The Next Wave of Facility Management:
From Digital Transformation to AI Leadership
Background & Context
Since its inception in 2022, the IFMA Executive Summit has convened C-Suite leaders from across North America to explore the forces shaping the future of facility management. Each year has revealed a defining theme:
- 2022: Leading Digital Transformation in FM
- 2023: Managing Digital Risk and FM’s Role in Protecting Digitized Buildings
- 2024: Navigating the Technological Landscape for FM
- 2025: Building Collaborative Strategies for Circular FM Transition
Together, these conversations have traced FM’s expanding role at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and human experience.
Now in its fifth year, the 2026 Summit marks a milestone that offers both a reflection on lessons learned and a foresight exercise envisioning the next evolution of the profession. Over the past five years, a clear trajectory has emerged: FM has moved from adopting digital tools, to managing data, to collaborating for sustainability, and now stands at the threshold of a new era shaped by artificial intelligence (AI).
IFMA’s recent research, including Gamechanger: A Facility Manager’s Guide to Building a Relationship with AI (2024) and The Rise of the FM Analyst (2025), demonstrates that AI represents more than another technological shift. It is a transformational capability that will redefine how buildings are managed, how people work, and how value is created.
This Summit will explore how FM leaders can build on the foundations of digital transformation and circular collaboration to lead the AI transformation responsibly, strategically, and inclusively.
Summit Objective
Building on insights from the past five years, this year’s Summit will examine how AI can empower FM to:
Align technological innovation with business purpose and sustainability goals
Strengthen human capability and organizational adaptability in the face of automation
Establish governance, trust, and ethical frameworks for AI deployment in FM
Redefine FM’s role as a strategic enabler of intelligent, resilient, and sustainable organizations
Format
The 2026 Executive Summit will retain its established format that combines strategic reflection, thought leadership, and collaborative foresight.
Thought Leadership Sessions
A select group of keynote speakers will reflect on insights from previous Summits and IFMA research, showing how the profession’s evolution from digital transformation to data, collaboration, and circularity has laid the groundwork for AI readiness in FM.
Knowledge Café
C-Suite participants will rotate through five interactive tables, each addressing a core dimension of FM’s AI-enabled future. The collective insights from these sessions will help build a roadmap toward responsible and high-impact adoption of AI across the FM ecosystem.
Knowledge Café Activity
To foster collaborative insights, the Summit will employ a Knowledge Café activity, based on the World Café methodology, which promotes rich, diverse input through group rotations.
Each table explores a key question for C-Suite leaders preparing for an AI-driven future.
AI as a Strategic Gamechanger- How can executives ensure AI adoption in FM is guided by clear business objectives such as efficiency, experience, and sustainability, rather than driven by hype?
- What role should the C-Suite play in ensuring strong AI governance, cybersecurity, and ethical safeguards while balancing innovation and risk?
Workforce and Skills of the Future
- How can FM teams future-proof talent to work effectively with AI through upskilling, reskilling, and new recruitment strategies?
AI, ESG and Sustainability
- How can AI accelerate progress on ESG and circular economy goals, while minimizing its own environmental footprint?
The AI-Native FM Organization
- What might an “AI-native” FM organization look like by 2035, and how can today’s leaders begin preparing for that transformation?
Join the Conversation Shaping the Future
Limited attendance. Exclusive access. Global impact.
Experience the insight, connection, and leadership that define the next era of FM.
Last day to book is Saturday, 7 February 2026.