The world of facilities management (FM) is evolving rapidly, and AI-driven Energy Management Systems (EMS) are at the forefront of this transformation. With 48.1% of FM teams finding themselves understaffed, the introduction of AI into EMS presents a pretty timely solution.
There’s a significant understaffing issue within the FM industry – and it’s not set to improve anytime soon. In fact, according to a 2023 JLL Technologies’ report, FM’s work orders increased by 61.6% between 2022 and 2023, while, in the same timeframe, 66% of FMs are halfway out the door due to layoffs and retirement. To top it off, an estimated 40% of the existing FM workforce will permanently exit the workforce by 2026.
With stats like these, it’s easy to see how FMs and their teams are increasingly challenged to do more with less, elevating stress levels and impacting the overall efficiency and efficacy of building management. Constantly treading water, these teams are struggling to keep up with the increasing demands of maintaining increasingly complex facilities, ensuring compliance with regulations, reducing energy consumption and costs, and enhancing occupant comfort and satisfaction.
Fortunately, AI is rising to the task of supporting FMs in their ever-growing number of roles and tasks. AI-driven EMS are increasingly being adopted, leveraging machine learning algorithms to analyze data from various sources, such as sensors, meters, weather forecasts, and occupancy patterns, to provide actionable insights and recommendations for optimal energy management.
One success story of a company using an AI-driven EMS to ensure smoother building operations is Sleep Country, Canada’s leading omnichannel mattress and bedding retailer. After fitting 49 of its stores with cloud-connected, AI-enabled thermostats and advanced AI for HVAC technology, the company was able to gain access to its data on an easy-to-navigate dashboard, enabling it to monitor and visualize each store’s real-time emissions, energy performance, and more. This led them to make more informed equipment and energy reduction decisions, leading to a 23% reduction in GHG emissions, a 22% average decrease in HVAC gas usage, and an 11% decrease in overall energy bills.
These results aren’t unusual. AI-driven EMS are designed to autonomously optimize building operations in a fraction of the time, providing intelligent analytics to streamline an FM’s tasks, meaning that their work can be done more intelligently and accurately in less time.
Some additional benefits of AI-EMS include:
As with most new things, starting out on the AI journey might seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Here are some practical steps to smoothly integrate AI-driven EMS into your existing operations:
Although adopting any new kind of technology is daunting at first, doing so isn’t just smart, it’s the key to advancement within the industry. Indeed, despite understaffing issues, the facilities management services market is expected to grow by 7.73% and reach a total value of more than $1,323 billion by 2030. The main driving factor for this continued growth? The integration of AI.
That’s because AI is increasingly enabling teams to do more with less while enhancing overall building efficiency. AI-driven EMS can help FM teams to make more informed decisions, automate and optimize their building operations, reduce their energy consumption and costs, and improve their occupant comfort and satisfaction - enhancing the performance of individual facilities managers as well as the buildings they operate.
Discover how AI-driven EMS can transform your FM operations and address staffing challenges.