Next year, facility management success will depend on knowing how to leverage the trends currently shaping the industry, including the rise of AI and automation, closing the skills gap, building resiliency into operations, optimizing hybrid work models, navigating complex compliance requirements, and building partnerships across the enterprise.
Key takeaways
- Move beyond basic automation to leverage AI for predictive intelligence. Integrated platforms are crucial for connecting data, enabling proactive decision-making, and significantly reducing operational costs by anticipating issues before they arise
- The future of FM relies on empowering teams with data interpretation skills and user-friendly technology. Prioritize comprehensive training and intuitive AI-enabled tools to transform facility managers into strategic, data-driven leaders capable of building resilient and adaptive environments
- Fragmented systems hinder progress. Implementing unified, AI-enabled platforms helps simplify complex challenges like hybrid work optimization and evolving compliance requirements. This approach provides centralized visibility, automated workflows, and measurable benefits, turning operational burdens into strategic assets
Each trend brings challenges, but also opportunities for facility management teams that act early and strategically.
AI and automation: Moving from efficiency to predictive intelligence
AI is rapidly evolving beyond efficiency gains, becoming the foundational backbone of predictive strategies that are transforming how facility managers plan, maintain, and optimize operations.
It’s a critical change, especially as aging infrastructure and rising operational costs increasingly demand smarter, faster decision-making.
For example, strategically integrating IoT sensors into critical equipment like HVAC systems, teams can proactively flag anomalies and schedule interventions before failures occur, cutting downtime, and extending the useful life of assets.
Another example: AI-powered dashboards help facility managers consolidate and analyze data from disparate systems, including maintenance, space, and energy management, simplifying complex tasks such as capital planning, ensuring compliance, and conducting thorough operational reviews.
The benefits of a predictive approach are clear. In fact, the Eptura Workplace Index, reveals reactive work orders take twice as long preventive tasks.
Connect your data to make AI work for you in 2026
The key to unlocking AI’s full potential lies in integrated platforms. While siloed tools inevitably slow down decision-making, a unified data environment enables the kind of predictive insights that not only improve efficiency but also significantly reduce operational costs.
Closing the skills gap: Empowering the workforce for digital facility management
Facility managers are increasingly recognizing the potential for AI to transform their operations, moving beyond basic automation to more strategic applications. Its ability to process vast amounts of data quickly allows for more informed decision-making, which is crucial for optimizing complex building systems and occupant experiences.
The practical application of AI is already evident in many areas of facilities management. It empowers teams to dedicate their expertise to higher-value activities, such as strategic life cycle planning, optimizing budgets, and enhancing overall service quality.
However, according to the 2025 Workplace Index report, 50% of organizations report that insufficient employee AI skill sets and a lack of cross-platform integration are significant barriers to successfully deploying AI.
Addressing these challenges through intuitive tools and comprehensive training is key to unlocking AI’s full potential and enabling facilities managers to become more proactive and data-driven strategists.
Invest in upskilling and intuitive designs to turn automation into advantage
By prioritizing comprehensive training alongside the deployment of intuitive, user-friendly tools. Organizations that embrace this dual strategy will empower their facilities managers to evolve from reactive problem-solvers into proactive, data-driven strategists, ready to navigate the future of facility management.
Resiliency as the new benchmark: Building adaptive environments
Resiliency in asset and facility management means creating spaces and systems that can adapt seamlessly to disruptions, whether those are equipment failures, shifts in occupancy, or extreme weather events. Crucially, this adaptation happens without compromising safety or efficiency.
By 2026, resiliency will stand as a core performance metric for all modern facilities.
Intelligent buildings are at the heart of this adaptive capability. IoT sensors and AI-driven controls allow systems like HVAC, lighting, and cleaning schedules to adjust to real-time conditions. When data from all building systems, sensors, and maintenance flows into a single platform, facilities managers gain complete visibility, enabling them to act quickly, reducing waste and significantly improving occupant comfort.
