Johnson Controls has added AI capabilities to its OpenBlue digital ecosystem to help building owners reduce energy use, automate building operations and cut operating costs.

The expanded platform includes: an AI-enabled capability that helps optimise how air flows through buildings; an agentic AI assistant; and an AI-native architecture where data are classified and labelled according to standard models, making it easier to connect information across equipment, systems and software applications.

Called energy and comfort intelligence, the AI cuts airside energy use without compromising occupant comfort. It focuses on one of the biggest and often overlooked drivers of energy use in buildings: airside systems. Powered by Nantum AI (www.nantum.ai), the feature uses AI algorithms to deliver efficiency recommendations and enhanced control across these systems, including air handling units, fans and other air circulation equipment.

Enhanced AI control is especially critical for industries requiring precise indoor operating conditions such as life sciences, hospitals, research universities and manufacturing facilities for products such as batteries and semiconductors, where consistent temperature, pressure and humidity matter.

“The new OpenBlue platform changes what a building can do on its own,” said Jamie Cameron, vice president at Irish firm Johnson Controls (www.johnsoncontrols.com). “It brings AI-driven efficiency and autonomous control across the full digital ecosystem, including airside for the first time. Energy and comfort intelligence is one example: it tunes air handling continuously against real conditions, cutting energy waste while giving facility teams unprecedented control.”

Financial software company Datev, for example, implemented energy and comfort intelligence and reduced airside energy use by nearly ten per cent on applicable equipment. The system operated autonomously, executing thousands of dynamic, data-based automated commands and decisions for each piece of equipment. As an additional benefit, the company’s facility team did not receive a single comfort complaint, demonstrating that autonomous control can achieve energy savings without impacting occupant comfort.

“OpenBlue energy and comfort intelligence exceeded our expectations, and we’re excited to expand its use to more of our facilities,” said Marco Ringer, plant engineering planner at Datev (www.datev.com).

OpenBlue now includes OBI (short for OpenBlue intelligence), an agentic AI assistant that proactively surfaces insights, makes recommendations and executes approved workflows, all while keeping humans in the loop. Facility teams can access data through text or spoken interactions across occupancy, air quality, equipment performance, energy use and more. The tool helps teams automate routine operational tasks, such as placing work orders and prioritising maintenance, improving productivity and speeding up response time.

Across OpenBlue, automated onboarding processes use algorithms to find devices automatically and point and place them in the appropriate category, reducing implementation times by up to 95%. In complex facilities with thousands of data sources across a large building or multi-building campus, this reduces implementation times from months to days. Data are structured and assigned clear meaning, connecting raw information to specific equipment and actions to allow sophisticated connections in various interfaces.

The updated data foundation is AI-ready and aligned to industry-standard models for ease of integration and faster access to insights. For technical users with their own applications for workplace convenience and portfolio management, the OpenBlue API lets organisations seamlessly pull data into apps they use today and leverage the data their buildings produce for key insights.

Easier access to data can be paired seamlessly with enhanced cyber security. OpenBlue Airwall offers zero-trust architecture that isolates devices through segmented networks and restricts access to critical assets, reducing the attack surface and limiting exposure to external threats. Remote users and devices are required to prove their identity before any initial connection. Once authenticated, an encrypted tunnel is created between devices to support complex, rapid building-to-building connections between individual devices rather than broad access to entire networks. When external vendors provide remote service, access is limited to only the devices and times necessary to reduce risk.

With increased implementation speeds and greater control, the OpenBlue (openblue.johnsoncontrols.com) AI-powered digital ecosystem should help deliver precise control and enhanced visibility across complex facilities while cutting energy.