Your best thinking turns to an anchor you are pulling after you
During my site visits, I have worked with many different building managers. One thing that is common for most of them is that they are all experts in their field and they know what they are doing. The second common characteristic that is very common to them is that they are always extremely busy and are having to constantly resolve issues. I have tried setting up meetings with some of them for up to six months, due to their busy schedules.
Once a building manager said to me: “I have done it for 20 years, I know exactly how it should be done. It took me years to fine-tune the whole building management system, and I am almost where I want to be.” I have never doubted their abilities and expertise, I truly believe that they are absolute professionals with the tools they are operating with. However, the thing to remember is that technology keeps on evolving at pace. One might spend a lot of time adjusting the system, for only something like COVID-19 to come along, requiring all the settings to be reset again.
Every development needs a specific subject matter expert and the same is true for implementing new technology. It is impossible to administer new gadgets, devices, software to the heating, ventilation and cooling systems without having the inputs from building managers as the technical experts.
Documentation needed
When I start a project I typically begin with a fact-finding exercise: I ask the manager to share and document their knowledge because every building is like a custom made suit and it has to fit. This information is then used for the AI to run the whole system in an automated way. Besides, documentation is important as it is a huge risk to the business to have this information only in one person’s head. To minimize the risk of losing these important bits of knowledge it is crucial to create manuals, guidelines and store them in one place.
Using AI to focus on important tasks
The building manager may ask: “Will I lose my job and will AI take over what I do?” To be frank, I really doubt it. AI needs humans to guide it — the manager is always going to stay in charge and be needed. The AI can do the lower-skilled, transactional tasks and the manager can do things where they are needed the most. One has to see the big picture and feed the right information to the AI to achieve the desired indoor parameters. It is important to just set the rules and boundaries to the AI to make sure it does the right thing. To improve performance it is crucial to have the best available tools in the toolbox. It will make life way easier.
Get Smart — Smarten up your building
AI will turn knowledge from an anchor to an asset and creates tools that help building managers work more smartly.
Martin Vahi, Business Developer and Energy Expert at Enerbrain
