“Today we use [AI] for monitoring set points,” said Eric Fussenegger, a mission critical facility site manager at Wells Fargo, speaking at DCD>New York in 2019. He said it would add to DCIM and “enhance the single pane of glass.”

Further in the future, he suggested AI devices could play a role in the day-to-day physical maintenance and operation of a data center.

“The ink is not even dry yet, maybe it hasn't even hit the paper,” he said, but one day, robots could take over "cleaning or racking equipment for us, so I don’t have to worry about personnel being in hot and cold aisle areas. There are grocery stores that are using AI to sweep.”

Even these extreme views are tempered, however. Said Fussenegger: “I think we’re always going to need humans in there as a backup.”