by Bill Kristan, Senior Consultant, Intelligent Buildings
Stay up to date on the latest news in the commercial real estate (CRE) industry
Developers Are Finally Dealing With the Office-Oversupply Problem
U.S. office inventory is shrinking for the first time in 25 years as developers demolish obsolete buildings and convert towers in NYC and San Francisco to residential use amid 20% vacancy rates. Read more.
A Times Square Office Tower Will Be Converted Into Apartments
5 Times Square will deliver 1,250 units (313 affordable) using NYC’s new 467-m tax exemption, 90% property tax abatement, and lifted zoning limits—turning Class A office into housing. Read more.
Senate’s Budget Extends CRE Tax Breaks, Would Lift Debt Ceiling to $5T
The bill makes 100% bonus depreciation permanent for manufacturing and R&D real estate, supercharging CRE reinvestment even as SALT caps and a $5T debt ceiling raise long-term uncertainty. Read more.
Live Nation Buys Into $5B Master Plan to Revive Atlanta’s Downtown
Live Nation’s 5,300-seat venue at Centennial Yards anchors a $5B redevelopment, proving concerts and foot traffic are now core drivers of CRE value in walkable entertainment zones. Read more.
How Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren’t Saying
AI workloads now consume ~20% of global data center energy, yet firms like OpenAI and Google withhold usage data, undermining ESG claims amid growing calls for energy transparency. Read more.
Google Acquisition Continues Ohio Data Center Gold Rush
Google’s joins Amazon and Meta in Ohio, drawn by sales-tax breaks, cheap power, and cool climate—though utilities are warning of capacity stress by 2028. Read more.
From Fire Alarms to AI: Rethinking Safety with Smart Building Tech
AI-enabled building management systems (BMS) now detect smoke, airflow, and heat in real time—closing dampers, unlocking exits, and alerting first responders, redefining risk mitigation as autonomous and proactive. Read more.
by Lachlan MacQuarrie, Vice President of Customer Success, Intelligent Buildings
The Smart Building Shift Is Underway, but What’s the ROI?
From energy dashboards to cybersecurity platforms, access control integrations to ESG data pipelines—smart building technologies are transforming commercial real estate (CRE). For CIOs and CTOs leading this digital charge, there’s no shortage of innovation.
But in today’s business environment, innovation alone isn’t enough. Boards, investors, and executive stakeholders are all asking the same question: “What’s the return?”
It’s a fair question—and one that’s often tough to answer. Unlike traditional informational technology (IT) projects, the return on investment (ROI) of smart building technology initiatives can be more nuanced. The value isn’t just in dollars saved, but in risks reduced, systems aligned, operations streamlined, and data unlocked for strategic insight.
CIOs and CTOs need a way to tie their digital strategy to measurable outcomes.
The ROI Challenge in Smart Buildings
Smart buildings aren’t just about technology, they’re about outcomes. As a CIO or CTO in CRE, your role is no longer just about what you deploy. It’s about how deployment impacts operations, risk, sustainability, and business value. Innovation is the starting point.
Return on innovation is the destination.
Traditional ROI metrics don’t always apply in CRE’s evolving landscape. You’re dealing with decades-old systems, complex vendor networks, and operational technology (OT) environments that don’t fit neatly into IT frameworks.
Consider these challenges:
This is where the pressure mounts—not only to modernize, but to justify each step of your smart building journey. That’s why leading CRE organizations are reframing ROI to reflect what truly matters across digital infrastructure.
How to Communicate ROI Internally
Proving ROI doesn’t mean simplifying the strategy, it means translating it for every audience. Even when the value is there, it still needs to be communicated in a way that resonates with stakeholders.
We help CIOs and CTOs reframe the conversation by focusing on outcomes that matter across functions.
Key Areas Where ROI Is Proven
Through our complete suite of services, Intelligent Buildings helps CRE leaders define, measure, and communicate the return on digital investment. We’ve found that focusing on the following areas can create both immediate and long-term business value.
1. Energy Efficiency & Uptime Improvements
Energy consumption is one of the most tangible and trackable benefits of smart building strategies. When your HVAC, lighting, and other systems are connected, monitored, and optimized, the savings add up fast.
We work with clients to:
Benchmark pre- and post-optimization energy usage
Track and verify runtime reductions
Reduce override drift that leads to waste
Identify systems in need of recommissioning or reset
Uptime also improves when fault detection and alerting are part of the equation. Preventing one major outage can protect tenant satisfaction, reduce service calls, and preserve NOI.
