Facilities Management: Planning for an AI-Driven Future

As our workplace team prepared to attend this year’s CoreNet Global Summit in Washington, D.C., we took note of several interesting topics. One of those was the concept of Total Worker Health, which you can read about here. Below, we’ll take a look at another: the state of facilities management (FM) and the potential impact artificial intelligence (AI) will have on FM. FM has a huge impact on employee experience, so for additional insight on this topic, we enlisted facilities management expert and IFMA member John Mackay, CFM and Senior Director of Business Development at Aleto, Inc. 

Level-Set: Defining Facilities Management

Before we jump into the details, let’s take a moment to discuss what facilities management is. John explains that facilities management can be broken down into two categories: Hard and Soft.

• Hard FM: This covers building infrastructure and maintenance. Think of physical assets and things essential to a building’s operation, including maintenance, energy management, health and safety, and space management.
• Soft FM: These are people-oriented services, including services that make a building more comfortable and user-friendly, like cleaning and janitorial services, security, catering and food services, waste management, and reception services.
  In addition, FM can be responsible for sustainability efforts like green building initiatives, budgeting, and financial planning associated with operating and maintaining the facility, and smart technology integration with things like automated lighting, heating, or security systems for efficiency and enhanced monitoring.

In the federal space, FM is typically the responsibility of designated government agencies or departments that oversee the upkeep and functionality of federal buildings and properties. Several key players manage facilities at various levels within the federal government. These include, but are not limited to:

GSA is the primary federal agency responsible for managing and maintaining the majority of federally owned and leased properties. It provides facilities management services across the federal government, including building operations and maintenance, leasing and real estate services, and sustainability efforts. Additionally, the Public Building Service (PBS) is a division within the GSA that manages the day-to-day facilities operations for many federal government offices. It provides services such as space utilization planning, maintenance and repair services, and building security and emergency response coordination.

Some federal agencies and departments have their own facilities management offices or divisions that manage buildings specific to their operations. For example, the Department of Defense (DoD) oversees facilities on military bases, research labs, and other defense-related properties while Veterans Affairs (VA) manages hospitals, clinics, and administrative offices serving veterans.

Within each federal agency or department, facilities managers or property managers are tasked with the daily operations and oversight of facilities. They coordinate with contractors and maintenance teams, ensure buildings comply with federal regulations (e.g., safety, accessibility), and handle space allocation and manage building systems (e.g., HVAC, lighting).

Although not directly involved in daily facilities operations, the OMB provides policy guidance, financial oversight, and budget allocations for facilities management across federal agencies.

That’s a lot to take in, but John sums things up nicely: “facilities management in the federal space is a collaborative effort between the GSA, individual federal agencies, and other specialized government entities. They ensure that federal properties are maintained, safe, and compliant with regulatory requirements”.

The Intersection of FM & AI

Now that we have a better understanding of what FM is and who is responsible for it, let’s look at some of the areas where AI may have a positive impact. Below are some of the primary areas where John sees that potential.

• Executive Assistance: Like most federal leaders and managers, FM professionals are being pulled in myriad directions. John believes AI has the potential to help FM personnel with admin, freeing up time to devote to meeting their mission. Two areas he pointed out are inbox management (“John, you have 100+ emails in your inbox, here are the 12 you should focus on. . .would you like me to handle the rest by drafting responses and sending them out?”) and meeting scheduling (coordinating schedules and meeting types).
• Financial & Project Reporting & Analysis: FM professionals spend a lot of time reviewing budgets and financial information — it’s just part of the job. Using AI to track financials and flag potential issues and transactions; or draft basic forecasts for on-time/on-budget for projects or programs in FM is another way to free up time for activities that require leadership engagement and input. In addition, running AI on spreadsheet/Power BI/Tableau data may allow for better insights and identification of hidden trends in the data more quickly than via human review alone.
• Space Planning, Design, and Management: AI is already being used to shorten Plan of Record and Design Implement Deploy processes and ensure that space designs are aligned with standards. It can also be used to build initial project schedules and budgets by analyzing historical data.

AI also has potential when it comes to MACs, or move-add-changes, during the design process. For example, many facilities managers are struggling with the combination of return to office demands and changing space needs (i.e., how the same number of people can be “in orbit” around less space). AI can help predict the right balance by optimizing interiors for the actual or predicted neurodiversity needs of your staff or suggest alterations based on survey data or reports from firms like the Leesman Index.

When it comes to management and maintenance, AI has already been applied effectively in the form of fault detection and diagnostic applications like Clockworks to help facilities managers optimize repairs and maintenance on building equipment and systems.

What’s Next

It’s clear that modern facilities management professionals have a lot on their plate. In addition to AI, there are a number of other ways FMs can make their own workloads more sustainable while still creating environments that meet the workplace needs of their organizations. Our team of workplace experts can help you explore those opportunities. A simple conversation is a great way to get started — and if you’re attending CoreNet, we’ll be hosting complimentary 15-minute workplace experience advisory sessions at booth #516. Just click to sign up for your opportunity to chat with our team of experts.