More than a third of businesses plan to increase office attendance, prompting enterprises to increase AI use and cross-platform data analytics to better manage workplace occupancy and improve employee experience, says Eptura, a workforce management software company.
Over the past three years, office visitors have nearly doubled across all regions, according to a survey the company conducted of 200 operational leaders of enterprise-size global businesses.
As a result, visitor management is a key AI focus for building and facility managers, with 68% making it a priority in the next 12 months, the company says. Other goals for using AI include predicting occupancy needs and optimizing space.
The shift to in-office work creates opportunities for organizations, like leveling out the work week, optimizing real estate portfolios and increasing asset lifecycles, the company says. But organizations using standalone solutions can find it challenging to leverage these opportunities, it says.
According to its survey, 50% of businesses are using on average 17 standalone worktech solutions, and more than a third are using 11 or more full-time employees to collect, analyze and report on data.
Organizations see the value of connecting their technology together, but only 4% have a fully integrated software solution, the company says. Thirty-eight percent of respondents say they use between two and five worktech software solution vendors and 37% say they use between six and 14.
The largest challenge for building and facility managers to integrate these solutions is a lack of perceived value, with 23% of operators citing this as a barrier. Budgetary constraints and contractual commitments to legacy software were also named as a barrier by facility managers.
“Where we’re heading next is so much more into predictive analysis, into machine learning in this space,” Lynn Baez, enterprise vice president at McKesson, said on the Workplace Innovator Podcast, per the report. “Really leveraging our operations and maintenance space in a way that we can use things like digital twins to help really understand in a very predictive and proactive way how we can maximize the effectiveness of the spaces that we oversee and lead.”
