2026: The Year Buildings Come of Age

By Mike Mustapha, Division President of ABB Smart Buildings

As each new year begins, I like to reflect not just on where technology is heading, but on how people are changing. Because smart buildings, at their heart, are built for human comfort, productivity, safety, resilience, and enabling our work and living environments.

Last January, I wrote that 2025 would be a pivotal year for sustainable buildings. And it was. We saw global emissions begin to stabilize, electrification move from ambition to action and AI become an integral tool in building operations.

But something more important happened, too: Buildings started to get smarter.

There’s a good reason this shift matters. Buildings are responsible for around one third of global energy demand¹. And because buildings and infrastructure consume nearly half of all global material resources², the way we design, retrofit and operate them has become one of the most important levers we have for climate, energy and resource efficiency.

Across the world, buildings are, in some respects, adopting a personality. They behave less like passive energy users and more like active participants in the energy system. They are generating and managing energy, interacting with the grid, and better supporting the needs of people inside them.

For years, we talked about “smart buildings” as if they were a nice-to-have. Those days are however long over. Today, smart buildings are essential infrastructure. And this shift from potential to maturity is what makes 2026 so exciting.

A year defined by clarity, not complexity

If 2025 was about discovering what technology could do, 2026 will be about focusing it where it matters most. Customers across every segment – from homes and hospitality to commercial buildings and digital infrastructure – tell me the same thing:

“Help me understand what will make a real difference.”

This is where digitalization plays a crucial role. As AI becomes a standard part of building operations, the foundation behind it matters more than ever: connected systems, interoperable devices and reliable data. Without the underlying digital infrastructure, AI simply cannot work.

Research shows this shift is well underway, with more than 60 percent of corporate real estate teams already piloting AI-enabled use cases, and around 90 percent expecting digital tools to support their operations within five years³. Buildings are becoming more intelligent. Our job is to make sure they are also connected, resilient and easy to manage.

The innovations that will define 2026 are not the ones that create more complexity, but the ones that remove it. We need more impact, not more volume.

Electrification becomes the default

Across global markets, electrification has moved beyond climate alone. It now sits at the heart of energy security, affordability and resilience.

As electricity demand continues to rise, buildings are becoming active partners in the grid through flexibility and intelligent load management. Electrified HVAC, EV charging, solar integration and energy storage are increasingly part of one connected system that helps a building behave better.

The global energy system is evolving just as rapidly. The IEA expects low-emissions sources to generate almost half of the world’s electricity by 2026, even as electricity demand continues to rise by around 3 percent a year⁴. For the first time in decades, fossil-fuel generation is set to fall below 60 percent⁵. That makes electrified, flexible buildings not just beneficial, but essential.

We used to ask, “Will buildings electrify?”

In 2026, the question is, “How fast can we help them get there?”

Smarter through partnership

The past year strengthened a belief I’ve held for a long time: no organization can deliver the future of buildings alone.

The pace of innovation now depends on collaboration between manufacturers, policymakers, cities, utilities, academia and the people who design, construct and manage buildings every day. That is why our partnerships with global networks matter so much. They bring together the voices and the expertise needed to accelerate change.

And it is why, at ABB, we continue to focus on solutions that work across systems, not just within them. Buildings don’t need more isolated technologies – they need connectivity.

The opportunity in front of us

We enter 2026 with more momentum – and greater clarity – than ever before.

Low-emission electricity is accelerating, and cities are stepping up efforts to retrofit their existing building stock. Global roadmaps show why: to stay aligned with climate goals, energy use in commercial buildings must fall by 10–30 percent by 2030, and by 20–30 percent in homes⁶. At the same time, embodied carbon could represent half of the climate impact of new construction by 2050 unless addressed⁷ – which is why retrofit, efficiency and smarter operation are just as critical as new build innovation.

The opportunity now is to scale what works and drive systems connectivity. And the impact will be greatest in the places people rely on every day: schools, hospitals, homes, hotels, offices, transport hubs, commercial spaces and the digital infrastructure that keeps the world running.

A simple goal for a complex world

At ABB Smart Buildings, our purpose is straightforward:

Help buildings behave better.

Better for the planet.

Better for the people who use them.

Better for the partners who manage them.

As buildings grow more intelligent, our daily lives grow simpler, and our shared future grows more sustainable.

So here’s to 2026 – a year where smart buildings become more human, more connected and more valuable.

A year defined by clearer priorities and stronger impact.

A year where, together, we build the spaces and stories that truly matter.

About the author

Mike is the Division President of ABB Smart Buildings and was appointed in February 2022. In this position he has full accountability for the performance of the global Smart Buildings business in ABB, which includes a broad portfolio of market leading home and building automation solutions as well as the portfolio for energy distribution systems and products. After starting his career in the U.S. in 1990 as an Application Engineer with Rotoflow Corp. Inc., a leading supplier of high-speed rotary and cryogenic machinery for process industries, Mike built global leadership experience with Altas CopCo, a multinational industrial company, where he held various leadership positions. In January 2009, Mike founded the new Pre-Engineered Buildings and Hot Rolled Structured Steel Group, headquartered in Jeddah, KSA with its own independent Board. Mike assumed overall accountability for the company, overseeing the Middle East. Mike joined ABB in August 2011 as Low Voltage Division Regional Manager for India, Middle East & Africa. In June 2014, he was promoted to Global Managing Director for the Building Products Business Unit prior to his 2018 appointment as Head of Global Markets for the Electrification business. Mike currently resides in Dubai and holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC), U.S.