Note: Developed from a live webinar with Natalie and Travis for facility managers October 2025.
By Travis Kemp and Natalie Appleton
Summary Facility and workplace leaders are moving past generative AI’s content creation into agentic AI, systems that act on goals with minimal human direction. Drawing on a Korbyt webinar with IFMA’s IT Community, this piece covers what has changed in the last year, how to build employee trust and governance, and Korbyt’s 5C AI framework, including the Command agent now shipping as ScreenDetective.
Nearly every application in the modern workplace now ships with an agent of some kind. Very few facility teams have one actually running in production. That gap, between what is available and what is operating, is where the real work of agentic AI sits, and closing it depends less on the technology than on how organizations scope, govern, and train for it.
In a webinar session with the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) IT Community, Korbyt’s Travis Kemp and Natalie Appleton discussed what this shift means for facility managers and workplace leaders.
Defining the Landscape: Generative AI vs. Agentic AI
“Generative AI is fun and engaging, but agentic AI is where the real workplace transformation happens.” — Natalie Appleton
Generative AI has revolutionized content creation. From writing to image generation, it excels at producing outputs in record speed based on human prompts. Although this functionality is valuable, it relies on constant direction and oversight.
Agentic AI, on the other hand, moves beyond content. It takes goals and acts independently to achieve them. Think automated workflows, predictive scheduling, or intelligent space management, all with minimal human intervention.
“It’s called co-pilot, not autopilot. Agentic AI still needs oversight, but it dramatically reduces the manual load.” — Travis Kemp
What’s Changed in the Last Year
When this article first published, most of what follows was roadmap. Three things have changed:
The market moved from enthusiasm to scrutiny. A year ago the conversation was about what agents might do. Now buyers are asking which agents are real, what they cost to run, and who is accountable when one makes a bad call. Gartner’s own framing reflects the shift, and the projects being canceled are largely the ones that were green-lit on a demo without governance behind them.
Agentic features became table stakes. Agents are now bundled into the productivity, service management, and systems teams already own. Availability is no longer the constraint. Deciding which workflows to hand over, and proving the handoff worked, is.
Scoped agents started shipping. The deployments holding up in production are narrow: one workflow, clear success criteria, a human in the loop on exceptions. Korbyt’s Command agent, released ScreenDetective at InfoComm 2026, was built to that pattern rather than as a general-purpose assistant.
Why the Workplace Needs Agentic AI Now
Facility managers are facing unprecedented pressure to deliver better office experiences with fewer resources. Hybrid schedules, underutilized real estate, and higher employee expectations have made operational agility a must.
With the help of Agentic AI, facility managers can:
- Optimize digital signage updates based on engagement data
- Manage and optimize meeting room usage in real time
- Orchestrate employee communications across platforms
- Reduce repetitive and redundant manual tasks across IT, facilities, and HR
As workplaces become more AI-savvy, this technology is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s becoming essential for efficient workplace management.
Gartner’s 2026 Hype Cycle for Agentic AI, reports that only 17% of organizations have deployed AI agents, while more than 60% expect to within two years. The same report places agentic AI at the Peak of Inflated Expectations, and Gartner separately predicts that more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027 on cost, unclear value, and weak risk controls. For facility teams, the question is no longer whether to adopt agentic AI, but how to stay out of that 40 percent.
The Trust Factor: How to Scale AI Responsibly
“AI in the workplace has to be explainable, consistent, and secure. Without trust, adoption stalls.” — Natalie Appleton
As we discussed in the webinar, the biggest roadblock isn’t always technology—it’s trust. Many teams are hesitant to hand over control to AI systems.
To help ease employees into the transition, we encourage a “trust but verify” model:
- Start with semi-automated tasks
- Monitor performance and feedback closely
- Maintain human oversight for decision-critical workflows
Security and governance must be top priorities. From data encryption to user permissions, AI tools must meet enterprise-grade standards.
Training for the Agentic Era
“The output is only as good as the input. Teaching teams how to prompt effectively is non-negotiable.” — Travis Kemp
Even the best AI tools fall short without proper employee training. Offering prompt engineering sessions, conducting ongoing AI literacy programs, and creating internal communities of practice ensures teams make the best use of the technology.
Helping employees understand practical AI strategies is key to building confidence and unlocking the full value of the tools.
