How Can Artificial Energy Intelligence Help Tell Your Story?, With John Huneycutt

Who is LIAM.Ai, Union Power’s Virtual Energy Specialist? John Huneycutt shares how his utility responsibly taps artificial intelligence to energize efficiency tips.

Filmed LIVE at CONNECT.

Creators and Guests

Host

Megan McKoy-Noe

Brand Storyteller

What is The StoryConnect Podcast?

StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.

Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their
stories and connect with their customers.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
How can artificial energy intelligence help tell your story?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of The
StoryConnect Podcast.

Hi, I'm your host, Megan McKoy-Noe,
one of the storytellers here at Pioneer Utility Resources,

and I am joined by John Huneycutt.

He's the digital media coordinator at Union Power Cooperative in
North Carolina.

We're recording live at NRECA's Connect Conference in Kansas
City,

Missouri. So any noise you hear in the background,
it's ambiance,

John.

John Huneycutt:
Yes, we added that in.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
We did. We added that in just for y'all.

John, thank you so much for joining us today.

John Huneycutt:
Thank you for having me. I appreciate you asking me to do this.

I really do.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, of course, I get excited. Your team gets really excited
about this.

Y our team won a gold NRECA Spotlight on Excellence award for
your unique approach to sharing energy efficiency

tips.

John Huneycutt:
Yes.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Who is Liam? And I know you just,
like Liam –

John Huneycutt:
How long do we have?

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Right? He's a virtual energy specialist.

John Huneycutt:
He is.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
For union power.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah. So I wanted to –

Megan McKoy-Noe:
But what does that m ean?

John Huneycutt:
Right. So I wanted a way of. I mean,
because, as you know, like at a co-op,

we wear a lot of hats, and a lot of times the bandwidth may be
less than.

And we're actually, like, lucky to be in a situation where we
have kind of a robust,

you know, team. B ut I wanted a way that we could have perfect
light ,

perfect sound. You know, the background of my creation and
choosing.

And really like, the, you know,
an avatar of my creation.

The look and everything was created and cultivated and kind of
bespoke to what we were looking for.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay.

John Huneycutt:
And so that's where Liam comes in.

And so I'm able to quickly and effectively create,
hopefully, engaging and educational videos

that basically no – I mean, the production value is high,
but there's relatively little cost.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, and talk to me about that because for folks who have not
seen Liam,

he's wearing a hat.

John Huneycutt:
He is. He's wearing a logo. Yeah.

He's the best employee that we have,
honestly.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
He's dressed well.

John Huneycutt:
He's yet to take a payday. He's yet to take a sick day.

H e's a fantastic, an exemplary employee,
if you ask me.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
And you have a series of social media videos that you have shared
on your social channels,

and you have him sharing tips. He has shared jokes.

John Huneycutt:
He does, yeah. We work in some B-roll.

We work in some jokes. I mean, you know,
like, again, like, we want the production value to be high, and

we want it to be. And it's one of those like,
we didn't want him to make, like, make him look too real. Like,

we kind of lean into him being he's not real.

He's a virtual energy specialist.

And so we feel like it's a way that especially like with a
younger demographic,

which is always a concern. How do we reach them?

How do we? And I think that that's going to be,
I mean, you're already seeing this proliferation where there's

you know, I think you're just going to see it more,
and it's going to be more accepted,

as we move forward. S o, yeah, I think we're just trying to be
kind of that forefront of

how can we best engage and quickly and little,
you know, high production value,

very little cost.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
So what platform are you using to create Liam?

John Huneycutt:
A plethora. A plethora of platforms.

A o Midjourney, Studio D-iD, ElevenLabs.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
A nd I should say for some of these,
like ElevenL abs focuses on voice.

John Huneycutt:
They're voice. Correct. And I mean,
like, with Studio D-iD, they're kind of integrated with

ElevenLabs. So they're kind of a package deal now where you can
do that.

And I mean, initially, I mean, we're not at a point now,
and where it's getting better.

You know, like, I mean this is the worst that it's going to be,
and it's only – now it's like super conven–. I mean, like, you

know, even from when I started,
like, it's kind of crazy how.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Oh my goodness. It's just growing so fast.

John Huneycutt:
How it's changed and evolved involved and everything,
and I'm really excited for the use cases that are going to become

available.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
So that's how you create Liam's energy or his movement.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah, and yeah. He's relatively static.

