Facilities Maintenance. Experience vs. Prompts

For decades, facilities maintenance has relied on firsthand experience. Professionals invested years of training, being mentored, and understanding the issues and time-tested solutions. Expertise was never quick and knows no end.


Today, a major shift is underway, as artificial intelligence has changed the way newcomers learn and develop. There’s no denying that AI is an accelerator of learning across many industries. However, in facilities maintenance, it raises a critical question about the value of experience versus information.

Career development through mentorship, technology, or both?

If AI is effective at anything, it’s delivering information quickly. Equipment specifications, code requirements, and troubleshooting steps are just a few of the shortcuts it offers. In multi-site environments, speed has clear advantages and a hard-to-resist lure.

Information, while undeniably valuable, is not the same thing as depth of understanding.

Facilities maintenance has always involved recognition and judgment. Identifying the subtle signs that something is about to fail, the sound of equipment that isn’t quite right, or the small leak that has proven to be a signal to a larger, looming issue. The insights that come from years of real-life breakdowns and malfunctions, not from manuals.

This personal knowledge is what drives industry leadership. Seasoned facilities department leaders are better equipped to evaluate problems, vet the contractors best suited to resolve them, and develop the teams that expedite their resolution. Without that passed-down experience, we risk future leaders relying too heavily on technically correct answers that may not hold up in real-world environments, and the ability to copy/paste responses that lack any true comprehension.

Soon, we will likely see two types of management emerge. Those who will lean heavily on AI and technology to guide their decision-making, and others who will supplement human experience with operational efficiencies, but limited AI deliberation.

Access to information will not be the point of differentiation. The source of judgment will be. And judgment comes from learning and develops over time.

While limited today, AI is and will continue to evolve as an undoubted valuable tool in facilities maintenance. It has analytical, documentation, and processing capabilities that deliver extraordinary benefits at all levels and phases. The question is what’s the proper ratio to balance data and understanding.

AI and other technologies are advancing rapidly. And no different from a wrench or a gauge, it is a tool to support hands-on experience. And it shouldn’t discount the value of those who have a lifetime of experience to share. Because when a building repair is needed, do you want to trust prompts or experience?