Within the age of smart buildings and recent technological advancements, building IQs are only going up. Facility managers face mounting pressures: stringent regulatory compliance requirements, rising energy costs, increasing tenant comfort expectations and corporate mandates to meet sustainability targets. Over the last few years, there has been a dramatic leap forward in building automation technology, particularly technology driven by artificial intelligence (AI), which directly addresses these challenges.

This revolution is quite literally transforming building management, particularly when it comes to achieving sustainability and decarbonization goals. AI’s ability to gather data, perform advanced data analysis and manipulate building systems in real time, without human intervention, elevates efficiency to new levels.

Predictive maintenance and personalized occupant experiences are other capabilities that AI can help in delivering new levels of performance for indoor spaces and higher levels of occupant comfort, reduced maintenance costs and fewer emergency service calls for facility teams.

The current situation: An overview

Smart buildings, of course, are not new. Advanced monitoring and sensing technologies have been essential features of the building management toolbox for well over a decade. However, many FMs struggle with disconnected systems that do not communicate with each other, creating data silos that prevent improving holistic building performance. Recent advancements are turbocharging what is possible in terms of efficiency and control, allowing FMs to address integration challenges head-on.

Most facilities incorporate at least some level of building automation. Such systems vary widely, ranging from thermostats that schedule occupancy or setpoints to HVAC systems that incorporate demand management functionality.

Eighty-seven percent of today’s businesses rely on smart building technology to help boost their operational performance, increase efficiency and enhance sustainability. Seventy-eight percent of businesses are in the process of enhancing such systems with data-driven, incremental improvements.

The next step is clear: integrate these various smart building technologies under a single AI-driven solution to improve their power and potential.

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The cost of inaction

Many building owners have yet to adopt a coherent smart building and/or building efficiency strategy. While most are utilizing smart solutions in their buildings, their technology remains underutilized, primarily because of a lack of connectivity.

Today, only about half of U.S. building owners have connected any of their smart solutions together, and still fewer — just 10 percent — have connected all their various solutions into a single, unified building management system.

Why? In many cases, their hesitancy to act comes down to uncertainties about the value of new technologies like AI. However, there is a real cost to taking a wait-and-see approach; among them:

  • Missing out on future technology. A forward-looking smart building strategy allows owners to benefit from new and emerging technologies, with the result that they are better positioned to adapt to new developments and changing needs.

  • Financial implications. It is predicted that roughly 13,500 U.S. properties will be out of compliance with local greenhouse gas ordinances by 2030 leading to potentially significant fines. New York City’s Local Law 97 (LL97) is expected to lead to US$900 million in projected costs per year by 2030

  • Depreciating reputations. Customers and other stakeholders are increasingly demanding that the businesses they deal with are making good on sustainability commitments. A full 65 percent of consumers say they are more likely to support sustainable companies

Clearly, there are a range of downsides for owners who fail to adopt new, high-efficiency technologies. The longer building owners wait, the more performance-enhancing and cost-reducing opportunities they miss, and the greater the cost when they finally decide to catch up.

What makes AI different?

The power of AI is its ability to collect and synthesize data from a building’s systems, analyze that data and use that analysis to anticipate maintenance issues, enhance systems performance and help improve operations automatically.

A robust AI-driven system is like a building manager that never sleeps, constantly observing and scrutinizing building data 24 hours a day, seven days a week, continuously identifying improvement opportunities and making real-time adjustments.

Even more remarkable, the system gets smarter over time as it follows this continuous process:

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  • Connect: The system collects connected HVAC equipment and BAS data, including historical trends, and predictive data points such as weather forecasts. 

  • Analyze & anticipate: The system forecasts space temperatures, occupancy and energy load with high accuracy, up to two hours in advance.

  • Respond: The system improves energy, comfort and equipment wear, sending real-time commands to BAS and HVAC equipment.

AI’s bottom-line value

AI-driven systems provide levels of efficiency that are simply beyond human abilities — managing system upgrades and reprogramming on-site equipment without the need for human intervention.

AI-driven systems help deliver the ideal balance of efficiency and comfort to the building, enhancing indoor conditions while simultaneously helping to reduce waste, GHG emissions, equipment wear and tear, and operations. They also simplify an FM’s team’s responsibilities, giving individuals more time to focus on higher-level strategic work.

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Smarter building = Greater efficiency

  • Reduce HVAC energy costs up to 25 percent

  • Reduce carbon emissions by up to 40 percent

  • Extend equipment service life up to 50 percent

  • Improve occupant comfort by up to 60 percent

How to get started

There is no single, best AI solution for any building. Every building is different and requires a tailored approach. However, best practices have begun to emerge:

  • Start with connectivity. High-performing connected building systems are the critical first step to an autonomously controlled building.

  • Use open standard BAS protocols. An AI-driven system is only as good as its data. A standardized approach helps build your system with consistent, accurate, high-quality data.

  • Find the right collaborator. Working with trusted professionals can help organizations receive a reliable, secure product built to industry standards and best practices.

In today’s era of technological advancement and growing environmental awareness, it is not enough that buildings simply exist. For building owners truly interested in driving success, their buildings must be future-ready.

Integrated, AI-driven building technologies are essential to helping today's companies achieve success both now and in the future.

Case study: A Journey to exceeding decarbonization goals through AI-enabled building technology

A leading building technology and energy solutions company helped a client reduce 1,132 mtCO2e and save US$329,000 in energy costs.

This company’s client sought a solution to help reach their goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40 percent and be net zero by 2035. 

As an industry leader in the collection and processing of life-saving biological material, the client maintains a national portfolio of more than 150 facilities. Among the project imperatives were maintaining donor comfort and critical product environmental conditions while avoiding any operational disruptions.

Having already optimized their systems mechanically through a building automation system, they needed ways to generate more significant carbon reductions and savings without any additional large investments in either human capital or equipment.

The cornerstone of the project: an AI-enabled solution that predictively optimizes the system’s performance.

Incorporating variables such as predictive weather data, occupancy trends and equipment performance data, the AI technology delivered the ongoing data collection, analysis and optimization functionality that was needed to meet the customer's environmental goals.

In the first six months, the client was halfway to their 2025 goal at five of their test sites, with a 26.1 percent CO2e reduction and 16.7 percent electricity savings. This reduction was accomplished with no additional hardware needed and with no site interruptions.  

To date, the program has been implemented at more than 100 additional clinics across the United States, with impressive results in reducing Scope 1 (natural gas) and Scope 2 (electricity) emissions.

The sites that have activated the AI solution have seen a staggering 22 percent lower energy use intensity (energy/sq. ft.) than sites where the solution has yet to be activated.