Facilities management stands at “a pivotal moment in its technological evolution,” according to a December report by JLL subsidiary Building Engines. The group surveyed 370 commercial real estate professionals in collaboration with Building Owners and Managers Association International for the report on the state of commercial property management technology.
Facilities managers are “balancing traditional challenges with emerging technological opportunities,” Building Engines says. Key trends it expects to see in 2025 include a consistent commitment to technology investment; a focus on building operations, tenant experience and sustainability; and early-stage adoption of AI and advanced analytics.
At the same time, Building Engines says its survey results expose “gaps between intention and implementation,” notably in AI adoption and energy-savings technology. Realizing the full potential of current and future property technology innovations will require “not just greater financial investment, but also education, strategic planning, and a willingness to embrace new approaches,” the report says.
Below are the facilities management technologies experts say are poised to affect the industry most in 2025.
Artificial intelligence
While sellers and early adopters swear by AI’s potential to revolutionize operations and decision-making processes across numerous industries, how much benefit facilities managers, building operators and owners can successfully glean from AI today is still unclear.
An October 2024 report released by the International Facility Management Association aims to help facilities managers understand the theoretical aspects of AI and apply the technology to enhance daily operations.
The report describes how AI is being used to enhance facilities management technologies related to efficiency and productivity; building automation and management systems; facility maintenance, including predictive and condition-based maintenance; energy management; space management; safety and security; visitor management; tenant and occupant experience; and waste management.
The corporate real estate industry is actively embracing AI, with 90% of companies planning to integrate AI to support human experts over the next five years, according to a December Global Future of Work report by JLL, which surveyed over 2,300 corporate real estate decision-makers. But the peak of the AI “hype cycle” is fast approaching, with many companies initiating AI pilots and training without a comprehensive strategy or road map for implementation, “risking disillusionment,” JLL says.
“Most people haven’t been able to look at [AI] and say, ‘What does this mean to me or my job?’” Dean Stanberry, immediate past chair of IFMA, said during a seminar at the association’s World Workplace conference in October. Stanberry manages a government contract to deploy and operate computerized maintenance management systems in the Government Services Administration’s Rocky Mountain region. “What are the use cases? Where can you use some of this stuff today, and what [is] the stuff that you might want to let it sit in the oven for a little bit longer?”
AI’s ability to consume and analyze vast amounts of data in a fraction of the time as it would take a human is increasingly being used to enhance facilities management, Jake Smithwick, professor of facilities management at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, said during the seminar.
The three main facilities management applications of AI today are automation, analytics and content creation, such as using prompts to create written content like emails, report outlines and presentation copy, Dipin Kasana, director of business analytics at JLL, said during the seminar.
As AI matures and advances along its adoption cycle, corporate real estate leaders must adopt systematic approaches to realize its full potential, JLL says in its report.
“One of the main things I would recommend to everybody is to start getting your data organized immediately,” Smithwick said. “Because once the tools finally come out and you have a full set of data — everything's organized and you’ve got track of everything — you'll be far ahead of the curve.”
Automation
“Artificial intelligence connectivity and controls immediately come to mind as the most important facilities management technology to deliver on ... critical outcomes for operators,” said Scott Huffmaster, vice president and general manager of smart services for commercial HVAC at Trane’s North America segment, in an email. Trane is already seeing significant and measurable financial impact for its customers, with AI transforming facilities management and building operations to be more efficient and cost effective, he said.
In addition to improving existing systems to make them smarter — like optimizing HVAC controls based on real-time factors related to occupancy, weather and energy prices — AI can enhance indoor air quality by constantly monitoring and adjusting ventilation to keep spaces comfortable and healthy, Huffmaster said.
Smart building systems are capturing data from building systems and equipment and using it to trigger alerts and adjust environments for safety and efficiency.
According to an online survey of 3,445 smart building leaders that Johnson Controls commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct in August 2023, about 40% of survey respondents listed space optimization, building modernization and carbon emission reductions as drivers of smart building investments.
For example, digital twins offer a digital representation of physical space within a building, but also “the systems, the time frame for components and maintenance requirements, and so forth,” Smithwick said. “That's a lot easier and faster to deal with from a digital standpoint on our computers” compared with traditional control sequences and operational technologies.
Improving automation systems to ingest and visualize data in a turnkey fashion, and then applying AI to drive recommendations on top of that, “is something we believe is going to be really powerful,” Vijay Sankaran, vice president and chief digital and information officer at Johnson Controls, told Facilities Dive in an interview.
This automation capability has been around for a long time in building information models, but there’s a gap between what BIM are capable of and how they’re used. “At one point [these systems] have to be able to solve all these issues, and we’re finding that we’re not there yet,” Smithwick said. While digital twins and BIM work well for new construction, he said, they quickly lose value over time as updates and renovations to the building occur. “The struggle here is that we have to capture all the information about how we actually run our facilities, and the cost to do that is substantial,” Smithwick said.
Sharad Rastogi, CEO of work dynamics technology at JLL, concurred. “There’s a lot of data with sensors and automation systems, etc., which is not really being used,” Rastogi said in an interview. “There’s a huge opportunity still.”
The main challenge with leveraging these technologies is processing the large amount of real-time data they generate, like sensors in HVAC systems, Rastogi said. “How do you get real-time data into the AI engine [so that it] can help predict, prescribe what needs to get done, and then we can translate that back into actions?”
The industry has not truly realized the full benefits of building automation “because all the links are not connected,” Rastogi said. Work is being done to create platforms that can ingest real-time data, analyze it and inform actions — whether those be manual interventions or automatic adjustments via the building management system, he said.
Modern building controls and automation systems “provide a solid foundation of connectivity and data collection, essential for more advanced technologies. This ensures that different technologies can work together seamlessly, maximizing the impact of AI and other advanced solutions."
