing bureaucratic processes. He highlighted SEWA's ongoing commitment to leveraging AI, data, smart meters, and automation to enhance service efficiency and sustainability. This latest accolade adds to SEWA's growing regional, continental, and international recognition in customer experience, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and innovation.