2. IT/OT Integration Progress
For decades, building systems were the domain of engineering and facilities. But in today’s environment, IT is increasingly responsible for OT as well. Proving ROI here means showing that the organization is becoming:
More standardized across properties
More aligned in terms of IT policies and OT practices
More collaborative across internal departments
We help teams benchmark their IT/OT alignment and provide tools to measure:
Asset visibility across portfolios
Adoption of access control and monitoring policies
Reduction in shadow systems and unmanaged networks
Integration of building systems with corporate IT tools
3. ESG Alignment Through Data
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance is under the microscope—from regulators, investors, and tenants alike. CIOs and CTOs are now central to the data infrastructure that enables ESG reporting. The value of this infrastructure includes:
Real-time energy and carbon tracking
Water use, indoor air quality, and wellness metrics
Occupancy and space utilization data
Automation of GRESB, LEED, and SEC disclosures
We support this by aggregating and visualizing key environmental data from building systems, helping stakeholders move from manual compliance to automated insight.
4. Cybersecurity & Risk Reduction
Cyber risk is often treated as a binary: breached or not. But the real ROI in OT cybersecurity is about reducing exposure and improving resilience. Here’s how we help quantify that:
Mapping OT systems and identifying vulnerabilities
Tracking vendor access control improvements
Demonstrating policy alignment with IT security frameworks (e.g., NIST, SOC 2)
Monitoring real-time device status and network segmentation
In commercial buildings, we often encounter complicated systems: layers of technology, building infrastructure, and operational workflow. Even though the system may have numerous moving parts, they interact in understandable and manageable ways and are mostly predictable.
However, when unknowns are introduced, predictability decreases, and complications become more complex, leading to budget uncertainty, less reliability, and unneeded risk. For most commercial buildings, this is their reality, as they are designed, built, operated, and occupied by people whose human behaviors are unpredictable—making commercial buildings inherently complex.
Complexity doesn’t have to be unmanageable.
Here’s a three-step process to simplify complexity:
Map Your Tech Landscape
Start by evaluating all connected building systems. While this might sound daunting at first, with the appropriate tools and services, you can accurately and consistently recognize and record the technology in your building, regardless of whether it is brand new or 17 years old. This accurate map can feed into your integrated workplace management system (IWMS) or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). A clear view of all building system assets and interactions sets the foundation for simplification.
The complex web of connections combined with various systems, such as the HVAC, lighting, and physical security in a newly constructed building, is crucial for meeting operational goals. Having a single source of truth is important, as the information can evolve rapidly. Even in existing buildings, gaining insight into the various systems and devices is challenging due to the different types and vintages of technology within your building and across your portfolio.
However, once we have a clear infrastructure map of networks and systems, there is great potential for growth and improvement. Using current-day tools and services to map out these connections and system (nodes) meticulously, we can eliminate uncertainties and ensure smooth operations in our buildings so the systems thrive and inspire confidence and integrity in their results.
Prioritize Unknowns
With this clear map, it’s time to pinpoint where the complexity stems from! Often, it arises from gaps in human behavior, leading to deferred maintenance or outdated, undocumented technologies. To tackle these unknowns, focus on the use cases that can deliver the biggest impact on your operational goals—cutting operating costs, enhancing the tenant experience, or hitting decarbonization targets.
For example, in a bustling commercial building, unpredictable tenant energy usage can be tricky to manage. Without knowing when or where energy is consumed, it’s hard to identify solutions—or even spot the issue in the first place. If reducing energy costs is a top priority, investing in higher-integrity energy metering should be your next step. On the other hand, if you’re thinking about implementing a fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) service but are still tracking work orders on spreadsheets, the unknowns in your work order lifecycle might mean it’s time to prioritize investing in a new IWMS before jumping into FDD.
Educate & Adapt
Your approach should be flexible and forward-thinking, allowing your systems to respond dynamically as technology and your building’s needs evolve. Forget rigid solutions or outdated, closed systems—you need smart, adaptable systems that can grow and change with you!
Take a page from the United States General Services Administration (GSA), which champions being Secure, Open, Normalized, Interoperable, and Converged—better known as SONIC. This approach ensures your building’s technology is future-ready and ready for anything.
SONIC Methodology
Another powerful strategy for new construction is to develop an Owner’s Program Requirements (OPR) document, ensuring all tech going into your building is aligned with your long-term vision. This final step is all about ensuring your internal and external stakeholders are on the same page and energized about what’s possible.
Conclusion
And if you’re looking for a little extra inspiration, check out Simon Sinek’s TED talk, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action. It’s a game-changer in understanding the power of purpose-driven leadership.
Now’s the time to bring it all together and elevate your building’s performance to new heights! At Intelligent Buildings, we specialize in helping commercial real estate (CRE) professionals map out complexity, tackle unknowns, and implement smart, future-ready solutions.
In one of our projects, we slashed predicted energy costs by 20% in a high-rise by pinpointing technology misalignments and streamlining operations.
Remember, you don’t need to solve every unknown to manage complexity. You can turn complexity into your greatest strategic advantage with the right approach.
