Open standards help building systems work together

Richard Kelly (left), Operations Director
Eduard Dischke (right), Board Vice Chair
buildingSMART International

AI is pushing the buildings industry toward open standards, but trust, incentives, and regulation will determine how fast it moves. buildingSMART International, which sets open standards for the built environment, sees the prize as better data, lower emissions, and buildings that work as connected systems over time.

Gavin: How will AI and ICT accelerate the adoption of open standards and improve interoperability in smart buildings?

Eduard: Enormously. AI makes it much easier to access and use building data, but it has to be reliable. That means quality checks, regulation, and human oversight. You can’t separate human intelligence from artificial intelligence.

Gavin: What’s the mood in the industry: excitement or anxiety?

Eduard: It’s shifted. Two years ago, there was hesitation about whether AI was needed and how to use it. Now there’s real enthusiasm. AI doesn’t always give the right answer, so people have to learn how to work with it. Creativity and judgment still come from humans.

Gavin: What role can technology providers such as Huawei play in advancing open standards?

Richard: AI makes smart buildings more valuable, and open standards make building data easier to use. buildingSMART brings together suppliers, manufacturers, and asset owners to agree on what information should go into buildings and infrastructure. Because it’s a neutral forum, they can collaborate without commercial pressure.

The challenge is incentives. The people who decide what goes into a building pay upfront, but the benefits show up later in operations. Without open standards, operators can’t be sure the data will still be usable in the future. When they can see that long-term value, it becomes easier to justify the investment.

That improves both costs and the quality of the built environment.

Gavin: What will move open standards to the next stage?

Richard: Regulation. AI will be regulated, and countries will have to align. Organizations like ours can help shape that by working across borders.

Eduard: We now have 40 territorial membership organizations worldwide working on this. Companies are already using AI in areas like procurement, bidding, and quality checks. Our role is to bring people together to turn that experience into standards.

Gavin: How do standards help with sustainability?

Richard: Buildings and construction generate about 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions. The industry is inefficient, and progress depends on better data. When everyone involved in design, construction, and operations can access the same information, they can make better decisions and reduce emissions. But the industry is fragmented and risk-averse. Proven methods are easier to fund than new approaches, even when the new ones may be better.

Eduard: Design, construction, and operations have been too separate. That has to change. openBIM helps connect them, but it requires real cooperation. [Note: Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a shared digital model of a building and its systems. “openBIM” uses open standards so the model can be used by different teams and across different tools.]

Gavin: What will this look like in five years?

Richard: We’re working towards enabling digital twins. Cities are becoming more connected, with services closer to where people live. You can already see this in large-scale developments in China, Europe, and elsewhere. It won’t happen overnight. As trust grows and more data becomes available, digital twins will gradually become a reality.

Eduard:The goal is global: data that can be used to manage buildings and infrastructure anywhere in the world.