Scott Huffmaster
Trane vice president and general manager, smart services, commercial HVAC North America
Maintenance management
Almost half of building operators surveyed believe that AI could have a significant impact on improving the efficiency of preventive maintenance and scheduling, per the Building Engines report.
“With [AI-driven] predictive maintenance, you can anticipate equipment failures are going to happen before they happen, and I think that’s what everybody’s trying to get to,” Scott Boekweg, product management lead at JLL, said in January during a joint webinar with IFMA on the state of facilities management technology. “This not only reduces the downtime, but it also prevents the overspending on unnecessary maintenance, and AI can help with that.”
Computerized maintenance management systems are helping teams better manage maintenance tasks, repairs, budgeting and capital planning decisions, panelists said.
For example, CMMS can automatically notify team members when work orders come in, “whether it's reactive or proactive,” Max Serrao, owner and chief operations officer at CFM Associates, a construction and facilities maintenance company, said in January during the webinar.
CMMS can prioritize the work orders and assign them to “either a service technician or the service pro that would be going out to do the work. We love that. It helps us automate all of that. It’s less thinking, less paperwork, and it really streamlines the process for us across the board,” Serrao said.
“If we don't have equipment working, if we don't have a safe environment, those are going to affect us,” Jason Noorian, vice president of restaurant asset management at Brinker International, said during the webinar. A CMMS also generates insights that operators can use to inform repair versus replacement decision-making, such as assets’ repair history, which equipment is under warranty and expected asset life, Noorian said.
CMMS can ensure that equipment under warranty will go to a warranty provider instead of a team’s regular equipment repair person, Noorian added. “It ensures that we’re not needlessly spending money when [an asset] is under warranty.”
Energy efficiency
After its impact on preventive maintenance and scheduling, AI could have the most significant impact on optimizing energy consumption, according to respondents to Building Engines’ survey.
One company that has applied AI to energy efficiency is Johnson Controls, which announced in November that it expanded the AI capabilities of its OpenBlue Enterprise Manager Suite. The platform’s new generative AI advisor can provide recommendations for energy savings and carbon reductions and detailed information about equipment performance and trends, whether for individual equipment or in a broad, portfolio-level view, the company said.
OpenBlue guidance has led users to facility improvements, equipment upgrades and proactive services that result in their spending up to 30% less on energy and 20% less on maintenance and increasing the optimization of space by up to 10%, Johnson Controls said.
Trane reports that one of its customers realized $329,000 in energy cost savings and reduced carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by over 1,100 metric tons in the first months of implementing its autonomous control technology, powered by BrainBox AI, which it acquired in December. At the time, Trane said users could cut energy consumption by up to 25% and GHG emissions up to 40% by using the platform.
“However, existing most existing buildings still rely on aging technology and disparate automation and date systems, making it difficult to implement advanced solutions like AI,” Huffmaster said, noting that facilities managers should start by upgrading to modern building controls and automation systems that prioritize interoperability. “These upgrades provide a solid foundation of connectivity and data collection, essential for more advanced technologies. This ensures that different technologies can work together seamlessly, maximizing the impact of AI and other advanced solutions,” he said.
“I think what we need to focus on is, how can we augment human reality by using AI, instead of replacing or diminishing human intelligence?” Kasana said. “We need to work in partnership in order to fully leverage this tool and for [facilities managers] to be prepared to do that as soon as they come into the industry.”
Dipin Kasana
JLL director of business analytics
Productivity
Technology is increasingly important for facilities management teams being required to do “more with less,” Tim Bernardez, global head of the software-as-a-service business at JLL, said during the IFMA-JLL webinar.
“We're having to manage more facilities with fewer managers,” Bernardez said. “We all know and have experienced a shortage in the FM labor force, and we continue to need better margins across both of what I would call the work requester side and the service provider side.”
Over 55% of facilities management leaders surveyed said work order volumes had increased in 2024 from the year prior, Bernardez said, citing JLL’s 2024 State of Facilities Management Technology report, released in September. In that 230-person survey, 42.6% of respondents reported their facilities management teams are understaffed.
The ability to augment the workforce is a “huge part” of AI’s potential in facilities management, according to Smithwick. “There's not enough people to begin with, [and] we're not going to get more people. In fact, it's only going to get worse,” he said. “AI's ability to be that extra set of eyes and ears, whether it's looking at system sensors on buildings, [or] automating some of those logistical, administrative tasks … is going to be a lot more helpful to people.”
FM software can automate “repetitive, labor-led tasks,” like work order dispatch, approvals for invoices and payments and report generation, the JLL FM technology report states.
“I think what we need to focus on is, how can we augment human reality by using AI, instead of replacing or diminishing human intelligence?” Kasana said. “We need to work in partnership in order to fully leverage this tool and for [facilities managers] to be prepared to do that as soon as they come into the industry.”
Space optimization
AI and automation can also help turn businesses’ facilities segments into a profit generator, instead of just a cost, by enabling the use of data to more effectively utilize and manage space, Noorian said.
“Just from a physical space standpoint, how do you organize your space more efficiently?” asked Smithwick. While facilities managers “sell themselves short a lot because of a lack of data,” they actually have access to a substantial amount of information, like occupancy and building data, that can be used once AI tools become more mature, he said.
“People realize that they can be more efficient in utilizing physical space. So I think the scrutiny [around portfolio sizes and utilization] will continue until it reaches the balance point that is the most efficient,” Honghao Deng, CEO and co-founder of AI-powered smart camera firm Butlr, said in an interview.
“You have to continue to measure that to get to that efficiency point, and then it will be stabilized. And [operators] are using sensors and continuous measuring to get to the efficiency point,” he said.
