Recent data reveals that only 24% of FM organisations rate themselves as “AI-ready”. How can the industry move forward with confidence?
AI has considerable potential to help facilities management teams reduce administrative work, access information and make better-informed maintenance decisions. However, organisations need to understand where it can deliver a meaningful difference and what it takes to introduce it successfully.
Our State of Facilities Management Survey 2026 highlights this challenge. More than half of respondents rank digital transformation as highly important to their organisation’s strategy, yet only 24% consider their organisation AI-ready. Cost pressures (63%), integration difficulties (52%) and reluctance to accept change (41%) remain the main obstacles to technology adoption.
Given the pressures FM teams face, this is understandable. Introducing technology takes time, resources and commitment. Organisations need evidence that it will improve how they work and justify the investment.
Understand the problem first
I recently spoke on Expansive’s The FM Fix podcast about why FM technology projects can struggle. One challenge is that organisations invest in a solution before fully understanding the problem they are trying to address.
AI makes it increasingly easy to demonstrate something impressive or quickly develop a prototype. However, we still need to establish whether it meets a genuine need, fits into existing operations and delivers something customers value.
A sensible starting point is to look at where teams spend time today. Are they searching through documents, correcting incomplete asset records, or trying to understand which maintenance requirements apply to their buildings? Understanding these challenges with the people doing the work provides a stronger basis for deciding where AI could help.
Make information easier to access and apply
FM involves large amounts of information spread across systems, spreadsheets, contracts and operating manuals. Bringing it together and understanding what is relevant can be a substantial task.
AI could help teams summarise documents, extract asset information, identify gaps and find relevant maintenance guidance. Across complex estates, this could free up valuable time for work requiring professional judgement.
However, the information behind the answer matters. Incomplete asset records or outdated documents can produce unreliable outputs. A confidently worded answer does not resolve those basic issues.
Users need to understand where information comes from, what is missing and what requires checking, especially when it could influence a maintenance decision.
Keep expertise at the centre
Maintenance decisions can have considerable safety and compliance consequences. We need to be clear about where AI can assist and where technical expertise and approval stay essential.
Preparing a summary for review differs from recommending a change to a maintenance requirement. The scrutiny needs to reflect the potential consequences.
At SFG20, experienced, qualified technical professionals develop and continually update our maintenance standard, and industry experts independently challenge and ratify its governance and evidence. This provides the technical rigour and accountability customers rely on. We see AI as an opportunity to make that trusted expertise easier to access and apply, while preserving the technical review, justification and approval needed to support maintenance decisions.
Test the value in practice
Organisations should start with a clearly defined use case and test it with the people who would use it. Agree what success looks like, whether that is less administration, better information, fewer errors or a faster process.
The pilot needs to reflect everyday conditions. In FM, information is often incomplete, terminology varies and records arrive in different formats. We need to understand how a solution performs under those conditions.
Assessments should include the time required to review and correct outputs. Producing something in seconds is useful only if it improves the overall task. This gives the business evidence to decide whether to invest further, adjust the solution or stop, while identifying integration and data issues before a wider rollout.
Support the people using it
Involve the people doing the work from the outset. They understand the practical difficulties and can help establish whether a solution will make their job easier. Training should be relevant to their role, covering how to use the tools, what information can be shared and when outputs need checking. People should feel confident questioning recommendations and understand who approves resulting decisions.
Technology also needs to fit within current systems. Additional data entry or another information source to maintain could reduce the expected benefit. AI offers a real opportunity to help FM teams manage growing demands. A clear understanding of the need, practical testing and evidence of value will give organisations confidence in deciding where to invest.
I will discuss these opportunities at the SFG20 Virtual Summit 2026 on Tuesday, 10 November, together with experts from FM, the built environment and technology. We will explore how organisations can integrate technology into their estate maintenance strategies while making it work in practice.
