Workplace and facility management professionals face new challenges as the industry sees an overall increase in complexity. There are more data streams than ever before, while evolving workplace trends make occupancy and utilization rates more dynamic.
At our Intelligent Workplace product announcement, we shared some of the ways facility and workplace leaders can leverage workflows backed by artificial intelligence (AI) to boost employee productivity and operational efficiency.
What are the current challenges in workplace and facility management?
The rapid expansion of available data sets and the evolution of workplace trends has created new challenges for workplace and facility leaders, including:
- Optimizing utilization rates across a real estate portfolio: Disconnected technologies make it hard to optimize real estate because data does not flow between systems, preventing departments from gaining insights for informed decision making.
- Enhancing employee collaboration to support productivity: Although employees want to come to the office to connect and collaborate, the lack of regular onsite schedules makes coordination more difficult without the right kinds of support.
- Extending asset life spans and cutting operational costs: Maintenance management professionals struggle to extend the life spans of their assets due to the lack of integration in technologies, which prevents the flow of data and insights needed for real-time and long-term decision making.
Although these challenges may seem separate, they are connected by common causes, including unreliable, error-prone manual data capture, data silos, and a lack of efficient, reliable processes to leverage data into actionable insights.
They also share a solution: A unified platform with AI-backed workflows.
What is an AI-backed workflow?
An AI-backed workflow is a process or series of tasks that an organization enhances or automates using AI technologies.
The advantages start with how quickly AI can identify complex patterns and generate insights. But the advantages continue with how AI systems can learn and improve from new data, enhancing their predictive accuracy over time. Implementing AI also helps reduce the potential for human error and bias, making for a more reliable decision-making process.
What are the main types of AI-backed workflows?
There are different types of AI-backed workflows, each with a different approach to enhancing efficiency and decision-making, including:
- Automated steps: Here, AI operates behind the scenes to handle routine tasks, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency. For example, an AI can monitor system performance, predict potential failures, and trigger preventive maintenance tasks, minimizing downtime and improving service reliability.
- Data-backed decision-making: AI can process and analyze large datasets to provide actionable insights, simplifying complex decision making. For example, an AI can look at occupancy numbers and space utilization rates to determine the best combination of open and private spaces in an office.
- Natural language instruction: With natural language processing, users can interact with an AI in a conversational manner, making it easier for them accomplish tasks without needing any technical skills. They can also give the AI tool specific instructions, for example “Reschedule the meeting with the marketing team to next Tuesday.”
These are only some of the broader categories. In fact, there is potential value in adding AI to any workflow that includes logistics and coordination or capturing, analyzing, and leveraging large data sets.
What are examples of AI-backed workflows in workplace and facility management?
In facility and workplace management, AI-backed workflows can help an organization transform operations. A facility managers can use AI to monitor building systems in real time, predict maintenance needs before they become critical issues, and optimize energy use to reduce costs.
In workplace management, a company can use AI to enhance the employee experience by automating room bookings, adjusting lighting and temperature based on occupancy, and even analyzing workspace utilization rates to find gaps and create improvements. AI not only streamlines operations but also contributes to a more adaptive and responsive work environment, boosting productivity and satisfaction.
Intelligent desk booking for team days
We reported in our Workplace Index that the two top reasons employees at organizations with hybrid work models want to come to the office is to connect and collaborate with colleagues. The challenge for them, though, is that few of their coworkers now have permanent desks, so booking a seat beside the right people on a specific day adds layers of complexity and coordination.
Adding AI to the workflow automates the booking process, making finding and reserving a group of desks for collaboration much easier. Now when an employee wants to book a desk, AI can automatically assign the best possible one, accounting for:
- Attendee needs
- Seating preferences
- Proximity to teammates
Automating the process pulls countless emails, chat messages, and phone calls out of the workflow for the employees. Instead of wasting effort on picking the perfect desk, they can invest their time into preparing to maximize their time in the office.
Automated meeting room booking
Sometimes, the team needs a room to themselves, instead of a group of close-by desks. The challenge is finding the right room to meet the team’s space needs. With AI built into the process, employees can book a room by simply forwarding online meeting invites to a designated room mailbox, which automatically books the appropriate space.
Implementing AI reduces the administrative burden on everyone invited to the meeting, so here again they can focus on being productive instead of looking after logistics.
Integrated booking with natural language
Adding AI to existing workflows can include integrating it with existing software platforms. For example, in an AI-backed workflow, employees can book desks, meeting rooms, and collaboration spaces with natural language commands, ensuring accuracy and ease. Employees can book spaces by simply asking the AI to “book a meeting space for 4 people for Tuesday, any time after 2.”
And the AI can provide real-time availability, personalized recommendations, and automated reminders to reduce no-shows and conflicts. It can also sync with calendars to suggest optimal times and spaces, enhancing the experience by taking over coordination and logistics.
Proactive asset monitoring
Companies can capture large, real-time data sets from their most important assets, but generating insights is impossible without a way to make sense of it all. If you can’t leverage your data, it’s the same as not having it.
Feeding facility data to an AI supports efficient scheduling and prioritization of maintenance tasks, ensuring that assets are maintained proactively, which extends their useful life and maximizes their value, saving costs and resources.
Embedded AI helps solve complexity
Workplace and facility leaders are facing more complexity in their industry. Data comes from more sources, with each one delivering larger sets. And traditional trends have given way to new, less predictable occupancy numbers and utilization rates.
At the Intelligent Worktech product announcement, Brandon Holden, Chief Executive Officer at Eptura, explained the critical roles AI plays across the enterprise.
“By harnessing the power of one unified solution, cross-platform data analytics, and embedded AI; our platform can now bring you an even more integrated, more capable, and more intelligent solution — all so that you can unlock unrivaled value within your business.”
Learn more about how Eptura helps transform data into strategy.
By Erin Sevitz
Erin has 15 years of experience, including 10 years in thought leadership on workplace management and the built environment. In her current role she oversees teams responsible for worktech insights and engaging Eptura’s 16,000 customers worldwide. Previously she led communications for the International Facility Management Association, a global industry nonprofit dedicated to professional development for workplace strategists, building managers, and corporate real estate.
