2026 Trends and Predictions: What’s next for smart, sustainable spaces?

In 2025, work patterns stabilised, the roll-out of Internet of Things (IoT) devices accelerated and AI in buildings moved beyond pilot projects into mainstream investment. At the same time, UK facilities teams faced growing pressure to improve building performance, reduce operational costs and create better experiences for occupants, which has helped accelerate adoption of smart building technologies. These dynamics made 2025 both exciting and challenging, so what should organisations expect in 2026 when it comes to technology’s role in facilities management, space planning and real estate portfolio optimisation?

Recently, Johnson Controls OpenBlue leaders Jennifer Heath, Senior Manager Product Marketing and Julius Marchwicki, VP and GM, Digital SaaS, led a webinar to share their predictions for what the next year holds for facilities and real estate teams.

Their insights point towards a future where buildings operate not just as cost centres but as strategic assets and drivers of growth, supported by open, connected platforms like OpenBlue that help unlock performance across people, space and building systems.

Here’s a look at five of their predictions for what lies ahead in 2026:
 

Prediction 1: Top priorities will shift from attendance to optimisation

With hybrid work becoming more established, organisations are placing less emphasis on enforcing attendance policies and more emphasis on improving productivity and efficiency through better use of space and smarter building operations.

Johnson Controls highlights that office space utilisation is still well below pre-pandemic levels and that many organisations plan to maintain hybrid working, which makes utilisation insights essential for workplace planning.

Leaders increasingly see workplaces not as static cost centres but as dynamic environments that should adapt to business needs and occupant behaviours, supported by connected systems and data.

“This black-and-white choice of fully hybrid or fully in-office, I don’t think we’re going to have that conversation much anymore,” said Heath. “Instead, we’re going to have conversations about leveraging technology to make the most of our spaces and evolving them to better suit hybrid workers, to optimize them and maximise their potential.

In 2026, organisations are likely to invest more effort in analysing how space supports outcomes such as productivity, collaboration, customer-facing work, patient care and student experience, using real usage data rather than assumptions.

<[>Within the Johnson Controls UK portfolio, OpenBlue Enterprise Manager is positioned as a “single pane of glass” for real-time visibility across assets, people and processes, which can support portfolio decisions and day-to-day workplace optimisation. For space and occupant outcomes specifically, Space, Wellbeing and Productivity describes how occupancy and equipment usage data can inform space planning, comfort improvements and operational changes such as demand-based cleaning.

 

 

Prediction 2: AI will accelerate decision-making and operational optimization

Over the past couple of years, AI has become a familiar tool in commercial real estate and facility operations, but most applications have focused on simplifying access to information. Meanwhile, the volume of data coming off connected equipment and IoT sensors has climbed exponentially, putting pressure on teams whose tools and staffing levels weren’t designed to ingest or interpret data at scale. Leaders are recognizing that the real challenge isn't data collection; it’s acting on that data meaningfully.

In 2026, the focus of AI applications will shift from providing insights to supporting and automating operational decisions. Agentic AI will help synthesize millions of data points across occupancy trends, sensor signals and external conditions to optimize controls dynamically. Rather than running buildings as if every day is the same, AI-enabled platforms will begin responding in real time to forecast demand, changing weather or unexpected events. Human operators will remain in the loop, but AI-assisted decision-making will improve efficiency, reduce waste and accelerate time to value – especially across large portfolios with distributed assets.

“AI is very good at collecting and aggregating millions and millions of data points produced at millisecond intervals, and it’s being wrapped into solutions for the market that will enable us to automate the way our facilities operate,” said Heath. “It's going to say, listen, the snowstorm is coming, no one's going to be showing up, let’s turn down the lights and heat to save some energy, emissions and expense.”

As AI takes on a larger share of operational analysis and decision support, organizations will seek platforms like OpenBlue that are capable not only of scaling to thousands of connected devices but aligning intelligent building responses with business, sustainability and resilience objectives.
 

Prediction 3: Sustainability will make the leap from compliance issue to growth catalyst

Sustainability efforts have historically centered on regulatory compliance or social responsibility. But rising energy prices, carbon reporting expectations and stakeholder scrutiny are reframing sustainability as an operational imperative.

In 2026, organizations will shift from discrete sustainability initiatives to integrated decarbonization strategies linked to business value. We’ll see energy optimization, electrification planning and emissions tracking become essential capabilities, supported by unified platforms like OpenBlue.