I see that getting way better, and it's already getting better
since, you know, he was created. But yeah,

and I think a lot of it, like I said,
the background creation and stuff that we can tie into,

if he's talking about an energy hack that has to do with using
ceiling fans and I,

you know, I prompt and you know,
in ChatGPT now or Midjourney to create that background that kind

of ties in correlates with whatever the the hack is.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Sure. Okay. So the backgrounds change.

He goes to a lot of different places.

John Huneycutt:
Oh, yeah. Different times of night. I mean,
like, you know. Yeah,

it's kind of like the world is his oyster.

We can put him anywhere. And you know,
with again especially for these smaller I feel like it's like a

David and Goliath kind of thing where you're seeing smaller
co-ops.

It might be one person teams that is leveling the bar for them
that they can have the,

you know, it's democratizing the content creation,
democratizing production value for smaller co-ops.

And that's I mean, what a great time to to be in this industry.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
So, I, and I 100% agree on all of this.

I'm curious about how you get the content for Liam.

There's a lot of energy myths out there,
and I know some folks their boss will say,

"We'll just have I write something up." Like,
I had someone who,

she'd been at her co-op for six months,
and her boss said, "Just use AI to write an energy efficiency

article for the newsletter." And she was like,
"But what?

How do I know if it's right?" So I'm curious,
did you build because you mentioned using ChatGPT for some of

this. Did you build a custom knowledge base so that you can
really trust for Liam?

John Huneycutt:
Well, no. I go to the next office over,
and so I manage, like, energy efficiency.

And so I, you know, some of the stuff now,
like, anecdotally, I kind of know I'm like,

"Is it 60% that'll save?" you know,
like that kind of thing. But I'll definitely vet all that.

And I'm one of those, like, I want to do it – this has to be
responsible.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Of course.

John Huneycutt:
So, you know, having that human eyes on it in the oversight,
and we would never like,

put anything out that we weren't sure,
this is true.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, and that's one of the things folks need to remember,
that AI can be great,

but you've got to vet it. You've got to double check all the
contents.

John Huneycutt:
But yeah, but the upside of just,
like, idea creation and like that kind of like that initial part

where you're just kind of. I never thought of it that way.

Like, that's, and that's my whole thing. Like when I got hired,
like I wanted to be able to create.

I mean, I said in the interview,
I want to create.

We should be on par with anybody in the country,
and I don't just mean the co-op world. Like the production value

should be there. And I've said that many times,
but. And now, you know,

like AI is facilitating that even more.

Like literally we can be on par with what Hollywood stuff is
doing.

Like, there's no reason not that it shouldn't be that level.

S o yeah.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, it's a very powerful tool.

And I think folks are just – and it's been around for like 2022
was when ChatGPT was released.

John Huneycutt:
I remember and this is like, you know,
but like when Generative Expand come.

I'm a photographer at my heart.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love Generative Expand.

John Huneycutt:
When Generative Expand came out and it was like,
you know, "Goodbye,

Clone Stamp." You know, and I could shoot something in portrait
and make it landscape if we needed it.

Like to me it just like, "Oh my God." I was like,
"T his is a game changer!"

Megan McKoy-Noe:
For folks that don't know, Adobe Firefly is the AI backbone of
the Adobe Creative Suite,

and it has changed my life.

John Huneycutt:
Oh my God.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Because I used to, as you said,
the clone stamp.

I would have to open up pictures because we have square images on
our website for all of our staff.

And if I got an image that just wasn't right,
I just had, you know,

so Generative Expand lets you just say,
I want to crop it to this size and go outside of the actual

image, and it fills everything in beautifully.

It doesn't get everything right.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah, and it's like trial and error.

You know.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
It's okay.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
It does really well with backgrounds.

So it makes my heart happy. I love that it makes your heart
happy,

as well John.

John Huneycutt:
It was a game changer. I mean literally I think it was one of the
biggest things in my 20 years before in photography, I think it

was like the biggest thing that has happened.

And that was like a couple of years ago. And now,
like, you know,

obviously that's the tip of the iceberg.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
It is the tip of the iceberg. I love that.

So Union Power also shares videos featuring a gentleman named
Chris Love,

who is a human energy specialist,
or at least as far as I know, he seems human when comparing him

to Liam.

John Huneycutt:
I don't want to rush judgment on that.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Look at you.

John Huneycutt:
You know.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. So he is your actual energy specialist.

When do you use Liam? And when do you ask Chris to record?

John Huneycutt:
Anytime that I want an expert, like aficionado,
I gotta go, Liam.

No, I'm just kidding. (laughs) Uh,
no.

And that's the thing. I think that there's obviously there's
still a lot of value and people want to see, like, our members

want to see an actual person. You know what I mean?

