[Podcast] What does “comfort” mean in the age of AI?

AI for buildings: smarter spaces, stronger outcomes

What if your building could think for itself – anticipating needs, optimizing energy use, and enhancing occupant comfort without human intervention?  

In this episode of AI at Scale, we sit down with Sadiq Syed, SVP of Digital Buildings at Schneider Electric, to explore how AI at the edge is revolutionizing buildings. From real-time responsiveness to measurable energy savings and fewer occupant complaints, this conversation reveals how intelligent systems are transforming facility management from reactive firefighting to proactive orchestration. 

Furthermore, Sadiq shares why moving intelligence from the cloud to the edge isn’t just a technical shift, but it’s also a strategic one. Faster decision-making, greater autonomy, and more resilient operations are just the beginning. Whether your focus is decarbonization, digital transformation, or elevating the occupant experience, this episode delivers actionable insights for building a smarter, more sustainable future. 

We also spotlight the SpaceLogic Touchscreen Room Controller, winner of the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award, and a tangible example of innovation in action. 

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Listen to Sadiq Syed: What does “comfort” mean in the age of AI  episode. Subscribe to the show on the preferred streaming platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify). 

Transcript

Gosia Gorska: Welcome everyone. This is AI at Scale podcast by Schneider Electric. My name is Gosia Gorska and today we are diving into the future of smart buildings where comfort, efficiency and sustainability converge. Our guest is Sadiq Syed, SVP Digital Energy for Schneider Electric, and we plan to discuss solutions that help building owners and facility managers meet rising regulatory demands, reduce energy consumption and enhance our well-being at homes. Welcome, Sadiq. 

Sadiq Syed: Thank you, Gosia, for having me 

Gosia: Yeah, it’s a real pleasure. So let me present your expertise areas to our listeners. So Sadiq, as I mentioned is the SVP for digital buildings. He is an accomplished senior executive with 23 plus years of success driving innovation and growth across verticals such as healthcare, industrial and building automation. He has strong business management experience across domains like product management, R&D, marketing, sales, supply chain, service operations and inorganic growth plays. Prior to his current role, he was the VP and GM connected buildings, Honeywell Building Automation and Sadiq completed his education at the Market University. So welcome to our podcast. I wanted to start with the current trends in building Sadiq. So we are seeing a convergence of AI, sustainability and user centric design reshaping the built environment. From your point of view, what’s the most profound shift happening in how we think about buildings today? 

Sadiq: Great question. Well, from my point of view, buildings are no longer static assets. They’re becoming dynamic. They’re responsive systems. They adapt in real time to people and the planet. The shift from centralized intelligence to edge AI is enabling hyperlocal decision making and unlocking new levels of efficiency and comfort. Sustainability is no longer a compliance check box. It’s a design principle. It’s the need of the hour. And AI is the engine making it actionable at scale.

Smart building market 

Gosia: I see. So let’s look at the current situation. Building and home owners can use today simple thermostats or much more complex BMS systems. But in the race to decarbonize buildings, and we know it’s, it’s really important because buildings are really something that is omnipresent and they emit a lot of carbon emissions. So these solutions may seem either too complex or too simplistic. Do they already cover all the customer needs in the smart building market? 

Sadiq: Great question, Gosia. They don’t actually until recently, I would say either we have very traditional complex building management systems that we have deployed as a industry in thousands and thousands of buildings or we have very simple thermostats that the users manually use to manage temperature settings etcetera. And there’s a gap here. If we are to decarbonize buildings at scale and if you need to enable our our end users and customers to deploy technology at scale at a very cost effective point, we need to drive innovation to bridge that gap and really meet the needs where you know we can drive energy efficiency and occupant comfort without added installation complexity. We need to drive that real time optimization and advanced control capabilities to be able to easily deployable on all legacy buildings. So retrofits should be easy to handle. It should be cost effective to deploy. It needs to have the ability to for even just a very low skilled untrained technician to be able to go and activate the solution. It needs to just really be adaptive to the demand response and load shedding aligning with the grid. So there are these needs that we need to fill the gap very quickly. And hence we came up with this innovation at Schneider Electric around space logic, touch screen room controller with AI on edge that actually delivers all these outcomes for our customers at a very cost effective point, at a very easy capability to deploy and commission in minutes for each, each room or each zone. And it’s, we’re seeing great results with this innovation.

Thermostats and BMS systems

Gosia: So what does it take from the simple thermostats and what does it take from complex BMS systems? 

Sadiq: So it’s taking the goodness from both. So simple thermostats, it’s just easy to deploy, cost effective, easy user interface in multiple languages. It’s just it’s very easy to use. Also at the end of on the from the complex side, it’s taking the capabilities to adapt and optimise based on occupancy levels based on and it’s not just about HVAC and temperature settings, but it is also managing blinds and lighting controls etcetera. It has the sensorization capability to detect humidity levels, CO2 levels, etcetera. So and at the end of it, it enables energy efficiency in occupant comfort without added installation complexity. So bottom line, it’s a, it’s a great solution to drive decarbonization at scale and bridges the gap in the technology we have today between very simple and very complex systems.