Asset management depends on reliable data. Without it, even the best strategies fall apart. Yet many commercial buildings rely on a patchwork of disconnected operational technology (OT) systems: building management systems (BMS), computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), energy platforms, vendor tools, spreadsheets, and more. These systems weren’t designed to work together, and that lack of integration creates friction, delays, and blind spots.
Integration, in the context of asset management, is about connecting those systems so that equipment data, maintenance history, performance metrics, and work orders are part of the same conversation. Done right, it improves visibility, reduces manual effort, and helps teams make better decisions about how assets are maintained, repaired, and replaced.
Why Integration Supports Better Asset Management
When asset data lives in separate systems, it often results in duplication, delay, or guesswork. Asset managers need a clear understanding of what equipment exists, how it’s performing, when it needs service, and how much it costs to maintain. When that information is spread across multiple systems, the result is delay, duplication, or guesswork.
Integrated systems help by:
Bringing together asset performance and maintenance data
Supporting condition-based maintenance instead of fixed schedules
Creating more accurate reporting for capital planning
Enabling faster action on equipment issues
Without integration, teams often work with incomplete or outdated information. With it, they can focus on planning, not chasing data.
How Integration Works in an Asset Management Workflow
Inventory Accuracy: Integration helps maintain a consistent equipment list across systems. When an asset is updated or replaced in one system, it reflects everywhere else, preventing drift between operational teams and planning tools.
Maintenance and Fault Tracking: When a piece of equipment goes into fault or begins trending toward failure, that signal can flow directly into the CMMS. Technicians see the fault and history, location, and any previous work in one place.
Performance Visibility: Real-time energy use, runtime hours, and sensor data can be tied to the asset record, helping asset managers identify which equipment drives cost or risk.
Capital Planning: Long-term asset decisions, such as repair vs. replace, retrofit timing, and equipment prioritization, are better when informed by consistent, integrated data over time.
Working with What You Already Have
Most portfolios don’t need to buy new systems to benefit from integration. The core platforms, BMS, CMMS, metering, and controls, are usually in place. What’s often missing is the ability to pass data between them in a structured, reliable way.
Asset management integration is less about adopting new tools and more about connecting existing ones through:
Application programming interface (API) links or middleware platforms
Standardized asset naming and tagging
Shared references for equipment IDs, locations, and statuses
This approach keeps familiar workflows intact while improving how data moves between systems. It allows teams to build a more complete view of asset performance without introducing unnecessary changes.
Key Considerations Before You Start
Data Governance: If two systems have different names for the same equipment, integration won’t work until that’s aligned. The foundation is a clean, structured asset list.
System Ownership: Know who is responsible for maintaining each system and who has access to what data.
Security: OT integration increases the surface area for cybersecurity risk. Segmentation, authentication, and regular review processes need to be in place from the beginning.
Putting It Into Practice
You don’t have to integrate everything at once. Start with a single use case, like linking fault detection data to your work order system or tying asset-level runtime to reporting dashboards. Keep the scope tight, track the results, and build from there.
When integration supports a specific need, getting buy-in, proving value, and scaling across the portfolio is easier. Over time, these connections form the foundation for a more proactive, data-informed approach to asset management, one that reduces manual effort, improves response time, and supports long-term planning with more confidence and less guesswork.
When done right, outsourcing the cybersecurity and management services that support your operational technology (OT) can unlock speed, scale, and clarity. When done wrong, it can create blind spots, fragility, and dependency.
As buildings become smarter and more connected, the systems that power them—building automation systems (BASs), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, lighting controls, access systems, and more—are now mission-critical. These systems sit outside the traditional informational technology (IT) domain but carry real operational, reputational, and even financial risk.
This leaves many organizations with a challenge: build deep internal capability across a new domain or seek specialized help. Increasingly, leaders are turning to outsourcing the services that manage and secure OT environments to handle the complexity, risk, and opportunity. But like any strategic decision, it comes with tradeoffs.
Why the Trend Toward Outsourcing?
In many organizations, IT departments are already stretched. OT often falls outside their expertise and scope. Meanwhile, operational teams lack the technical background to manage cybersecurity, system architecture, or vendor integrations. The result? Gaps in accountability, inconsistent performance, and missed opportunities.
Outsourcing OT cybersecurity and managed services has become an appealing option. Whether for cybersecurity, system integration, or real-time monitoring, outsourcing can offer clarity and coverage where internal capacity is thin. But it’s not just about patching holes—It’s about driving strategic advantage.
The Benefits: Speed, Scale, and Strategic Leverage
When thoughtfully executed, outsourcing your OT cybersecurity and management needs to a specialized partner can unlock significant value—faster and more consistently than internal teams may be able to achieve alone. The benefits extend well beyond simple efficiency gains:
Access to Deep OT Expertise: Building systems are a specialized world—marked by legacy protocols, proprietary vendor approaches, and decades-old infrastructure now facing modern cyber threats. OT-specific outsourcing partners bring hard-earned knowledge of how these systems behave, how they fail, and how to secure them. This domain expertise is often hard to develop internally, particularly for lean IT or operations teams already managing competing priorities.
