Legacy Systems Stalling AI Progress in Smart Buildings
Outdated infrastructure and data readiness issues are preventing commercial properties from achieving meaningful artificial intelligence results.
- By Jesse Jacobs
- Mar 19, 2026
New research indicates that while global corporate investment in artificial intelligence reached $252.3 billion in 2024, fewer than 5% of commercial real estate organizations have achieved their primary AI goals.
A 2026 independent assessment by Memoori suggests the "AI story" in commercial sectors is far more complex than industry headlines suggest. According to the report, the primary barrier to success is not the sophistication of AI models or the cost of cloud computing, but rather "data readiness."
In documented deployments, up to 75% of engineering budgets are spent making legacy building systems legible to modern analytics layers. This technical debt creates a significant gap between vendor promises and verified performance.
The study, which evaluated 69 use cases across 12 domains, found a stark contrast between marketing claims and reality. While vendors often report energy savings of 20% to 50%, independent evaluations of 654 sites through programs like NYSERDA's Real-Time Energy Management found verified savings typically range from 3% to 15%.
“The distinction between alerting a facilities manager to a fault and autonomously correcting it is not marginal; it is order-of-magnitude,” the report stated.
The research also highlighted a burgeoning risk in the insurance sector. Starting in January 2026, standardized ISO endorsements introduced absolute AI exclusions. These clauses cover property damage and bodily injury arising from machine learning, creating a potential coverage gap for buildings utilizing autonomous AI control.
Despite these hurdles, energy management remains the most successful deployment tier. Autonomous supervisory optimization has achieved verified electric savings of approximately 13% in independent programs.
The report also noted a counterintuitive trend: smaller commercial buildings are consistently outperforming larger properties in AI efficiency. This suggests that light commercial buildings, which were previously underserved by major tech vendors, may offer the most immediate opportunity for smart technology integration.
As the industry moves toward grid-interactive buildings and EV charging integration, the focus is shifting toward automated measurement and verification to establish a "source of truth" for energy savings.