Smart Building Trends 2026

An 18-page report highlighting key trends from the Light + Building 2026 trade fair, with a focus on smart building trends and physical security.

About the report

Building automation is transitioning from siloed, reactive systems toward software-driven, autonomous operations, as evidenced by the participation of approximately 2,500 exhibitors across 26 halls at the March 2026 Light + Building trade fair in Frankfurt. The primary driver of this shift is the need for human-centric environments that leverage real-time data to optimize energy consumption and operational efficiency.

This report outlines the technological strategies and competitive philosophies of leading vendors in the ecosystem. It examines two core themes:

• Building automation: Comprises AI-driven control, IT-OT convergence, and the development of photorealistic 3D digital twins.
• Physical security: Comprises on-camera edge AI, vision-language models for video search, and the impact of geopolitical fragmentation on hardware procurement.