Accelerated Time-to-Value: With proven playbooks, tools, and platforms, OT outsourcing allows organizations to move quickly from intention to impact. What might take 12–18 months to build internally (if at all) can often be implemented in weeks. This means quicker identification of vulnerabilities, faster rollout of monitoring and reporting, and earlier delivery of insights that improve operational decisions.
Cost Efficiency Without Corner-Cutting: While it’s tempting to view outsourcing through a budget lens alone, the real cost advantage lies in how services are bundled, standardized, and scaled. By spreading tools and labor across multiple clients or assets, specialized partners can deliver better service at a lower per-building cost without sacrificing depth or quality. Just as importantly, outsourcing avoids the hidden costs of fragmented vendor approaches or missed risk detection.
Scalable Strategy Across Portfolios: Once an outsourced OT services model proves successful at one site, it can be quickly replicated across a regional or national portfolio. This creates operational consistency, streamlines compliance reporting, and simplifies oversight for property teams and executives alike. Standardized dashboards, service protocols, and risk profiles help decision-makers compare and prioritize investments at the portfolio level.
Momentum that Lifts Internal Maturity: One of the most strategic—but often underappreciated—benefits of outsourcing is cultural: early success builds belief. When teams begin to see cyber-risk dashboards populate with live data, or can quickly onboard new buildings into a centralized platform, their confidence grows. This momentum elevates internal fluency, enables better decision-making, and prepares the organization to explore more advanced opportunities, such as predictive maintenance, ESG tracking, or energy optimization. Outsourcing doesn’t just fill a gap; it can be a catalyst for organizational growth and maturity.
Pitfalls to Avoid
Outsourcing can be powerful, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. To get it right, it’s critical to understand where outsourcing efforts commonly go off course and why. For those unfamiliar, the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture is a helpful framework often used to visualize the layers of enterprise and industrial systems. It highlights the challenges of bridging traditional IT (Levels 4–5) and building systems or control networks (Levels 0–3).
Many outsourcing failures happen in that middle ground—the so-called demilitarized zone (DMZ)—where IT strategies alone fall short in operational environments.
The Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture
Here are some common pitfalls organizations should actively avoid:
Choosing an IT-Centric Partner: Many well-meaning IT service providers step in to help with building cybersecurity and system visibility, but they often don’t cross the DMZ between IT and OT environments. Their expertise sits squarely in enterprise networks, not the control systems that run HVAC, lighting, elevators, or access control. These systems were not designed with scalable IT architecture in mind, and they often rely on legacy protocols or configurations that require OT-specific understanding. Without this context, IT-led solutions risk missing vulnerabilities, creating false confidence, or even introducing operational risk.
Loss of Transparency and Control: In some outsourced models, visibility into system health, alerts, and risk levels stays with the vendor—not your internal team. Over time, this can create a dependency where you’re unsure what’s being done or where your greatest risks are. Effective outsourcing should empower your internal teams, not isolate them. Ensure that any partner provides access to dashboards, reporting, and audit trails so you remain in the driver’s seat.
Overdependence Without Internal Champions: Outsourcing isn’t a replacement for internal ownership. Without clearly designated leaders on your side—whether in operations, IT, or asset management—outsourced services can become disconnected from business goals. Knowledge gaps widen, internal capabilities stall, and vendors end up setting the strategy. A healthy outsourcing model includes upskilling your team over time and aligning service delivery to your evolving needs.
Outsourcing Without a Verified Foundation: It’s tempting to outsource quickly when under pressure, but if your digital asset inventory is unclear, you may be outsourcing a moving target. You can’t protect or optimize what you don’t know you have. A verified system inventory should precede or accompany any outsourcing effort. It’s the blueprint for effective risk management, performance improvement, and future digital initiatives.
Misaligned Incentives and Scope Drift: Even experienced vendors can fall into the trap of delivering what’s easiest or most profitable rather than what’s most impactful. If your success metrics aren’t clearly defined, and if you’re not reviewing performance regularly, scope drift and misalignment can creep in. Ensure your vendor’s priorities stay tied to your strategic goals, whether that’s tenant satisfaction, risk reduction, ESG alignment, or portfolio insights.
Final Thoughts
Outsourcing your OT cybersecurity and management isn’t about handing over the keys—It’s about choosing the right copilots. The right partner doesn’t replace your team; they empower it. With early success, you create internal momentum and maturity. With visibility and alignment, you avoid dependency. And with scale, you unlock real strategic leverage.
The buildings may be smart, but smart outsourcing makes the whole portfolio smarter.
