“Nearly one in three adults (30%) would be open to trialling the use of robots for everyday tasks.”


There are positive signs of the industry’s embrace of innovation. The most recent market analysis by Frost & Sullivan noted that the UK FM market is transforming due to “technology innovations… and emerging value propositions” but it warned FM suppliers would need to innovate to keep growing.


Nonetheless, FM has been slow in its digital transformation. Recent research by maintenance software group SFG20 found that just 20% of companies have embraced a digital-led maintenance strategy. More generally, a 2023 study by Watco, 72% of facilities managers admitted their business was slow to embrace digital innovation. Yet almost half agreed their business could become unviable if they didn’t improve their digital technologies and skills.


In 2024, the FM industry has several well-defined challenges. More innovation is one facet of rising customer expectations around the quality and creativity of service delivery but set against a backdrop of high inflation, disrupted supply chains, dwindling budgets, and ongoing staffing shortages.


First and foremost, collaborative robots such as autonomous vacuum sweepers and tray delivery machines can help plug those recruitment gaps by supporting overstretched facilities teams. They also do the monotonous, time-intensive tasks, playing their part to improve employees’ wellbeing and job experience while leaving them to get on with more specific activities which have a greater impact on the employee or customer experience – think about the growing expectation of facilities teams to be personable and cross-skilled.


But even this is an analogue way of looking at the potential for robotics in FM. In 2023, we saw the mammoth potential of AI to transform our world with the popularisation of super smart generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. Today, good robots provide measurable proof of their work and data-driven insights to improve performance continuously, including easy access reports, track ROI, and see what, when, and how they operate in real-time. AI continues to drive advancements in robotics, too, so we’ll only see the robots we use get smarter and more efficient.


www.softbankrobotics.com www.tomorrowsfm.com TOMORROW’S FM | 31


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