United States. A study on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Buildings reveals that 84% of decision-makers in commercial buildings plan to increase the use of AI in the coming year to improve safety, optimize energy management, and integrate predictive maintenance.
This study, led by Honeywell, and conducted with managers and managers of U.S. buildings with more than 250 occupants, found that across all property types, respondents are increasingly using AI to improve process efficiency, productivity, and operations.
However, with the majority of respondents (92%) reporting difficulties in hiring skilled and tech-savvy staff, there is a greater opportunity for building operations to leverage AI capabilities to improve employee training, expand their current workforce, and ultimately help upskill workers to meet the changing needs of the industry.
"AI in buildings is a game-changer that not only helps decision-makers maximize operations and efficiency, but can also contribute to improving guest safety, minimizing tenant energy consumption, and reducing costly downtime by detecting problems before they occur," said Billal Hammoud, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell's building automation segment. "With core AI functions already integrated into many commercial buildings, leaders should focus on the training opportunities it offers to employees, who can leverage AI to help buildings reduce carbon emissions, while being safer and more operationally efficient."
In the case of commercial buildings, Honeywell's research revealed that AI has outgrown the experimental level and is becoming more widespread, as evidenced by its increasing use in the day-to-day management of buildings. Key findings include:
* Nearly 60% of respondents have already adopted AI to optimize maintenance and repair processes.
* One of the most common uses is predictive maintenance, which helps identify problems before they become bigger problems and is currently used by 49% of respondents.
* Safety is also a priority for more than half of respondents. Frequent use cases cited by respondents were monitoring unusual behavior (63%), location tracking systems for occupant safety (52%), and biometric access control systems (45%).
* Decision-makers are turning to AI for everything from temperature control to water consumption.
More than half (55%) of respondents currently use AI for overall energy management of buildings, 41% use it for water consumption monitoring and 40% implement it for thermal comfort.
