AI
The hidden value leak
Will Overton, Founder, Wisdom Group FM and Director, Vectis Refrigeration, explains why service data ownership matters in the digital age.
Will Overton
'The principle is simple: keep the expertise where it
belongs, with the people who generate it.'
photograph and note we upload to client portals holds technical and commercial value. Yet most of us never ask, who actually owns that data once it leaves our hands? In an industry that’s rapidly digitising, this question matters
A
more than ever. The data that fl ows through service reports and asset portals isn’t just paperwork. It’s fi eld intelligence, the patterns, conditions and decisions that defi ne an engineer’s skill. Once that knowledge is uploaded into someone else’s system, it often becomes part of their dataset, not yours.
s engineers and contractors, we generate vast amounts of operational data every day. Every temperature reading, refrigerant pressure,
Digital platforms have transformed how we work: instant job sheets, live asset histories, and compliance dashboards. But convenience hides an uncomfortable truth. Every time you record detailed diagnostics or performance readings, you may be feeding insights into third-party databases that can later be analysed, commercialised or even used to train AI systems, without your consent or credit. What began as a tool for effi ciency could quietly become a pipeline of free intellectual property. Contractors may fi nd they are training the predictive systems that will later undercut their value.
Drawing the line
It’s time for our industry to recognise that not all information is equal. There’s data that must be shared for safety and compliance. There’s data that should be shared for transparency and good partnership. And there’s the deeper diagnostic reasoning, the ‘how’ behind the fi x – and that deserves protection as intellectual property.
At Wisdom Group FM, we’re exploring frameworks to make that distinction clearer: outcome transparency for clients and knowledge
'The future belongs to the engineers who understand the worth of their own information.'
sovereignty for engineers. The principle is simple: keep the expertise where it belongs, with the people who generate it. This isn’t just refrigeration or HVAC. Electricians, catering engineers, plumbers, lift technicians. Anyone feeding readings and notes into external portals faces the same risk. As industries move further into smart maintenance and AI- driven diagnostics, understanding who owns what data will decide who controls the next generation of service models.
Data is the new refrigerant; vital, volatile, and too
valuable to leak. If we can handle it responsibly, the service sector can stay at the heart of innovation rather than becoming a raw-data supplier to larger systems. The future belongs to the engineers who understand the worth of their own information.
24 December 2025 •
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Dewi Sari
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