Commercial cleaning robots can offer major advantages for facility leaders looking to improve productivity, control costs, and deliver more consistent service.
But bringing robots into your facilities means trusting your facility service provider with more than your floors. It also means trusting them to select advanced equipment and manage processes that protect potentially sensitive information.
Are they prepared for that responsibility?
As organizations increasingly evaluate robotics to improve efficiency and performance, privacy and security deserve the same attention as equipment selection, training, and performance. Overlooking these responsibilities could potentially put people’s privacy and sensitive facility data at risk.
A Growing Opportunity for Facility Leaders
The potential for automation is substantial. McKinsey estimates that AI-powered agents and robots could generate about $2.9 trillion in annual U.S. economic value by 2030, including roughly $670 billion from technologies that automate physical work. With approximately 70% of facilities management work involving physical tasks, the opportunity extends directly into facility operations.
For commercial cleaning robots, that opportunity is translating into rapid adoption. Improved navigation, stronger performance, and lower equipment costs are making autonomous floor care increasingly practical. According to the International Federation of Robotics’ World Robotics 2026 findings, professional cleaning robot sales grew 40% in 2025.
KBS is leading the charge in the co-robotics field, having seen its managed services for robots grow to more than 390 client locations. In total, robots under KBS management have cleaned over 800 million square feet and logged more than 205,000 operating hours for clients, including some of the largest brands in the world.
In one enterprise deployment for a Fortune 50 retailer, KBS rolled out 50+ robots in a multi-office corporate office environment, achieving an 18.7% increase in total efficiency.
What Cleaning Robots Capture
To navigate clean effectively, an autonomous mobile robot must understand its surroundings. Depending on the model, manufacturers use LiDAR, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors to help the robots locate themselves, recognize obstacles and navigate around people.
Processing this information can create privacy and security concerns if not managed properly. For example, in-store camera imagery may incidentally include shoppers and employees. In other facilities, it may capture objects or activity in sensitive areas.
Navigation maps that are used to help the robot understand a facility’s layout can also reveal entrances, restricted spaces, and building design. Facility leaders and their services providers should clearly understand what information is processed on the robot, what leaves it, what is retained, and who can access it.
How KBS Provides Critical Oversight
With more than 100 years of combined staff robotics experience, KBS provides an essential management and oversight layer between the manufacturer and the client that spans equipment selection, site qualification, programming, training, fleet management, and performance reporting. Privacy and security reviews are key to that work, helping reduce risk for clients.
Because we operate robots inside buildings we do not own, understanding and managing their data practices is part of our responsibility.
Selecting equipment with privacy and security in mind. Our deep relationships with leading robotics manufacturers help us understand their equipment’s strengths, limitations, and data protections. We use that knowledge to evaluate robots and platforms against each client’s operating environment and cleaning requirements. The robots KBS deploys are designed not to collect personal information about people in the building. Where cameras are used, visual data is processed onboard in real time for navigation and obstacle avoidance only. Imagery is not stored on the robot or sent to the cloud.
Adding internal scrutiny before deployment. KBS Legal and IT Security jointly review new technology before deployment, providing an additional layer of review beyond manufacturer assurances. That review includes evaluating manufacturers’ adherence to recognized international security and privacy standards, along with independent penetration testing and ongoing vulnerability assessments of their platforms. As technology and cyber threats evolve, KBS continues to refine its approach to data privacy and cybersecurity.
Defining how operational data is used and protected. Before deployment, KBS qualifies the site and develops a floor map for navigation and cleaning. Beyond that purpose, information is used only for anonymized, aggregate reporting on program performance. Operational data, including building maps and cleaning activity, is processed and stored on Microsoft Azure in the Americas. Communication between robots and the cloud is encrypted, and access to both robots and cloud platforms requires authentication and is restricted by role.
Requiring deletion when the contract ends. Data handling responsibilities continue through the end of the engagement. Our manufacturers commit to certified deletion of customer data from their cloud platforms when a contract ends, addressing what happens to that information after service concludes.
The Importance of Choosing an Experienced Robotics Partner
A cleaning robot’s value is measured by more than the floor it covers. It also depends on how effectively the equipment is integrated, managed, and supported throughout its deployment. Protecting information is a key part of that responsibility.
Before bringing robotics into your facilities, ask your provider to explain what the technology captures, how that information is protected and who is accountable. A qualified partner should have clear answers before the first machine arrives.
KBS brings the experience to help clients capture the benefits of robotic cleaning while managing the risks that come with connected technology. Our experts welcome the opportunity to walk your security and procurement teams through our data handling practices in detail.
If you are looking for ways to strengthen performance across your facilities with our robotic cleaning program, let us know. We’d welcome the opportunity to share what we’re seeing and explore what it could mean for your organization.
