Welcome to April’s first edition of Monday Live! To kick off a new month, we are diving headfirst into a topic that is impossible to ignore: Artificial Intelligence.
Our theme for April is “AI Across the Stack.” But before we can figure out where we are going, we have to remember where we started. About four years ago, before the current AI boom, our community created a tool called “The Smarter Stack” to help organize the chaos of building technology.
Now that AI is here, we have to ask the hard question: Does that old map still work, or does AI make it obsolete?
What is “The Smarter Stack”?
To understand the disruption, you have to understand the model. The Smarter Stack was designed to bridge the gap between two very different worlds:
- The Humans (Top): The people who use buildings (owners, occupants) and the people who operate them (facility managers, engineers).
- The Building (Bottom): The physical concrete, steel, HVAC systems, and automation devices.
In the middle, we put the “Smarts”: the Data, the Orchestration (middleware), and the Applications. The goal was to break down the old “vertically integrated” solutions into flexible, interchangeable parts.
The Big Debate: Does AI Eat the Stack?
During our session, we asked a provocative question: Now that we have AI, do we need the Smarter Stack at all? Does AI just absorb everything?
The consensus was a firm “Not yet.” While AI is incredibly disruptive, frameworks still matter. You need a map of where you have been to navigate where you are going.
However, everyone agreed that the old model is about to get a serious shake-up.
Key Points from the Conversation
Here are the critical insights the panel landed on regarding AI across the building stack:
- Disruption at Every Layer
AI is not just a new app. It acts like a “spinal cord,” creating intelligence at every level. The physical layer, the data layer, and the applications will all look different in five years. - The Organs vs. The Brain
One powerful analogy compared AI to the human body. Your liver and heart (individual building systems) have their own localized intelligence. AI will act like the nervous system, connecting these “organs” to a central “brain” without losing their specialized functions. - Forcing Honesty into the Industry
For years, the industry relied on “thumb on the scale” estimates for energy savings or performance. AI doesn’t look at a picture of a fan; it looks at the data bits. It forces a new level of honesty, creating real baselines instead of wishful thinking. - The Rise of Agentic AI
We are moving toward “Agentic AI” (supported by major foundations like Linux). This means assigning specific AI “agents” to go talk to other agents. One agent checks the physical building, another checks the utility costs, and another checks the owner’s goals, and they collaborate to solve problems without human intervention. - The Pendulum Swing
Expect a pendulum swing. Right now, everyone is rushing to use AI for everything. Eventually, the market will swing back to value. You won’t just need AI; you will need AI that proves its value and through actual savings and performance, not just fancy reports.
The “English Subtitles” Problem
One of the most intelligent points raised was the need for “English subtitles.” The industry is drowning in acronyms: RDF, MCP, BIM, PAE.
As AI gets smarter, it will make decisions in milliseconds that humans would take hours to process. But to trust the AI, we need it to “spoon-feed” us the results. We need the machine to translate its digital decisions back into human language so we can move forward with confidence.
Looking Ahead: Real Bikes, Not PowerPoints
The session ended with a challenge to the group. We have spent a lot of time talking about “riding the bicycle” of AI. Now, it is time to actually get on the bike.
The group decided that the coming weeks would focus on applying AI to a real building with real data. We need to stop telling war stories and start showing how an AI agent interacts with a real physical asset.
Final Takeaway
Don’t throw away your frameworks just yet. The Smarter Stack is still a useful map. However, AI is the new vehicle. It forces us to be honest, it connects our disparate systems, and it operates at a speed humans cannot match.
The future of smarter buildings isn’t about one big brain controlling everything. It is about a distributed, agent-based nervous system that connects the building’s purpose to its physics.
Next week, as we dig into the first layer of the stack.