Our IntelliNet Managed Service is purpose-built to address the challenges outlined above. From real-time system inventory to OT-specific cybersecurity and scalable dashboards, IntelliNet enables organizations to gain immediate visibility, reduce risk, and accelerate operational maturity across their portfolios. Whether you’re exploring outsourcing for the first time or looking to enhance existing efforts, we’d love to connect and share how we’re helping clients turn complexity into clarity—and smart buildings into smarter business.
As commercial real estate (CRE) and critical infrastructure become smarter and more connected, integrating operational technology (OT) systems with informational technology (IT) infrastructure has moved from a technical aspiration to a business necessity. Building systems such as HVAC and lighting, elevators, and access control generate a massive amount of data that can significantly enhance the tenant experience, improve operational efficiencies, and increase an asset’s value.
Successful OT system integration isn’t just a technology challenge; it’s a complex exercise in change management. It requires aligning stakeholders, clearly defining organizational priorities, and maintaining momentum toward achievable goals. Without this alignment, even basic integration projects can falter.
One of the most significant challenges is gaining alignment amongst stakeholders regarding which data points to capture initially and what can be strategically staged for later phases. Many may advocate connecting to every sensor and system in the name of “data-driven decision-making,” but more data doesn’t always mean more value. In fact, it can create noise, obscure meaningful insights, make analysis harder, and complicate workflows. The real value lies in identifying and prioritizing the highest-impact data points capable of enabling faster decision-making, risk reduction, or tenant experience enhancements.
Managing More Efficiently
Balancing ambition with demonstrable momentum is also critical. Ambitious, expansive integration projects can often stall or fail to show value if perceived as overwhelming, have confusing workflows, or are overly complex. A pragmatic approach involves selecting system integrations capable of achieving initial quick wins—low-complexity, high-visibility integrations that deliver immediate value. Starting with outcome-focused metrics simplifies integration efforts, ensuring projects remain more manageable, measurable, and impactful.
For example, aggregating real-time alerts or enabling remote monitoring of key equipment are generally straightforward integrations and clear actions that show measurable value. If that type of monitoring is already in place, try prioritizing data such as temperature variances to predict HVAC issues, abnormal elevator usage patterns to know tenant traffic patterns, or real-time energy consumption to provide actional insights on how to reduce that energy consumption. Regardless of what data is chosen, early successes build credibility, secure stakeholder buy-in, and create the business case necessary for larger, more complex integration efforts.
Strategy is Key
Once early wins validate the approach, organizations gain multi-level support and confidence to pursue more complex integrations—such as normalizing OT data across multiple buildings, incorporating advanced analytics, or automating critical workflows. But without those early wins, the initiative can risk stalling before it begins.
Effective OT integration in CRE involves strategic prioritization, incremental success, and stakeholder alignment.
Viewing integration through the lens of change management—rather than purely technological implementation—positions organizations to work towards clear goals, deliver sustained value, and achieve long-term objectives.
Did you know that smart building technologies can reduce energy costs by up to 30%? The commercial real estate (CRE) industry is on the brink of a smart revolution, where Internet of Things (IoT) isn’t just a luxury—it’s the new norm. Traditionally, commercial buildings operated with relatively static infrastructure, offering limited automation and connectivity. However, with the rise of smart devices, data analytics, and cloud-based management systems, CRE is becoming more efficient, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of tenants and property managers alike. Here’s a closer look at how IoT and interconnected systems are reshaping commercial real estate.
1. Maximizing Efficiency Through Smart Building Systems
IoT sensors and interconnected systems allow property managers to monitor and control energy usage, lighting, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems in real time. These technologies analyze occupancy patterns, weather conditions, and time-of-day usage to optimize energy consumption, reducing operational costs and lowering carbon footprints.
For example, IoT-enabled thermostats can adjust temperatures in different areas of a building based on occupancy, while smart lighting systems dim or switch off lights in unoccupied spaces. These advancements can reduce energy costs significantly, benefiting both building owners and the environment. As sustainability becomes a higher priority for governments and businesses, smart systems are no longer optional—they’re essential.
2. Redefining the Tenant Experience
A significant shift in CRE is the focus on providing a better tenant experience. IoT enables tenant-centric applications such as personalized climate control, enhanced security, and seamless building access. Smart access control systems let tenants enter facilities using smartphones or keycards, eliminating the need for physical keys. Occupancy sensors and indoor navigation systems help tenants locate available shared spaces, such as conference rooms, more efficiently.
Additionally, IoT systems enable predictive maintenance, identifying potential issues before they escalate. For instance, sensors can alert property managers if an HVAC unit needs repair, allowing maintenance to be scheduled proactively. The result? A seamless tenant experience that boosts retention and satisfaction.
