CAFM & IT


THE FUTURE IS CAFM


Paul Djuric, CEO of Urgent Technology, explains how new tech innovation could soon transform the FM profession.


The introduction of computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) is one of the key developments to happen in FM since the sector’s birth some three decades ago. From scheduling and reporting maintenance tasks to helping customers stay compliant and improve energy efficiency, CAFM software has made the management of facilities a whole lot easier. And yet new technologies promise so much more – better accuracy, greater speed, and whole new level of strategic insight. But how exactly will CAFM systems and facilities services develop in the future, and what will the consequences be for its practitioners?


Technology has changed the world in myriad ways over the past two centuries – each new stage or development reshaping the job market and the nature of work itself. But this hasn’t made the future any easier to predict. The


30 | TOMORROW’S FM


worst of our fears envisage a future in which robots and super AI ‘take over’, leaving humans largely redundant. Such anxiety has at least some basis in reality. Lots of once well-established disciplines and professions are now a mere footnote. A closer look at history, as well as plenty of new research, however, suggests that we might dare to be a little more positive.


A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that a staggering 800m jobs could be automated by 2030. But hidden behind the bombast of such claims is a great deal more nuance. Computer scientists now largely disagree with the claim that future AI and automation will lead to disastrous mass unemployment, though they do agree that fundamental changes to work are unavoidable. Research by Deloitte examining the impact of technology


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