Predictive analytics is transforming facilities management. Here’s how to get started.

In our personal lives, we get reminders for everything. Budgets, workouts, Netflix renewals. But in the workplace, million-dollar assets and floor plans are often still managed in spreadsheets.

The result? Teams lose $10K–$100K annually in avoidable costs—missed maintenance, expired warranties, emergency repairs that could have been prevented. According to Deloitte, unplanned downtime alone costs businesses $50 billion per year.

At IFMA World Workplace, our team spoke with facilities leaders about how they’re leveraging preventive maintenance today, and why now is the time to build the data repository that will allow you to use predictive analytics to its full potential. This article captures insights from that conversation, recorded as a podcast to share practical guidance on moving from reactive spreadsheets to AI-powered workplace management.

Predictive analytics changes the game. It helps you forecast failures, expirations, and occupancy spikes before they disrupt your workplace. The payoff: lower costs, fewer disruptions, and spaces employees actually want to work in.

What predictive analytics actually means

Predictive isn’t the same as preventive. Preventive maintenance follows the calendar—HVAC serviced every 90 days, whether it needs it or not. Predictive maintenance uses real-time data to tell you exactly when action is needed based on actual performance.

“Instead of servicing an HVAC on schedule, predictive flags it’s close to failure or highlights a warranty about to expire,” explains Andres Avalos, AI and data expert and Chief Product Officer at OfficeSpace.

You move from calendar-driven to insight-driven, and from guessing to knowing.

Why predictive analytics is finally accessible

Predictive analytics isn’t new, but until recently, it was out of reach for most workplace teams.

What changed?

“Historically data was fragmented in maintenance logs, HR, occupancy, spreadsheets,” says Andres. “Now APIs and integrations make centralization possible. Predictive insights are possible without a data science team.”

Modern platforms connect your systems and run the analytics for you. The value comes from combining space and asset data into one complete workplace view.

This matters because facilities managers aren’t just managing maintenance—they’re jumping from daily work orders to planning floor restacks in the same week. You need tools that work as fast as you do.

The real cost of manual tracking

What happens when warranties and maintenance cycles are tracked in spreadsheets or Outlook?

Overspending. Downtime. Lost productivity.

“Many teams rely on spreadsheets or Outlook for tracking,” says Steph Austin, OfficeSpace Software’s team lead for new products. “This leads to overspending, downtime, and lost productivity.”

The $100K TV mistake

During an office move, one company spent hundreds of thousands relocating large TVs to their new location. Once installed, they discovered the equipment was end-of-life, didn’t fit the new design, and lacked necessary features. Everything was scrapped and replaced.

Predictive lifecycle alerts would have flagged those assets weeks earlier. The budget would have been protected. The move would have been smarter.

Missed maintenance cycles

Clients tracking maintenance manually have missed recurring service cycles—leading to equipment failures and emergency repairs. Now, with automated work orders that trigger every 90 days, HVAC systems get serviced on time. Downtime drops. Asset lifespan extends.

Predictive systems provide alerts before failures or warranty expirations. You can scan equipment to replace paper manuals that get lost. You see complete maintenance history in one place.

The impact goes beyond budgets. Safe, comfortable, functional workplaces help with retention. Employees notice when things work—and when they don’t.

Why larger organizations still struggle

Even major enterprises are tracking thousands of assets in Excel.

One company we spoke with managed their entire process in Excel and Outlook. When leadership asked for updates, the team scrambled with pivot tables and manual graphs to create reports.

They needed a live dashboard showing HVACs, large equipment, engineer schedules, and service calls in real time. Moving from static spreadsheets to real-time visibility allows proactive planning instead of reactive catch-up.

That shift—from static to live, from reactive to proactive—is what modern workplace platforms enable.

What’s blocking progress (and how to fix it)

“Predictive only works with clean, centralized data,” Andres emphasizes.

Common blockers:

• Inconsistent naming conventions across locations
• Spreadsheet “shadow systems” that bypass official tools
• Asset data scattered across multiple platforms
• Poor user experience that makes data entry painful

How to move forward:

1. Standardize naming with a shared data dictionary. Build one system everyone follows.
2. Eliminate spreadsheet shadows by centralizing with APIs. Give spreadsheets a break.
3. Make data entry easy. If people avoid the system, it fails—no matter how powerful it is.
4. Start with your biggest friction point. Solve the problem costing you the most time or money first.

Clean, centralized data is the foundation. Everything else builds from there.

The self-optimizing workplace

If teams connect all this data, what does the future look like?

Imagine a data fabric that connects IoT sensors, badge data, booking systems, and asset information. Predictive analytics and AI enable:

• Lifecycle forecasting – Replace equipment before it fails
• Occupancy forecasting – Tuesday/Wednesday peaks inform HVAC and cleaning schedules
• Service optimization – Automatic inspections and cleans triggered after high use

The future of the workplace in action

A leak is detected. Maintenance is auto-dispatched. Affected meetings are rerouted to available rooms. HVAC and lighting adjust dynamically based on real occupancy. Cleaning is triggered after heavy conference room use. Employees get instant updates.

“The system is going to continuously look for anomalies, look for interesting facts that are happening inside your data, and then send you a notification saying, ‘Hey, maybe you should take a look into what’s happening with this particular HVAC unit on floor 11 of this building’ before you had to even think about it,” Andres explains.

The office runs like a living system, with AI supporting you—not replacing you.

Where the industry is headed

“The industry is moving toward AI-powered automation,” says Andres. “Predictive analytics will feed directly into models that forecast occupancy trends, generate layouts and space assignments based on usage, and optimize entire real estate portfolios—expand, shrink, repurpose.”

You’ll be able to ask questions in plain language: “What was my energy consumption for this HVAC unit last quarter? What will it be next quarter?” Or: “I expect our utilization to be at nearly 100% because our CEO is coming into town for an event. What is the expectation of our HVAC energy for that week?”

“And then have it recommend or auto-suggest where thresholds need to be. Or if you have a service that’s coming up the week following, maybe move it up a week before to ensure no issues arise,” Andres adds.

But none of this works without good data.

“Asset management systems capture the minutia: ownership, service history, warranties, depreciation,” Andres notes. “And that can only happen with an integrated system of data.”

What’s changing right now

“What I’m hearing from folks now is: I want the tech to tell me,” says Steph. “What should I think about replacing? What would I save a serious amount of money and energy by replacing based on its efficiency? What should I be thinking about for my upcoming budget year?”

Facilities teams don’t want another tool they have to remember to check. They want systems that push insights to them.

“I want an operating system for my life that helps me be better at my job,” Steph says. “They say things like, ‘I just need two of me.’”

“The number of capital assets that a company is tracking has just skyrocketed,” Steph adds. “It used to be your HVAC systems and some water heaters. Now everybody has smart fridges within their office. We’ve got things that we’re bringing for employee experience that are very expensive—and all of those things are not going to get a full useful life if you’re not keeping up on that preventative maintenance.”

Your next step

Predictive analytics helps facilities leaders create workplaces that function better, cost less, and support your teams.

You’re already juggling budgets, assets, people, and expectations. Predictive tools give you:

• Visibility into what’s coming
• Control over how you respond
• Confidence in your decisions
• Fewer disruptions for your employees

And it’s easier to get started than you think.

Learn more about AI-powered workplace management and how predictive analytics can transform your operations. Check out our brand-new asset management platform and talk to a workplace strategy expert.