Edge AI 

Gosia: I see. And you mentioned that you decided to embed some AI at the edge. And how does it change the game for building energy management? Because what we are hearing is that a lot of companies and basically you can say even the world is obsessed with going to the cloud. So why did you choose to bring intelligence closer to the room and what does that unlock for the future of buildings? 

Sadiq: Fantastic question and and very, very timely in terms of the questions that come up. Does everything have to be on cloud and what can we do to drive intelligence on the edge localised? So edge AI enables real time responsiveness are really optimising comfort and energy usage in seconds, not minutes. It eliminates the reliance on cloud connectivity, reducing latency, cost and cybersecurity risks. And certain end markets where we saw our customers demand computational capabilities and optimization capabilities on the edge, they are not ready to go on cloud yet for various reasons. This architecture empowers buildings to be more autonomous, resilient and scalable. It delivers real time optimization without relying on cloud connectivity as I mentioned and external data storage. It maintains ASHRAE 55 compliant comfort standards dynamically and autonomously. And that is very important for building owners to make sure we are compliant with the ASHRAE standards, which reduces occupant complaints to be observed by almost 23% through our studies through faster localized decision making.

Gosia: And can you maybe explain to our listeners in case they don’t know what’s the standard? So you name it, ASHRAE, right? 

Sadiq: Yes, it’s ASHRAE 55 compliance standard. It’s an industry standard that all building owners are expected to comply going forward. 

Gosia: I see. And how does this controller stand out from other solutions in the market and maybe if you can explain what are the capabilities? So if I install it today at my home, what does it allow me to do? 

Sadiq: It’s the it’s the only room controller with embedded AI that optimizes comfort and energy usage simultaneously in in the market today. It integrates HVAC, lighting and blinds into one device, achieving up to 35% energy savings. We have observed in some of our deployments with our customers, offers up to 40% more terminal capacity than competitors, enhancing scalability and flexibility. So a lot of power packed in this innovation that is delivering multiple outcomes at scale. 

Gosia: So basically 35% of energy savings. This really cannot stop to to amaze me because we already have a lot of solutions on the market and like everybody’s aware about the carbon footprint, everybody would like to be efficient with water, with energy, right? But then still we are losing so much energy and with this quite simple solution, you can achieve even up to 35% of energy saving. This is really amazing to me if you take into consideration the scale basically. 

Sadiq: Yeah, absolutely. 

Use cases

Gosia: And what are the most promising use cases or sectors for this technology? 

Sadiq: The end markets that can benefit from this immediately are our hotels and commercial offices. They can benefit from the seamless integration with PMS and BMS systems, education in retrofit building scheme, a lot from wireless deployment and fast installation and net any facility aiming to balance operational excellence without satisfaction. So this is a great fit for these use cases and these end markets instantly.

Awards 

Gosia: And this is probably why you recently won some of the accolades. I know that there were numerous. The one that I noted is the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award. What do you think the judges saw that the market should pay closer attention to? 

Sadiq: We are very proud of this recognition and award and very proud of the team that has delivered this innovation. So what this is about is it’s a rare fusion of simplicity and sophistication. It’s very intuitive for users, yet deeply intelligent under the hood, ambulate AI that dynamically adjusts to occupancy, temperature, humidity without external dependencies. And it’s also delivering a measurable impact with all the innovation that comes with it, the energy savings, as I described earlier, up to 35% of energy savings we can achieve and 23% drop in occupant complaints. So it’s balancing the goals of occupant comfort and energy savings at the same time, which is a very tricky balance to manage. 

Gosia: Yeah, that’s like a Holy Grail of our building. And it’s it’s only possible when you can really have timely response from the system. I was at the very big conference recently and I was there already at 8:00 and it was super cold inside because nobody was there yet. Then after a few hours where it was super packed with people, the whole room got so hot that everybody was sweating. So basically my understanding is this is exactly why we need AI at the edge because you can respond to dynamically a changing environment and with the flood of people coming in the room, you can reply to this and you can avoid this occupant complaints, right? This is how basically it can work. 

Sadiq: Absolutely.

Comfort in the age of AI 

Gosia: So let’s deep dive into comfort. What does comfort mean in the age of AI? 

Sadiq: Well, let’s talk about the definition of comfort. It’s no longer static. It used to be at some point, but now it’s more dynamic, personalized. It needs to respond to real time change in conditions. It needs to adapt to occupancy patterns and environmental shifts so that manual intervention is not needed. So let’s say an example, say Gosha, you’re at a at a conference that gets very busy in the middle of the day. It starts slow, people are trickling in. It’s at a very comfort level. The temperature of the indoors of the building is is very comfortable. But then as it gets very busy in the late part of the morning and the day that the building gets hotter and it gets warmer and the HVAC needs to optimize itself to make sure, you know, it’s constantly adapting to the needs of the indoor temperature and adapts to the needs of the occupants. And this is where AI really plays a big role in optimizing the settings based by sensing the number of occupants in the building. And without having, you know, you to ask someone, can we reduce temperature or increase the temperature? So that’s a simple example that we all experience. But there is more to it than just that. 