Korbyt has run this internally over the past year with a company-wide Claude rollout extended to non-engineering teams: shared prompt libraries, guidance on which model to use for which task, and a governance framework for the AI applications employees build themselves. That last piece matters as much as the training. Once people build their own tools, the organization needs clear rules on what those tools can touch.
Future-Proofing: Tech + Culture
Future-proofing isn’t about predicting the next tool; it’s about building resilience and avoiding the need for costly overhauls as technology changes. We advise:
- Investing in interoperable platforms
- Selecting vendors with transparent product roadmaps
- Creating scalable governance structures
Leadership plays a central role here. When executive teams model trust and advocate for AI use, adoption flows downward more effectively.
“Leadership buy-in is the difference between dabbling and transformation.” — Natalie Appleton
The 5C Framework for Workplace AI
To thrive in the modern workplace, organizations need reliable AI tools that span generative and agentic capabilities, alongside training that prepares the workforce for the future. Meeting that need requires solutions that are practical, scalable, and trusted. At Korbyt, we’re dedicated to helping our customers operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. That’s why we created Korbyt 5CAI.
Korbyt 5CAI delivers a suite of generative and agentic agents built to streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and empower facilities managers and workplace leaders.
- Create: Uses generative AI to rapidly build content
- Curate: Intelligently organizes and delivers the right content at the right time
- Concierge: Conversational assistant for personalized smart booking
- Command: AI-led device and IT management, delivered through ScreenDetective
- Clarity: Data insights delivered automatically to stakeholders
Command is the clearest example of the framework moving from concept to production. It shipped at InfoComm 2026 as ScreenDetective, which monitors screens across a deployment, detects failures as they happen, and triggers automated recovery rather than waiting on a support ticket. For an IT or facilities team running hundreds of endpoints, that is agentic AI doing the kind of narrow, well-scoped, high-volume work it is actually good at today.
This framework aligns with both employee experience and operational efficiency, and it’s designed to grow with your organization. Korbyt continues to deepen its AI capabilities across the other four Cs on the same path: ship something that solves a real operational problem, then expand.
Final Thoughts
“AI should help us do more of what matters. It’s not about replacing people—it’s about amplifying their impact.” — Travis Kemp
As AI continues to evolve, the organizations that will thrive won’t be those with the most tools—it will be the ones who build a culture of adoption, learning, and transparency.
We’re still early in this journey, but the rise of agentic AI alongside generative AI is already redefining what’s possible in workplace management. It’s time to move forward, with intention, clarity, and confidence.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about generative and agentic AI in the workplace.
Generative AI creates content, such as text or images, in response to a human prompt and needs ongoing direction. Agentic AI takes a goal and acts on it independently, running workflows like predictive scheduling or space management with minimal human intervention.
It reduces repetitive manual work across IT, facilities, and HR by handling tasks like digital signage optimization, meeting room management, and cross-platform employee communications, freeing facility managers to focus on higher-value decisions.
It can be, when rolled out with a “trust but verify” approach: starting with semi-automated tasks, monitoring performance closely, keeping human oversight on decision-critical workflows, and meeting enterprise-grade security and governance standards.
Korbyt 5C AI is a framework of five generative and agentic agents — Create, Curate, Concierge, Command, and Clarity — built to streamline operations and reduce manual effort for facility managers and workplace leaders. Command shipped at InfoComm 2026 as ScreenDetective, which monitors screens, detects failures, and triggers automated recovery.
Start small: pilot semi-automated tasks, invest in interoperable platforms, choose vendors with transparent roadmaps, and prioritize employee training so teams know how to work alongside AI agents effectively.
About Authors
Natalie Appleton is a workplace experience leader with nearly two decades of expertise in space and meeting management. As Vice President of Workplace at Korbyt, she draws on her work with more than 150 global clients to shape strategies that simplify how people connect with spaces and resources. Natalie earned her MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2006. She remains active in the professional community through IFMA, ILTA, InfoComm, AVIXA, and WorkTech, contributing to the ongoing conversation on facility management, space utilization, and the future of work.
Travis Kemp is the Vice President of Product at Korbyt, where he leads product management and training initiatives. With a degree in Network Engineering from Michigan Technological University and more than a decade of product leadership experience, Travis has guided large-scale digital signage and space management deployments for enterprise organizations. His background spans hardware, electronics manufacturing, and workplace technology, making him a trusted leader in delivering innovative solutions that enhance the modern workplace.