3. Unlocking the Power of Data
In commercial real estate, data is now king. IoT technology allows CRE owners and managers to collect vast amounts of data on building performance, occupancy patterns, tenant preferences, and maintenance needs. These insights empower strategic decision-making and enhance property value.
For example, analyzing which spaces are used most frequently enables property managers to optimize layouts, add amenities, or adjust leasing terms to meet tenant needs. Historical and real-time data also improve financial forecasting, helping managers control operating expenses and set optimal rental rates. This competitive edge ensures smarter building operations and investment decisions.
4. Reinventing Security for a Connected World
Security has always been a top priority in commercial real estate, and IoT is modernizing it. IoT-enabled security cameras, motion detectors, and access control systems provide real-time monitoring and alerts, enhancing tenant safety. These systems can detect unusual activity, such as unauthorized access, and notify security personnel instantly. Many also integrate with mobile devices, giving property managers remote access and control over security operations.
Beyond physical security, IoT addresses cybersecurity in increasingly interconnected environments. IoT security solutions monitor network activity for unusual patterns, flagging potential threats to prevent breaches. With robust cybersecurity measures in place, IoT-enabled buildings strike a balance between innovation and safety.
5. What’s Next for Smart Buildings?
As IoT technology advances, the potential for interconnected systems in CRE will only grow. Next-generation smart buildings could include artificial intelligence (AI)-driven automation, virtual reality (VR) integrations for remote property tours, and blockchain for secure transactions. The expansion of 5G networks will enable IoT devices to process data faster and more efficiently, further enhancing building capabilities.
Incorporating IoT and interconnected systems in CRE is no longer optional—it’s essential to stay competitive. From reducing costs and enhancing tenant satisfaction to providing valuable data insights and bolstering security, the advantages are compelling. For CRE owners, investors, and managers, embracing this technology is an investment in the future—a future where buildings are dynamic, responsive environments that add value to the people and companies they serve.
Overcoming Challenges for a Smarter Future
While the benefits of IoT are clear, implementing these systems comes with challenges. Although upfront costs can be significant, they can be carefully planned and managed. With expert guidance focused on outcomes, priorities, and specific use cases, foundational investments can be optimized for maximum impact. Pairing these investments with appropriate cybersecurity measures ensures both immediate value and long-term success. By taking a strategic approach, CRE stakeholders can navigate these challenges and unlock the full potential of smart building technologies.
Call to Action: Shape the Future of CRE
The time to invest in IoT and interconnected systems is now. CRE professionals who embrace these advancements will not only future-proof their portfolios but also create dynamic spaces where innovation thrives.
Ready to start your IoT journey? Explore the latest smart building technologies today.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the buzzword of the decade, but for commercial real estate (CRE) asset and portfolio managers, the hype often obscures the real opportunity. In operational technology (OT) asset management, AI isn’t about replacing people or chasing flashy software. It’s about making smarter, faster decisions using the data already generated by your building systems.
This post builds on Part 1’s focus on efficiency by breaking down how AI can enhance asset visibility, reduce downtime, and improve decision-making—without adding complexity or unproven technologies to your environment.
Why AI Matters for OT Asset Management
Most buildings today have intelligent systems that produce vast amounts of data: runtime logs, energy consumption patterns, sensor readings, maintenance histories, and more. However, the challenge lies in turning that data into actionable insights. That’s where AI comes in. When used responsibly, AI can:
Identify anomalies in equipment behavior before they become failures
Optimize maintenance schedules and reduce emergency repair costs
Classify and digitize asset inventories during property onboarding
Streamline work order triage and resource allocation
Let’s explore how these use cases apply in the built environment.
1. Anomaly Detection: Catching Issues Early – AI-enabled fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) systems can monitor OT assets like HVAC units, pumps, or lighting systems in real time. When patterns deviate from expected behavior—such as a motor drawing too much current or an air handler cycling irregularly—AI can trigger alerts before a system fails.
For asset managers, this means fewer tenant complaints, reduced emergency repair costs, and longer equipment life. Also, AI empowers teams to act early and avoid disruption rather than relying solely on manual inspections or reactive service calls.
2. Predictive Maintenance: Planning Ahead, Not Catching Up – AI can analyze equipment usage data, weather conditions, and historical failure trends to forecast when a component is likely to fail. These insights support smarter capital planning, more efficient technician scheduling, and reduced overtime costs.
Asset managers don’t need to invest in proprietary platforms or complex integrations to get started. Many service providers now embed AI-driven insights into their maintenance models, allowing teams to make data-informed decisions using existing workflows.
3. Smart Onboarding: Faster Asset Inventory & Classification – AI is increasingly used to accelerate the onboarding of new buildings. Natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning can extract and classify equipment data from PDFs, drawings, and legacy documents to help create a standardized digital asset inventory.
