For Brett Ellis, the regional facilities and asset manager at construction and mining multinational Komatsu, AI is the difference between days and weeks.

Komatsu has been using drones to map construction sites for a number of years. The information is used to determine slope angles, digging depth and cut and fill ratios. That data assists the operator to carry out work more efficiently.

Now artificial intelligence can identify defects from the drone data and rank them in order of repair priority – high, medium and low. It can provide repair cost estimates, how soon it can be done as well as the entire costing for the whole building, Ellis said at a recent JLL webinar on developments for facilities managers in the APAC region.

“I can get something done in three days, whereas before it used to take three weeks,” said Ellis. “If I do that every year, I have a baseline and I can review that. And I can get that data to talk to other systems.”

JLL research shows that technology is the common thread in how facilities managers will face a future of more work with less staff, changing asset usage, greater cost scrutiny and a need to focus on sustainability. The rapidly evolving category of generative AI is increasingly becoming an integral part of how to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit. McKinsey research estimates that generative AI could add up to $4.4 trillion of value annually.