By Dan Hollenkamp, COO at Toggled
Dan Hollenkamp, COO of Toggled, shared the following seven trends that he believes will redefine buildings and energy management in 2026:
1) Smart Buildings Become True Energy Orchestrators: By 2026, smart buildings will function more like managed micro-grids as operators face rising energy demand, electrification pressures, and aging infrastructure. Even as devices and EV batteries become more energy efficient, overall energy consumption in buildings continues to climb, from EV charging, larger screens, more processors, and more connected systems. The next phase to manage this comes down to real-time energy orchestration, coordinating when tenants charge, how loads are balanced across floors, and how to prevent peak demand crashes. Smart building platforms will evolve from monitoring tools to active decision engines that keep buildings resilient and cost-efficient.
2) Smart Meters Raise Questions About Data Ownership and Privacy: Smart meters are evolving into the most powerful sensor inside the home, and it’s happening faster than most people realize. With advanced AI, utilities can track consumers’ daily energy use to the point of which appliances are being used in the home, all from the meter on the side of your house. This intelligence will strengthen grid resilience, but it also raises profound privacy questions. Within the next three years, we can expect to see smart meter data become one of the biggest regulatory battles in the energy sector, as lawmakers are forced to decide who really owns the data generated inside your home.
3) Healthy Buildings Become Non-Negotiable: In recent years, we’ve seen a movement toward creating healthy building capabilities to improve air quality and occupancy controls. However, as research connects workplace well-being to long-term satisfaction and performance, the market will shift more decisively to fully integrated environments that synchronize customized lighting, temperature, ventilation, and humidity. These systems will create workplaces that actively “adapt to human needs” rather than expecting humans to adapt to them, delivering comfort, consistency, and measurable improvements in how people feel and function. Quantifying ROI of healthy buildings remains a challenge, but as smart buildings are able to demonstrate measurable, sustained improvements over time, we will see a clear premium in both tenant demand and investor value.
4) AI Will Become Buildings’ Most Valuable Worker: As many businesses rush to adopt AI, amid uncertainty about job displacement, one area where the technology is being embraced without hesitation is building management. The reality is that most buildings are under-maintained, understaffed, and operate far too reactively. AI agents can finally step in to cover the blind spots: monitoring equipment, flagging small issues before they become major failures, and helping facility teams understand what truly needs attention each day. We’re still early, especially since buildings don’t yet produce the volume of usable data that AI is used to, but that’s changing fast as more devices come online and smart building systems with advanced analytics capabilities create the bridge between buildings and AI. The security concerns haven’t really changed; it’s still about knowing who you’re working with, where your data is going, and whether the systems you rely on follow real security standards. And the upside is enormous: as buildings are better maintained, AI will make buildings safer, more efficient, and, for the first time, capable of adapting to the people inside them rather than the other way around.
5) State-Led Climate Rules Will Quietly Force a Smart-Building Upgrade Cycle
While federal momentum on decarbonization and ESG reporting has slowed, states and major cities have been moving ahead with their own efficiency mandates, carbon caps, and electrification requirements. That patchwork approach is quickly becoming the real force reshaping commercial buildings. And honestly, it’s arriving at the right time: energy demand is surging thanks to data centers, AI workloads, and an always-connected world. Building operators can’t afford to stay reactive. In the next few years, the clear winners will be the ones investing in sensors, AI-driven optimization, and more efficient equipment, while those who delay will face a double penalty: higher utility bills today and costly retrofits when local rules inevitably tighten.
6) BaaS Becomes the New Building Playbook: With energy demand surging and operating costs climbing, building owners know they need smarter systems, but many have hesitated because adopting new technologies seems expensive, complicated, and overwhelming. That’s why 2026 will be the breakout year for Buildings-as-a-Service (BaaS). Instead of massive upfront investments, owners can adopt smart technologies in manageable, subscription-style steps, allowing them to try it out and directly see the value before committing to scale. This low-barrier model will finally pull even the oldest buildings into the modern era, making AI-driven efficiency accessible to everyone.
7) A New Tech Stack Will Redefine How Buildings Actually Work
The next wave of smart-building innovation will be driven by technologies that finally close the gap between how buildings should operate, and how they actually do. AI-driven diagnostics, AR-guided maintenance, lightweight robotics, and next-generation materials will give operators real visibility into systems that have been opaque for decades. Instead of reacting to leaks, breakdowns, and comfort complaints, buildings will anticipate issues, self-correct, and surface exactly what needs attention. The result: a generational shift from “run to failure” to “run intelligently,” unlocking safer, more efficient, and dramatically more resilient spaces.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As the Chief Operating Officer of Toggled, Daniel Hollenkamp Jr. is responsible for day-to-day operations; he oversees sales, marketing, manufacturing, and research and development. Previously, Hollenkamp was Toggled’s lead manufacturing engineer, where he ramped up the company’s mass production efforts. He has more than 15 years of experience in electronics manufacturing and 10 years of experience in lighting and IoT. Hollenkamp earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University.
You must be logged in to post a comment.