Instead of relying on engineers to manually tag and input data, a process that can take weeks, AI-assisted onboarding reduces labor requirements and speeds time to value. For portfolio managers, adding new acquisitions means faster visibility and integration into centralized systems.
4. Work Order Optimization: Doing More with Less – AI can also support smarter dispatching and triage. AI can help prioritize incoming tickets, reduce duplicate requests, and improve technician routing by analyzing historical work orders, asset criticality, and task duration.
For teams facing labor shortages or rising service costs, this kind of automation can preserve service levels without increasing headcount.
Avoiding the AI Trap
What Not to Do
Not all AI is created equal. Many PropTech solutions promise sweeping AI benefits but have long implementation cycles, lack of integration with OT systems, or limited return on investment (ROI). Asset managers should focus on vendors who:
Offer AI features as part of proven service models
Integrate with existing building systems and data sources
Demonstrate measurable impact on uptime, cost reduction, or labor efficiency
Avoid solutions that require replacing your current tech stack or adding unnecessary software layers.
Practical Steps for Asset Managers
AI adoption doesn’t require a major overhaul. Start small and scale smart:
Pilot AI-driven fault detection on one critical system (e.g., HVAC)
Use AI to assist in asset inventory digitization during property onboarding
Partner with managed services providers who embed AI into routine maintenance and monitoring
By focusing on proven, high-impact use cases, asset managers can harness AI’s value without falling into the trap of chasing trends.
Conclusion: AI That Works for You
AI in OT asset management isn’t about chasing the future, but solving today’s challenges more effectively. From anomaly detection to predictive maintenance, AI can help asset and portfolio managers reduce downtime, control costs, and optimize building performance at scale.
The key is to start with the right use cases, stay grounded in business value, and work with partners who understand the unique intersection of real estate, operations, and technology.
Not sure where to start?
We’ve got a list of 12 Top Trending Generative AI Use Cases available to download here.
Commercial real estate (CRE) is no stranger to disruption, but something different is happening now. The acceleration of consumer-driven artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is creating new demands on energy, data infrastructure, and cybersecurity, pushing CRE to a tipping point. Whether it’s Apple embedding AI into consumer devices or Microsoft integrating AI across workplace platforms, these shifts aren’t just about how businesses use technology—They’re about how buildings and portfolios will need to evolve.
What’s emerging is a fundamental rethinking of CRE strategy. The question isn’t whether AI will impact CRE, but how fast and how prepared the industry is to adapt. Owners, asset managers, and IT teams who act now will position their portfolios for long-term resilience. Those who wait risk being caught in an outdated model as tenant needs and infrastructure expectations shift beneath them.
AI’s Impact on CRE: The Convergence of Data and Buildings
The physical demands of AI, data center growth, and high-performance computing are accelerating at a scale few industries have fully grasped. We are seeing three major trends emerge, each pointing to an undeniable shift in how we use, manage, and value real estate.
First, the rising influence of data centers is redefining CRE investment. AI applications require enormous computing power, and this has driven record investment into new and expanded data centers. Large-scale developments, like the $2 billion-backed Novva Data Center in Utah, illustrate how AI-driven workloads are shaping the future of CRE. While some have floated the idea of repurposing office space for AI infrastructure, the reality is more complex. The cost, zoning hurdles, and power requirements make full-scale conversions unlikely in most cases. Instead, the opportunity lies in integrating AI-ready infrastructure and services within existing commercial spaces in a way that adds value rather than forcing a complete transformation.
Second, AI-driven computing is projected to massively increase electricity demand, creating an urgent need for more sophisticated energy management systems. Smart grids, battery storage, and onsite renewables will be essential for CRE owners looking to mitigate costs and reduce exposure to volatile energy pricing. The question is no longer whether AI will increase demand—It’s about how CRE portfolios will adapt to manage it efficiently.
Finally, AI isn’t just driving demand for data centers; it’s also changing how CRE is measured and optimized. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is demonstrating how AI and data-driven insights are reshaping real estate investment. With the explosion of cloud computing and AI-driven workloads, Brookfield has made strategic bets on data center infrastructure, recognizing the long-term shift in how real estate assets generate value. Their acquisition of Compass Datacenters, in partnership with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, reflects a broader trend: real estate decisions are no longer just about physical square footage—they’re about data capacity, energy efficiency, and connectivity. Instead of relying on traditional asset classes, Brookfield is leveraging AI-powered analytics to forecast where digital infrastructure demand will grow, ensuring its portfolio remains resilient in the face of evolving market dynamics. This isn’t just about building more data centers—It’s about making smarter, more future-ready investment choices based on AI-driven insights into tenant demand, location viability, and long-term energy efficiency.