Controllers 

Gosia: Yes, exactly. This is what happened to me at this conference. But there is more, right? Because here we mentioned about the temperature and the air conditioning, but the tool allows you to also control other elements of the room. Could you remind us which one there are? 

Sadiq: Yeah. So lighting controls, blinds in your conference room or your personal office or your hotel room, and they all have a role to play when it comes to energy consumption. If you manage the blinds, you can manage the light coming in, sunlight coming into the room that can you know, increase the temperature of the room. But if you are managing the blinds based on the time of the day, it automatically is adjusting and the room temperature is managed from external sunlight. Similarly, lighting is a very high energy consuming aspect of the building and if that can be set on a schedule and optimized based on the time of the day the lights come on and off based on occupancy levels or time of the day, that also automatically is optimizing the energy usage. So these are again a couple of examples where a lot of this can be just automated and optimized.  

Gosia: Yeah, that sounds really great to me because I don’t want to deal with everything around me. I would like to have one, one tool to manage the rest of the appliances around me. And I was wondering what’s the most surprising feedback that you received from early adopters of the controller? 

Sadiq: Yeah, plain and simple. We’ve heard feedback like it just works. Users are impressed by how seamlessly it integrates into the existing systems. Like I said, it doesn’t require complex, you know, a retrofit effort. It’s very simple to deploy an existing systems. Facility managers appreciate the reduced complexity and faster deployment timelines because the faster they can deploy, it’s less labour. It goes directly to their bottom line in terms of cost, reduced cost of deployment. Occupants, we’ve observed to have reported fewer complaints because the building is automatically adjusting and being optimised even with legacy infrastructure. Even buildings with legacy infrastructure have benefited from this innovation.

How does the technology help facility mangers? 

Gosia: And talking about facility managers, I actually think about them as the current contemporary heroes because we already discussed about some tools for facility managers when we were hosting Jeff Willert and he discussed about Resource Advisor Copilot. And like facility managers are also these people who can use it and who can get really actionable insights to act upon them and then change the operations, bring more efficiency to their premises, to their facilities. And I see that also this solution is helping them. So they are even more powerful now. How does solution help them to streamline operations and how does it change their role? 

Sadiq: Yeah, for sure. It is a game changer for facility managers. So if you think of it in the current state, the facility managers are mostly in a reactive state. They are reacting to complaints, they are reacting to needs of the users. They are basically a operator on an hourly, daily basis. The shift is moving from being an operator on tactical items that come up to be an orchestrator, a proactive orchestrator of how they manage their buildings. And now the technology is in their hands to be able to do that, to be able to proactively manage that. We have observed it reduces maintenance hours by up to 25% through automation. Automation and intelligence optimizes a lot of that literally to remotely configure the settings across hundreds of buildings in the portfolio, sometimes thousands of rooms depending on what’s happening in that facility. So the operational efficiency it brings at their fingertips is amazing. They don’t have to send their technicians in the room, in the conference room on the site every time. It provides actionable insights. It provides them to make smarter, faster decisions based on the insights they’re getting across their portfolio and it truly shifts their focus to strategic capabilities around energy and comfort optimization.

AI as a future for buildings 

Gosia: Yeah. So it’s definitely a great moment for facility managers, but also for homeowners as we can all benefit from this solution. OK, it was really great talking to you, Sadiq. If you could share with us maybe some last key takeaways for any other companies, businesses and even homeowners who think about and look for efficiency. Do you think that AI is, is the way to achieve this? Or are there any other technologies that actually help? 

Sadiq: Well, thank you, Gosia for a very thoughtful discussion. So look, if I had to summarise the journey of for our customers and partners, I would say get on the journey of decarbonization and operational efficiency. It’s here and now. It’s the need of the hour. And the way to do that is start small. It doesn’t have to be something very complex. It can be as simple as space logic, touchscreen, room controller, which is cost effective, easy to deploy and you start seeing the results instantly before you scale up to complex systems. And as your needs evolve, you’ll need those systems as well, complex BMS systems. But you can get started on the journey today with simple technologies. AI I would say is real. It is a big enabler. It is driving significant shift in the outcomes we want to achieve and it can be deployed in a meaningful way. So my recommendation is embrace the capabilities AI can deliver today. But I would say we are also just getting started. We are very early in our journey as an industry, as end users, and it’s going to be a couple of decades of massive transformation, the innovation and the speed of innovation that is happening. And we all have a role to play when it comes to producing carbon emissions and contributing to the goals of achieving at least 1.5°C reduction in the average temperatures on Earth. So we all have a role to play, and we can play a bit of that responsible role by deploying these technologies early on.

Gosia: Yeah, that’s a really great message, Sadiq. Thank you so much for this. And I’m excited personally to use technology for the better environment, for really fighting this climate changes that we see around us and to achieve better energy efficiency at the end. So thank you so much. And to our audience, Sadiq Syed  SVP Digital Energy from Schneider Electric was our guest today. Thank you for listening. 

Sadiq: Thank you. 

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