AI Energy Score: Salesforce's Innovative AI Impact Tracker
Whatever the discussion around AI and its proliferation across industries, sectors and enterprises worldwide, one question always sticks: what is its environmental impact?
One of the main concerns is the heavy reliance of AI on data centres, which consume vast amounts of electricity and water and, on paper at least, make AI operations look pretty unsustainable. To make any kind of reasoned judgement and to forecast future impact accurately, the industry needs a more standardised approach and set of tools capable of understanding AI and its effect on the environment.
Cue Salesforce and its new AI Energy Score, a newly launched tool that provides a method to measure and juxtapose the energy efficiency of various AI models.
Officially launched at the AI Action Summit on 10 February 2025 – a global event for leaders from over 100 countries – the AI Energy Score has been endorsed by the French Government and the Paris Peace Forum and represents a tangible step forwards for developing more sustainable AI models.
Boris Gamazaychikov, Head of Sustainability AI at Salesforce, said of the development: "We are at a critical moment with the rapid acceleration of both the climate crisis and AI innovation. These two trends are interlinked, as we can see exemplified by new gas development slated to support AI data centres.
“The AI Energy Score is a first-of-its kind benchmarking tool that is poised to become a critical enabler of responsible AI development, offering AI developers and organizations a transparent and standardized way to assess the energy consumption and environmental impact of AI models. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, the AI Energy Score represents a shift toward greater accountability in AI, providing companies with the data they need to make informed decisions about model efficiency, optimization, and carbon footprint reduction.”
AI Energy Score: transparency in AI
The new scoring framework is the result of a collective effort involving Salesforce, Hugging Face, Cohere and Carnegie Mellon University. It aims to equip the industry with transparent and uniform energy consumption metrics for AI models.
“The AI Energy Score represents a major milestone for sustainable AI,” said Dr. Sasha Luccioni, AI & Climate Lead at Hugging Face. “By creating a transparent rating system, we address a key blocker for reducing the environmental impact of AI."
To deliver transparency and sustainability in AI development, the AI Energy Score has several core features:
- Standardised energy ratings: A structured framework for assessing the energy efficiency of AI models, mandating developers to monitor and report energy consumption accurately.
- Public leaderboard: An extensive comparison featuring over 200 AI models across 10 common tasks like text and image generation, enabling users and developers to gauge energy efficiency at a glance.
- Benchmarking portal: A dedicated online platform for the submission and evaluation of both open-source and proprietary AI models.
- Recognisable energy use label: A simple 1 to 5-star rating system that makes identifying energy-efficient models straightforward for all users.
- Label generator: A resource for AI developers, enabling the creation and distribution of standardised energy-efficiency labels tailored to their models.
How Salesforce is committed to sustainable AI
Salesforce will be the inaugural AI model developer to disclose energy efficiency data for its proprietary models via the AI Energy Score. The company’s stance aligns with its broader sustainability objectives and approach to AI development.
The firm's 2024-launched Agentforce platform, which empowers the deployment of autonomous AI agents across varied business functions while prioritising energy-efficiency, is a good example.
Gamazaychikov added: "The AI Energy Score builds on Salesforce’s Agentforce innovation, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform for deploying autonomous AI agents across any business function. Agentforce offers tools to build and customise agents, as well as a library of ready-to-use skills for sales, service, marketing, commerce, Tableau, Slack and more."
Suzanne DiBianca, EVP and Chief Impact Officer at Salesforce, further explains: “Reducing AI energy consumption lowers operational costs, optimises infrastructure, and enhances long-term sustainability and profitability. We are proud to work with industry leaders to build a more transparent AI ecosystem.”
Addressing the AI energy dilemma
The launch of AI Energy Score is timely. A recent survey by Salesforce disclosed that 65% of sustainability professionals recognise the necessity to balance AI benefits with environmental concerns, especially as AI-driven data centre power requirements are estimated to double by 2026.
Gamazaychikov also recognised the broader implications of the AI Energy Score, saying it “is more than just an energy use metric — it can be a strategic business advantage and establishes a clear, trusted benchmark for AI model sustainability.
The AI Energy Score also provides a competitive advantage to AI developers and users who prioritise efficiency, allowing enterprises and AI users to make informed decisions about which models use less energy. By helping organisations assess and optimise the energy consumption of their AI models, it contributes to lower operational costs, improved infrastructure efficiency, and long-term profitability."
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