AI Is Already Sitting in Your Facilities. Here's How to Put It to Work.
The way to think about AI in facilities management isn't as software you're going to install and roll out. It's a new virtual coworker who's already been hired and is sitting in the building, ready to work.
That framing sits at the heart of APPA's new white paper, Smart Facilities, AI-Ready Workforce: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Educational Facilities Management, authored by Sid Thatham (University of Cincinnati) and Pete Zuraw (Gordian). Grounded in APPA's 2026 Targeted Titles and Topics (T3) AI in Facilities Summit and the first two cohorts of the AI for Facilities: 101 workshop series, the paper distills what more than sixty facilities professionals learned when they put AI to work on real campus problems.
The evidence is practical. Post-workshop survey data from participants averaged between 8.85 and 9.62 on a ten-point scale across nine measures of confidence, capability, and readiness. Even more telling: interest in facilitating future cohorts doubled between the first and second delivery.
The paper's arguments will feel familiar to anyone who has led change through a facilities operation. Start where you are. Start small. Trust, but verify. Master the craft, not the tool. Framed around AI and grounded in institutional context that most public conversations miss, the specifics land differently.
Read the paper
The full paper is available now. It covers a confidence-versus-value framework for pilot decisions, a stakes-based verification model, and practical guidance on change management and leadership. Written for facilities leaders, short enough to read in one sitting.
Join Cohort 3 of AI for Facilities: 101
The next cohort of the workshop program that generated this evidence runs Monday, August 24 through Wednesday, August 26 followed by a capstone session on September 2, 2026. Three two-hour live virtual sessions plus a real-work capstone project. No prior AI experience required. Sid Thatham and Joe Eggleston will co-lead.
Getting a head start
For those who want to start exploring before the workshop, the paper's guidance on choosing a first pilot is a good place to begin. Take a task you already understand well. Pick a metric that matters to you. Change one variable at a time. Measure what happens.
Then come to Cohort 3 and turn what you have learned into working skill.