By: Peter Smyth, Director of Innovation and Technology, Bidvest Noonan
For more than a decade, the smart building label has mostly meant one thing: data dashboards telling you what has already happened in your space; whether yesterday, last week or last quarter. Useful to have, but a passive approach.
The shift now underway is more active. Buildings are starting to respond in real time. Occupancy sensors trigger cleaning rounds where they are actually needed and security patrols are redirected to where footfall has spiked. Engineering teams get alerted to issues before they become tickets.
This is the operational reality that Almost all (97%) FM leaders are betting on, with all of them planning to increase technology investment over the next 12-to-24 months, and none expecting a decrease. Two thirds (68%) of those running estates over 500,000 sq ft anticipate significant increases.
These figures come from Bidvest Noonan’s research into the tech investment plans of 110 FM decision-makers.
What occupancy-led service delivery actually looks like
In practice, occupancy-led delivery means cleaning teams are now attending rooms based on their usage, not a rigid schedule. It means meeting rooms are heated and lit only when they are booked and occupied. It means a wall-mounted IoT button in the washroom, so users can flag up spills or empty dispensers when they happen, alerting the on-site cleaner who can fix the issue in moments, before a formal complaint reaches the helpdesk. The efficiency gains are obvious, while the sustainability gains follow naturally, because you stop running services to empty rooms. The workplace experience improves because the building services are set to respond to the people inside it, not to a schedule drawn up six months ago.
Why integration is now the real challenge
The sensors themselves are no longer the problem. The hardware is available, capable and increasingly affordable. The challenge is making it all talk.
More than half of FM leaders (57%) cite integration complexity with legacy systems as one of their biggest adoption challenges. And two thirds (65%) point to insufficient planning as the top reason technology underperforms. When occupancy data cannot reach your Building Management Systems (BMS), Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) or workforce platform, you do not have a smart building. You have a collection of expensive standalone reports.
The fix has to start before procurement. Define your data, access, format and communication requirements first, then specify the kit. Ask vendors for evidence of how their systems integrate with what you already have, not just assurances. And involve your FM teams early, because they hold the operational view that decides whether the integration will actually work in service of the building.
The leadership discipline that separates success from sprawl
Smart building investment only pays back when the operational basics are right from the start. If you layer sensors and AI onto a poorly run estate, you simply produce more data about your problems, without resolving anything. The technology amplifies whatever it finds, good or bad.
This is where leadership shows up. More than half (54%) of FM leaders identify executive leadership support as the single most critical success factor, ranking ahead of every other variable. Four in ten (44%) point to clear success metrics defined upfront, while similar proportions (43%) point to good integration with existing systems.
“Smart building investment only pays back when the operational basics are right from the start.”
These three elements all have something in common; they relate to decisions made before the first sensor is installed, not after. Almost all (96%) organisations now have frameworks in place to measure technology outcomes. The discipline is there. What is needed is leadership to apply it.
What property owners and FM leaders should expect next
Three things separate the next wave of workplace technology from what came before. First, interoperability becomes a contractual requirement. Tendering for occupancy sensors without specifying how they will integrate with your existing platforms is increasingly hard to justify.
Modern APIs make it possible to connect legacy systems with newer tools without wholesale replacement, but you need to ask.
Second, AI moves from futuristic buzzword to operating reality. AI is evolving at a fast pace, an exciting recent development is the merging of Generative AI with the Physical AI of machine-based AI tools. That allows us to talk directly to smart building platforms or security systems, just as we would prompt a chat bot: “What were the busiest washrooms yesterday?” Or, “run a report showing floors with low occupancy last week”, “recommend areas where I can reduce cleaning schedules”, “alert me when fire exits are blocked.”
Third, the people side stops being treated as an add-on. Training and change management are the difference between a pilot that scales and one that gets quietly shelved in its second quarter. The teams using the data need to understand why their patrols have changed.
“Get things wrong, and your technology investment will simply mean you spend a great deal to learn what your FM team has been telling you for years.”
Conclusion
Smart buildings are standing on the threshold, but they need to be ushered in. The budgets are signed off and the hardware does what it says on the box. What now separates the leaders from the laggards is effective implementation, disciplined integration and visible executive sponsorship. Get those elements right, and your building moves from reporting on the past to responding to the present. Get things wrong, and your technology investment will simply mean you spend a great deal to learn what your FM team has been telling you for years. Statistics sourced from Bidvest Noonan’s report, FM Technology Outlook 2026.