Johnson Controls has expanded AI capabilities in its OpenBlue Enterprise Manager suite, including customer-facing generative AI applications, more autonomous building controls, and an improved user experience.

These updates pave the way for additional AI enhancements in 2025, focused on globally accepted performance standards, optimised equipment performance for cost savings and enhanced regulatory compliance.

The expanded AI features take data insights to the next level. With OpenBlue Enterprise Manager guiding facility improvements, coupled with equipment upgrades and proactive services, users are benefitting from up to 30% reduction in energy spend, up to 20% reduction in maintenance spend, and 10% more optimised space use.

“The expansion of customer-facing AI features into Johnson Controls OpenBlue marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of building management technology,” said Johnson Controls chief technology officer Vijay Sankaran. “These new AI-driven features not only enhance operational efficiency and sustainability, but also empower building owners and operators with unprecedented levels of insight and control. We are committed to pioneering innovations that drive automation and create smarter, more responsive environments for our customers.”

A recently commissioned Forrester Consulting study (www.johnsoncontrols.com/smart-buildings/forrester-2023-2024) found that 90% of respondents say their building systems are not fully integrated, costing time, people and money. The expanded features in OpenBlue provide clearer insights and better performance, including:

• Integrated generative AI tools that proactively recommend impactful energy savings projects.
• Major upgrades to the user experience with a focus on personalisation, improved design, and compliance with a higher level of accessibility standards.
• Expanded data insights that allow users to see details on building visitors throughout the entire portfolio of buildings, improving the understanding and management of occupants.
• Enhanced indoor air quality monitoring and sensor analytics to support smarter and healthier buildings.
• Automatically adjusting setpoints based on fault diagnostics, saving energy and accelerating potential savings.

OpenBlue now has integrated generative AI tools that proactively recommend the most impactful energy savings projects, reducing the need to analyse large amounts of building data. The system anticipates needs, such as analysing energy usage based on live weather data, to create actionable insights, helping users achieve energy savings and reduction in carbon emissions.

“Our customers have consistently told us that one of the challenges with AI is they are unsure of what questions to ask a generative AI chatbot about their building,” said Julius Marchwicki, vice president at Johnson Controls. “Our generative AI feature automatically constructs the right prompts that are built from our decades of experience in the commercial buildings space.”

The platform also tracks energy conservation projects across over 130 categories, improving data management and managing decarbonisation strategies. It supports utility bills management with automatic error correction, reducing billing gaps.

Added features in OpenBlue are driving forward the future of autonomous buildings and let users run their buildings with less manual intervention. The system can improve productivity through automating processes that traditionally have been manual. It can adjust setpoints based on fault diagnostics, saving energy, carbon and costs. Users can enable autonomous actions or use the system to get advice, while setting their own operational constraints. It also provides detailed information about equipment performance and trends, from a broad view down to individual pieces of equipment. In this release, OpenBlue autonomous control can be applied to a broader range of central utility plant designs.

OpenBlue now supports digitalisation of standard operating procedures, speeding up workflows triggered by various events. New workflows can be quickly published to support security and service needs, with both manual and autonomous tasks.

This release includes upgrades to the user experience, focused on design, navigation and accessibility. With increased focus on space use, the system provides a clearer picture of how spaces are actually used by building occupants. Detailed visitor analytics are available throughout a portfolio of buildings, improving the understanding of visitor activities, along with intelligent planning when anomalies occur. Operators can schedule services, such as cleaning, based on occupancy insights, saving resources and money. Updates also include improved indoor air quality monitoring with a broad ecosystem of sensor partners.

OpenBlue Enterprise Manager helps unlock the performance of building with real-time data visibility. A single pane of glass with analytics, visualisation and controls accelerates operational outcomes, meets certification and regulatory compliance needs, and ensures data security and privacy.

To learn more about OpenBlue, visit www.johnsoncontrols.com/openblue.