Trust, safety and control are becoming critical influences on how Australians use energy at home, as cybersecurity and AI concerns shape perceptions of emerging technologies such as home batteries, electric vehicles (EVs) and smart energy systems, a new Monash University report has found.
The findings come as cybersecurity risks face heightened scrutiny in Australia’s energy sector following the recent Origin Energy data breach impacting around 900,000 customers, and increased concerns linked to the need for data centres and their impact on energy consumption.
The new Foresights for Future Australian Home Life report delivers six key ‘foresighting values’ of trust, control, safety, care, inclusivity and uncertainty.
The study was conducted by the Futures research team at the Emerging Technologies Research Lab – an initiative across Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) and the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University.
Futures anthropologist and Director of the Emerging Technologies Research Lab, Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink, said that the ‘foresighting values’ provide a set of key frames which are recommended to plan for future household services and technologies across diverse utilities, and are particularly vital to Australia’s household energy transition.
The researchers found these values underpin how Australian households are likely to engage with everything from smart and AI-driven appliances and energy management to EVs, heating and cooling, working from home and household preparedness.
The research involved ethnographic studies with 42 households across six Australian states and territories, capturing diverse housing, socio-economic and geographic circumstances.
Around half the participants were considered more susceptible to adverse changes because of factors including low income, renting, apartment living, disability, energy hardship or exposure to climate-related risks. The findings were complemented by a national survey of more than 5,000 Australians conducted in 2025.
Emerging Technologies Research Lab Research Fellow and report co-author, Dr Nedha de Silva, said that attention to the values would be important as Australians make decisions about how they will generate, store, share and trade energy in a changing market.
“While the foresighting values are not direct predictors of energy demand, they shape the conditions under which energy technologies, services and infrastructure are taken up, adapted and resisted by households,” Dr de Silva said.
“Cybersecurity and concerns about AI are part of a much bigger picture. Our research shows that trust, safety and control, alongside how people care for their families, respond to uncertainty and experience inequality, can influence the technologies they are prepared to use and ultimately how they use energy at home.”
The research findings showed the foresighting values often intersected in everyday energy decisions of the participants.
For example, while households saw EVs as a way to care for their families and the environment, many were taking a ‘wait and see’ approach, looking for circumstances where they could trust the technology, safely charge at home, afford the transition and retain control over how and when they charge.
Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink said the report provides a new way to understand the changing circumstances and priorities influencing Australian households and what these could mean for the future energy system.
“Since our previous research during the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian home life has continued to change. We are now living in a world of hybrid working and mobility, generative AI, growing electrification, cost-of-living pressures, increasingly extreme weather and greater uncertainty around climate and energy security,” Distinguished Professor Pink said.
“This report gives us a way to understand how Australians are navigating these changes and how they are likely to make decisions about energy and technology in the future.
“By incorporating these insights into future energy scenarios, policy and the design of products and services, energy providers and policymakers can better anticipate how households might actually engage with Australia’s changing energy system.”
The research is part of the Scenarios for Future Living project, funded by the RACE for 2030 CRC through the Australian Government Department of Industry Science and Resources in collaboration with its partners, and The impact of human futures on Australia’s digital and net zero transition (FL230100131) funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship awarded to Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink.
Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink is available to discuss the research and