And I think –

Megan McKoy-Noe:
I'm holding on to this.

John Huneycutt:
Yes. And I think that that's, you know,
for the most part, that's true.

I think that you're going to see a shift in that with younger
demographic.

I think that they're going to accept that kind of more.

I mean, that's what they grew up with. You know.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Real people is what we all grew up with,
I hope.

John Huneycutt:
And it's going to be ubiquitous.

And I think that you'll see a, you know,
overall acceptance of that.

But right now, I do think that there's value in an actual person.

People want to see it. But I do think obviously with Liam,
there's cases, use cases,

where he's the better way to go.

You know, and especially if there's a tight deadline or
something. That's just he facilitates that very easily.

And so that's, to me, that's where a lot of that value lies.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, and I like that you have both options when you go and you
think about what's going to work with your audience at this

point.

John Huneycutt:
Mhm.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
So I have seen Liam's monthly energy tip videos on social.

Does he pop up anywhere else to like surprise your members?

John Huneycutt:
Well, we use him, like now I've used them like for right-of-way.
I mean, it was always like this post that you're kind of like,

you know, like "Here's where we're going to be in,
you know, the five counties," or whatever. So it was a way that,

you know, you could have him say it.

So we use them internally, and now it's become,
you know, kind of become a joke,

like with Liam, like disseminating information.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
But this is for internal communications?

John Huneycutt:
Internal communications. Yeah. So you use them on the digital. I
mean, that's the thing I can make, you know, ten videos in 15

minutes.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Make him say anything.

John Huneycutt:
Whatever. He can say whatever. Yeah,
copy and paste, and that's Liam's gonna say it.

So, yeah, I mean, I think that there's – the upside of it is,
I mean,

I don't think we've even thought of the use cases.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. I love that. Does he go out in any emails to your members?

John Huneycutt:
Uh, no. He hasn't not.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yet.

John Huneycutt:
Not yet, not yet.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
This is exciting. S o I'm curious,
how have your members reacted to Liam?

Because you started using him, was it May 2024?

John Huneycutt:
Y eah, I think so. I would say,
like, when we do, like when we do go in schools,

like, we will, I'll make like a,
like a custom, you know, like, "Oh,

so happy to be here at Forest Hills today." You know,
where he's talking to the kids,

and they love it. Like, you know what I mean?

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Oh my gosh. Yes, I love that.

John Huneycutt:
And again, it's like a way, and we welcome. So we,
you know, he's like I'd like to welcome today our energy

specialist. You know Chris, and he'll make a joke and like that
kind of thing.

But it's like, it's so good for that kind of stuff,
and it kind of gets them,

you know? I mean, I literally I can put them in front of their
school. So he's like talking to another school. And so it's just

like a little added thing, you know.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
That's fun.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah. So I think, I mean by and large,
we haven't heard any like negative.

Well, he freaks me out.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
So I have, for folks who have not seen Liam online,
I encourage you to do that.

We will include some links at pioneer.coop/podcasts on this
episode so that you can meet Liam.

See how cool he is.

John Huneycutt:
He's kind of like an amalgam of a lot of our employees.

I feel like, you know, he looks like he fits.

Like he could work there.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. I love it. Now, he is a character that is animated through
AI.

He's not a real person yet. B ut I'm not sure because,
I mean, it sounds like,

John, you were just on the forefront of all of this,
right?

So, HeyGen let's you create one free avatar.

I did this with Andy. I spent 30s putting myself and creating an
avatar of myself,

and then had my avatar reading out information in different
languages to show Andy how it worked.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
And I didn't – they recommend giving it two minutes.

John Huneycutt:
Right to give like a good full picture.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Of you reading off a script so they can get a better avatar of
you.

I decided not to give Andy my full avatar because I want my job.

John Huneycutt:
Right.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
But I was curious. Have you thought about taking that next step
to make Liam a real live boy?

John Huneycutt:
I mean, I think that that could definitely be.

You know, I think if we could convince the GM,
like, you know what I mean?

It's like, you don't have to do that. Shoot that video. Don't
worry about it. I got you.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Give me two minutes.

John Huneycutt:
Give me two minutes.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Give me two minutes.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah. So, I mean, I think that again,
like, the future of it is just like,

it's all. I'm so excited to be a part of this now.

You know, it's like such a great time to be in this industry.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
E xciting and terrifying, all at the same time.

John Huneycutt:
It's like, you know, I think, I'm probably,
like, more of an early adopter of things.

And like, I want to see, like I want to,
you know, try to get to that where we are.

