Schneider Electric has published new research finding that AI-enabled buildings can cut whole-building energy use by up to 22% against traditional controls. The research highlights annual utility savings as $13,600 to $49,300 per building at current commercial rates, helping organizations reduce operating costs every year with the potential to scale across larger portfolios. The research also finds the carbon avoided is more than 100 times greater than the AI system’s footprint.

As concerns grow over AI’s environmental impact, buildings remain one of the world’s largest sources of emissions, accounting for approximately 37% of global energy-related carbon emissions. Schneider Electric’s new research, AI for Climate: Quantifying the Energy and Carbon Impact of Building Optimization, found that AI-driven HVAC optimization deployed through a smart building management system can contribute 7.2-12.7% of additional building energy savings. This shows how AI manages energy more intelligently, easing pressure on building systems and the wider electric grid.

Other key findings include:

  • Up to 60 metric tons of carbon emissions avoided annually per building (59,869kg CO₂e), comparable to the environmental benefit of planting 2,700 mature trees*
  • More than 200 MWh of annual energy savings in some building scenarios, enough electricity to power dozens of average homes for a year
  • AI can more than double the energy savings achieved by smart building controls alone
  • Both cloud and edge AI deployments can deliver significant energy and carbon benefits

“The future of building management will be defined by how effectively organizations connect and contextualize data that was previously trapped in silos. An AI layer on top of existing business systems can turn complexity into intelligence and intelligence into action, reducing emissions, lowering costs and improving performance simultaneously,” said Pankaj Sharma, EVP, software & services at Schneider Electric. “As energy demand continues to rise, the ability to deliver these outcomes together, rather than forcing organizations to choose between them, will be critical to achieving both business and sustainability goals.”