Adaptive spaces, where environmental settings and service levels match usage, create an experience that feels both seamless and safe for occupants. Prioritizing this experience offers practical benefits for operations. It reduces avoidable service calls, keeps assets within optimal operating ranges, and helps teams plan staffing levels effectively to meet demand.
Design for adaptability to stay ahead of disruption
Integrated platforms, combined with intuitive AI, are essential for creating buildings that respond automatically to changing conditions. These advancements protect uptime, cut costs, and elevate confidence in facility operations.
Hybrid work: From uncertainty to optimization
With hybrid now a settled question for many, the focus now shifts to optimization: fostering connection and productivity, controlling operational and real estate costs, and delivering consistent experiences across all sites.
Eptura’s data over the last few years clearly shows the necessity of optimizing hybrid models. Desk bookings per building rose by 33% globally from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024. Also, visitors per location nearly doubled across all regions in three years. Leaders also project an average 3–8% incremental revenue from effective in-office use, signaling that well-designed hybrid models contribute to measurable business value.
To deliver operational efficiency, companies need to focus on translating occupancy and booking patterns into actionable strategies. It helps distribute demand across the week, cluster teams on collaboration days, and fine-tune building services to actual needs, including:
- Balance demand across the week. Use team neighborhoods and booking windows to distribute occupancy and reduce peak congestion
- Align energy to presence. Cross-analyzing energy versus occupancy reveals waste. Aligning HVAC and lighting to actual presence lowers costs
- Right-size layouts. Desk sharing can reduce office footprint by up to 30% by matching supply to actual demand
Practical applications of data-drive decision-making ensure organizations can use resources effectively while also optimizing the employee and workplace experience.
Optimize hybrid now to capture flexibility gains
Companies that implement unified, AI-enabled platforms will simplify hybrid work. Visual occupancy, automated workflows, and mobile journeys in one experience will transform hybrid from a logistical necessity into a measurable advantage.
Compliance: Managing complexity in a digital world
Regulatory change is accelerating across data privacy, building operations, and digital reporting, particularly in the European Union. Facility teams must manage compliance for both personal and device-generated data as building systems become smarter and more interconnected.
For example, The EU Data Act requires access and portability for data generated by connected products and related services, sets rules for fair data sharing, and introduces cloud switching requirements to avoid lock-in.
Proposed GDPR changes would ease cookie consent and allow certain AI training under “legitimate interest,” narrowing definitions and reducing pop-up burdens, raising the bar on transparency and preference tracking.
Companies will need careful classification and contractual safeguards.
Facilities collect vast amounts of information, from energy consumption and equipment performance to space utilization and security access logs. Much of this data, especially occupancy patterns or access records, can contain personal elements, creating a complex set of obligations.
Managing consent, data rights, and access for both device-generated and personal data within a single operational framework presents a significant challenge, which means proactive data management and a unified approach are no longer optional. They are essential for mitigating risk and ensuring operational continuity in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
Embed compliance to reduce risk and cost in 2026
Compliance becomes strategic when platforms make governance usable. Centralized visibility, automated workflows, and shareable logs reduce risk and reporting burden, freeing time for operations.
Preparing for 2026, the year of connected intelligence
2026 is the year facility management moves from reactive operations to proactive, data‑driven strategy. The trends shaping the industry, including AI adoption, skills development, resiliency, hybrid optimization, and compliance, are interconnected. Success depends on building a strong data culture and investing in unified platforms that make AI intuitive and actionable.
Facility managers who embrace these changes will manage more than just keeping pace. They’ll lead. By combining technology with strategic insight, you can create workplaces that are efficient, resilient, and ready for the future.
Frequently asked questions
By Erin Sevitz
As Vice President of Content and Customer Marketing at Eptura, Erin Sevitz oversees teams responsible for providing worktech insights and engaging 25 million Eptura users worldwide. With over 10 years in thought leadership on workplace management and the built environment, Erin brings deep industry knowledge to her role. Previously, she led communications for the International Facility Management Association, a global nonprofit dedicated to professional development for workplace strategists and building managers, and served as editor in chief for IFMA’s FMJ magazine.