But again, I just want it to be,
I want to create the best content that's engaging,

that's educational, that's efficient.

And I think that that's what AI helps facilitate.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, it helps your brain do more.

John Huneycutt:
Indeed. I mean, a lot of times I'm like,
God, that's better than I could come up with.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
No no no no no no no no.

John Huneycutt:
I mean to say no. That's never better than what I came up with.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
It takes game to know game. Right?

Is that the saying? So but seriously,
with AI, that, it's your knowledge that helps you see what will

work and what won't.

John Huneycutt:
And that's a very good point, because I feel like a lot of mine,
like with art history background and,

you know, it's kind of like garbage in,
garbage out. The prompting,

and it's less maybe than it even was a year ago.

But to be able to know what chiaroscuro is so that I can prompt
it or,

you know, Tenebrism or like, things like that,
that only make.

And it's like that knowledge of,
you know, that I know I want it to look like it was shot with a

Leica M or a Hasselblad, because I know what that looks like.

And even though it's a camera that I can't afford,
but I know the esthetic,

and I know that if I prompt it that,
it will give me that.

And so I think that you still have to have that,
you know, and that just makes it better and get closer to what

you're actually looking to get out of it.

So I think there's obviously you have to have that backing,
and it'll just make it better.

But I mean, it gets better every day.

I mean, yeah, it's like really.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
I have two newsletters that I tune into and just to figure out
what's going on.

Every day there's something new.

John Huneycutt:
Oh yeah.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
That folks that it's been developed,
and you can't keep on top of everything,

by the way. Don't try.

John Huneycutt:
I do try.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well okay. Well, and I want to know before I let you go,
what other AI tools has your team used to boost your

productivity? What worked? What didn't?

John Huneycutt:
I say, I mean, like, again, I'm using,
like, I mean, Claude.

I use ChatGPT. I use Manus. I use Runway is another one that
where I'm taking.

I literally did a video the other day where I took stills from
1939 that were shot like Union Power,

actual, you know, lineman and stuff like that in Runway,
and then animated those.

So it looks like it's B-roll, and it's insane.

Like, and just like that use case alone where you can.

I don't know. I'm just like, so excited about that kind of stuff
where.

And then, you know, VEED is another really good one for,
like, subtitles and transcripts,

that kind of stuff. So a ton. I mean,
again, primarily like, you know,

Midjourney ChatGPT, Claude again is like great.

And I mean, I'm doing a lot of,
like, Bob coding stuff where, I mean,

I'm all over the place. I literally.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
I will say I'm a Claude girl.

John Huneycutt:
Oh, I love it. I love Claude.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
So, especially Claude Projects a re amazing.

Because that's and that's why I was asked about knowledge bases,
because I think that's the next step,

is that you're not pulling information from all over the web
instead.

John Huneycutt:
Right. Yes.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Like we have a new guide on broadband marketing,
like the next step for broadband.

A nd I wrote that book and put it into Claude,
along with examples of past.

John Huneycutt:
Sure.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Blog posts.

John Huneycutt:
This is our voice.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yes, this is our voice. This is the kind of content we've written
in the past.

John Huneycutt:
Right.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
And then asked it to take my content,
and then give me these different versions and social posts going

for the next few months. And like flashing back to it,
and it pulls everything.

And it sounds like me.

John Huneycutt:
Right.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Right. Because I had already written it. And it's just pulling
it, pulling that style, pulling your brand tone – that I think is

the future. It's helping us do more with less.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah. And I've done that. Like I created a custom,
you know, ChatGPT,

you know, for Union Power like the socials so that the voice is
consistent and trained it like for that. You know, and that's not

a big, that's not a heavy lift or anything like.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
But you got to think about it. You got to be aware that it's a
possibility.

John Huneycutt:
Yeah, I'm also excited like for in,
not just a communications part,

but like where you're, for data analytics.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Oh yes.

John Huneycutt:
I mean like, you know, preemptive maintenance where like,
when it gets to that.

I'm so excited for the industry.

I think that it's going to again,
it's going to be a paradigm shift.

S o not just in the communications world,
but I think in a lot of facets that it's going to be a game

changer.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
It's exciting. It's a whole brave new world,

John Huneycutt:
It is that. Yeah, take that, Aldous Huxley.

Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, thank you so much for sharing your story and sharing Liam's
story.

John Huneycutt:
Yes!

Megan McKoy-Noe:
With utility pioneers. He is John Huneycutt at Union Power,
and I'm your host,

Megan McKoy-Noe at Pioneer Utility Resources.

And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources,
a communications cooperative that is built to share your story.