Goodman Group, an Australian-based global real estate company, is taking a similarly data-centric approach to real estate strategy, recognizing that the value of an asset is increasingly tied to its ability to support digital operations. Instead of viewing its industrial properties purely through the lens of logistics, Goodman has integrated AI-powered forecasting to identify which of its locations have the highest potential for data center conversion. The company has committed over $6 billion to new data center developments, including a $1.4 billion investment in Sydney. More than just an expansion play, this is an optimization strategy—Goodman is using AI-driven data models to determine which sites should shift from traditional industrial uses to high-value digital infrastructure. The result is a portfolio that is more adaptive, more resilient, and better positioned to serve the long-term needs of AI-driven enterprises. This shift underscores a growing reality for all CRE leaders: real estate decisions will increasingly be shaped by AI-powered analysis, optimizing for new types of demand rather than relying on outdated assumptions about space utilization.
What Comes Next for CRE
AI’s impact on real estate won’t be gradual—It will accelerate. The next five years will define which portfolios thrive and which struggle to adapt. Owners and asset managers who are serious about preparing for the future should focus on three key areas.
Strengthening data and cybersecurity infrastructure: This must become a priority. Building operations are increasingly digital, and as AI-driven automation and tenant services expand, so do cybersecurity risks. A reactive approach won’t cut it. Owners need to assess vulnerabilities now, implement stronger protections, and work with experts who understand the intersection of cybersecurity and real estate.
Rethinking asset strategies: Real estate leaders should be rethinking asset strategies to align with AI-driven growth. Instead of assuming office markets are in decline, consider how AI can create new demand for high-performance workplaces. Could hybrid spaces that integrate AI-enhanced collaboration hubs or automation-driven facilities become a new model for certain asset classes? Real-time utilization data will become a valuable tool for making smarter leasing decisions and optimizing asset positioning.
Aligning AI readiness with energy and operational resilience: CRE firms need to align AI readiness with energy and operational resilience. Rising energy demands are unavoidable, but owners who proactively integrate AI-driven HVAC optimization, microgrids, and battery storage will reduce long-term costs and improve sustainability. The industry must start thinking beyond traditional utility models and instead design properties that can flexibly adapt to changing energy needs.
Final Thought: The Time to Act is Now
We are entering a new era where the intersection of AI, data centers, and real estate is reshaping the industry. This isn’t just speculation—It’s already happening. The companies that embrace AI-driven resilience, efficiency, and portfolio optimization today will be the ones that remain competitive in the years ahead.
AI’s rise is creating new opportunities, but those opportunities will only be realized by those who are ready for them. Real estate firms that invest now in data readiness, cybersecurity, and AI-enhanced operations will gain a competitive edge. Those that don’t will find themselves struggling to keep up as tenants, investors, and regulators raise their expectations.
If your organization is looking for guidance on navigating this transition, now is the time to develop a strategy. The market is shifting—Will your real estate strategy shift with it?
Your job should be to find how technology can replace you and then seek to advance the initiative to actually do it…
One of the things we should all be considering is how technology will impact our commercial real estate (CRE) portfolios. Technology is a smart way to harness the power of data, analytics, AI, innovation, and, most importantly, automation—so many things can be made better using the innovation of technology. In CRE, these opportunities are like low-hanging fruit—some perfectly suited for your building needs and others completely inappropriate, too costly, not tested, perhaps too “out there”—with lots in between.
We would all proceed if time, knowledge, and resources were infinite, but this allocation is uneven and constrained. Disruption in the CRE space is inevitable and happening right now. Perhaps we should disrupt things ourselves rather than wait to be disrupted by others? Operating on our own timelines and priorities seems better than being forced to act. Perhaps adding some bits of disruption regularly into our lives and work will prepare us to innovate more easily.
Looking at the tasks involved in doing our job is a great place to start. How we organize ourselves to act on the right information, apply appropriate resources to solve problems and follow through to see results is interesting. Artificial intelligence and its variations, such as generative AI, can do amazing things today. Could this replace us? Certainly. Along our journey of exploration, someone or something that can do our job better than us might replace us unless we act intentionally to do better ourselves with the same tools. Disrupt your status quo.
My advice is to start small. Find the tasks in our jobs that are important to your success and are tied to your unique skills, and find technologies that can do it faster, better, and with fewer resources. Ask someone young in your business how that would do your job better using technology. Do a search on the Internet for your unique skills—drawing, analytics, data crunching, assessing risk. Is there an AI tool doing it better? Maybe there is a software program that does it faster and more comprehensively? Perhaps there is an expert out there focusing on a tech-driven niche solution? Investigate, explore, and challenge yourself.
What would have to be true for this approach to work for you? Innovation doesn’t require permission, but requires you to change something. Book time into your schedule to think, be vulnerable to disruption, and find novel ways to replace yourself. Along the way, you will likely be stronger, more valued, and a better contributor to success in your business.
Intelligent Buildings offers CRE technology services that can help you decrease inefficiencies and cyber risk.
