According to Johnson Controls, organizations are deploying AI and other digital technologies to improve employee productivity, reduce energy usage and strengthen the physical security of building systems. Report on AI and digitalization in facility management.
Johnson Controls said more than three-quarters of respondents in a survey conducted by the company late last year said they were shifting the focus of technology to buildings and employee performance because employees were satisfied with the amount of time they spent in the office. Survey results are based on responses from 760 U.S.-based business leaders representing companies with 200 or more employees.
Just under 70% of business leaders say they use workplace management technology primarily for space planning. Many companies that haven’t already said they plan to implement space management solutions or integrated workplace experience platforms.
The report found that behaviors related to return to work remained largely stable. Many organizations have arrived at an attendance model that balances flexibility and in-person collaboration.
Johnson Controls says facility leaders are shifting their focus to leveraging technology to help them avoid risk with limited resources by investing in solutions that prevent system failures, improve visibility into system health, and help teams operate more efficiently.
AI-powered predictive maintenance is the most popular planned investment to support facility operations, cited by 51% of facility managers, followed by integrated workplace experience platforms (38%) and environmental monitoring and indoor air quality solutions (37%).
Predictive maintenance is one of the most attractive use cases for AI, cited as a key strategy by nearly half of those already using or planning to use this technology. It is also seen as an important means of energy management. More than 60% of facility managers who have implemented or plan to implement AI in the next year point to its role in optimizing energy efficiency and building system efficiency.
Another major use case for AI is physical security, with half of respondents saying they use physical security to improve safety and access control, but broader adoption is limited by cyber risks, the company said.
Almost a quarter of respondents cited data privacy and cybersecurity as the biggest barrier to expanding the use of AI, surpassing concerns such as budget constraints, lack of expertise, and resistance to change.
Cyber-attack risk is also the top threat to maintaining equipment performance and uptime, cited by 22% of respondents, followed by budget constraints at 20% and aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance at 18%.
“Taken together, these findings reveal significant tensions,” Johnson Controls says. “Facilities leaders are expected to protect aging, increasingly connected, mission-critical systems from cyber risks and failures while operating within tight budget and staffing constraints. As equipment performance, uptime, and resiliency become dependent on connected systems and networks, this pressure is no longer limited to just facilities teams, but spans both IT and OT domains.”
This dynamic makes a reactive approach “unsustainable” and increases the cost of unplanned downtime and security incidents, the company said in the report.