“Most organizations have had this regulatory-driven, top-down approach to sustainability,” said Marchwicki. “But what businesses have started to realize is that every dollar saved by reducing energy waste is a dollar that can be invested in growth.”

Organizations can also preserve capital for growth by reducing exposure to carbon emissions taxes. Facility performance and optimization platforms like OpenBlue Net Zero and OpenBlue Central Utility Plant Optimization support this effort by providing the data and insights needed to drive efficiencies in energy management, which can reduce carbon emissions.

IoT sensors and utilization analysis will also support carbon reduction efforts by informing space management decisions. “When we talk about improving our spaces, that involves decisions around renovations versus retrofits versus new construction,” said Heath. “There are varying levels of emissions associated with each of those options, so it’s important to have the utilization data to support whatever decision you make.”

More data to support better decision making does come with a potential downside, however. As sustainability and automation scale, organizational exposure to cybersecurity threats expands. That will be another area of intense focus for organizations in the coming year. 

 

Prediction 4: Facilities and IT teams will team up to tackle cybersecurity

Rapid expansion of connected devices over the past year has the potential to increase vulnerability to cyberattacks. Historically, operational technology (OT) systems like HVAC or access control were isolated from IT networks, but IoT adoption has erased that boundary, meaning that facilities leaders are now faced with accountability for cyber risk.

“You're going to see increasing collaboration between facilities and IT,” said Heath. “We're at this crossroads now where we have to bring these two knowledge sets together.”

Over the coming year, expect organizations to shift from bolt-on cybersecurity measures to proactive, integrated security strategies rooted in zero-trust, standardized protocols and continuous monitoring. Platforms like OpenBlue that integrate OT + IT visibility will be prioritized, and cybersecurity requirements will impact procurement, compliance and lifecycle planning.

“When you think about mission critical spaces like hospitals and airports, it becomes incredibly important to secure that technology,” said Marchwicki. “Facility managers have to make sure they’re not just relying, for example, on our IT teams to have a position about how to protect equipment. They will start leveraging AI tools to help with threat prediction. We're going to see a lot more of that as these threat actors get more and more aggressive."

Prediction 5: Open standards and interoperability will become foundational requirements

In 2025, the number of connected systems and smart building devices continued to surge across large portfolios. But this rapid expansion also highlighted a persistent stumbling block: most organizations operate complex mixes of legacy systems, proprietary controls and siloed data across dozens or even hundreds of buildings. Logging into multiple platforms, aggregating data manually or reconciling incompatible systems slowed progress, limited ROI and increased cyber risk. Conversations about interoperability gained momentum, but practical implementation lagged behind.

In 2026, interoperability will shift from aspiration to expectation. As more building systems become AI-enabled and data volumes grow, organizations will demand platforms built on open standards that unify data across regions, facilities, and equipment types. AI will play a critical role by rationalizing signals from disparate sources into actionable insights presented through a single interface. The value of connected buildings will depend less on individual devices and more on how seamlessly ecosystems communicate.

“Companies with large, distributed portfolios face a huge challenge in terms of being able to rationalize all of the data coming from these buildings in a way that makes sense,” said Marchwicki. “Everyone wants a single solution to solve their problems, and that requires interoperability and open standards to make all of those disparate systems work together. I see that coming together in 2026.”

As interoperability matures, it will amplify the benefits predicted earlier – fueling trust in AI-driven insights and enabling faster, more automated decision-making. Together, these forces will push smart buildings beyond incremental improvement toward portfolio-wide optimization grounded in shared data, unified controls and scalable intelligence.

Convergence will define 2026 and beyond

Taken together, these predictions point toward one overarching trend: convergence. AI maturity, sustainability as a growth driver, cybersecurity alignment and the pursuit of interoperability are no longer separate initiatives, but rather a single strategic transformation in how organizations operate, maintain and optimize their facilities.

As 2026 unfolds, the organizations that embrace convergence – and the platforms that make it possible – will unlock the next wave of value from their facilities: growth, resilience, and long-term competitive advantage.

“Throughout 2025, we’ve talked about utilizing data and AI to help drive outcomes. I think 2026 is the year where we’ll start to see the transformational organizational adoption of taking data from buildings and really using it to create a growth story,” said Marchwicki. “That’s my big aspiration for 2026."