Recent product launches and deployments are turning escalators from being just vehicles into active nodes of developing intelligence. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol became the first European hub to deploy KONE’s AI-powered video monitoring service for escalators in March 2023. It is a system that not only enhances passenger safety but also analyzes traffic flows in real time. Around the same time, Otis expanded its Otis ONE digital platform, offering predictive maintenance and remote diagnostics to major commercial and transit operators worldwide. These launches demonstrate that operators and manufacturers expect escalators to provide insights and measurable operational value rather than just being a vehicle.
This blog will demonstrate the noteworthy innovations in the industry and how the market players and investors are going to benefit from this booming market.
Three Major Reasons for Propelling Demand for Smart Escalators
Urbanization, denser public spaces, and rising expectations for safety and continuity are driving demand for smarter vertical-transport solutions. The global escalators industry was roughly USD 13.5 billion in 2024, and the experts forecast that the industry will experience steady growth as retrofit and new-build projects increasingly specify connected capabilities. Here, we have discussed some main factors supporting the market expansion of the smart escalators.
- Speedy Urban Growth and Smart City Development: The United Nations shared that more than 68% of the world’s population will reside in urban areas by 2050, this will accelerate the need for effective people-movement solutions. As cities expand perpendicularly with high-rise buildings, metro systems, and mega-malls, the demand to have eco-friendly, effective, and safer movement solution increasing. Smart escalators are bagged with some essential features completely goes with modern city requirements. The AI-enabling, IoT sensors, energy-efficient modes make them a smarter and more resilient choice in different shopping malls, airports and utility centers. As global governments are inclining heavily towards developing smart cities with programs, like India’s Smart Cities Mission and the EU’s Digital Europe Programme, digital integration is accelerating everywhere. This makes smart escalators a natural choice for future-ready urban mobility ecosystems.
- Rising Governmental Push to Achieve Sustainability: Governments are coming up with stricter norms and higher penalties reduce CO2 emissions to achieve their 2030 and 2050 goals. Thus, in urban development manufacturers are massively focusing on energy-efficient solutions similar to smart escalators. LEED in the U.S. and BREEAM in Europe reward manufacturers for inculcating energy-saving technologies, pushing property owners to opt for smart escalators armed with cultural drives, standby modes, and IoT-based supervision. Regulations that match the requirement of the Paris Agreement and national climate targets further strengthen this trend, as transportation centers, malls, and offices modernize to comply with these rules. These continuous upgrades to meet sustainability making smart escalators more than just a modernizing tool but a prerequisite in future.
- Rapid Digital Transformation: Digital transformation is accelerating the integration of smart escalators by employing smart IoT sensors, AI-enabled decision making and predictive maintenance in daily workflow. These technologies lessen human intervention that becomes cost efficient for utility centers. On the other hand, promoters can have safe passenger movement, limited cost, and lesser downtime. According to a recent report, digital adoption in infrastructure can cut maintenance costs by around 20%, demonstrating the financial value. As cities transform into smart ecosystems, digital escalators are becoming more imperative, presenting not only effectiveness but also data-enables perceptions to maximize urban movement and sustainability goals.
How Businesses Are Gaining Benefits
For facility managers and asset owners, smart escalators provide three outstanding outcomes.
- First, predictive maintenance limits impromptu outages and emergency callouts.According to Clone, a leading provider, predictive maintenance can reduce downtime by up to 50% and emergency calls by a similar margin. For a shopping mall with 50 escalators, this supports thousands of operational hours and a widely enhanced consumer experience.
- Second, safety and acceptance are enhanced through real-time fault detection. AI video monitoring at Schiphol, for instance, flags passenger safety risks and maximizes traffic flow, hindering incident-related liability and passenger complaints.
- Third, operational analytics present energy and lifecycle surge. For instance, usage analytics provide essential support to movement and light that help in passenger flow and also help in energy saving
Real World Usage: How Smart Escalators Are Actually Transforming Urban Infrastructure
Major market players are converting these capabilities into marketable offerings. Here is some real-world proof of how smart escalators are putting the world one step ahead.
- Heathrow Airport, London: It’s one of the world’s busiest airports and cannot afford any disruption. The airport authority has adopted Thyssenkrupp’s MAX platform across its escalator and elevator fleet. This system helps the engineering team to schedule their work depending on noticing which one needs maintenance on priority, and helps in the smooth processing of the workflow of millions of passengers. This dynamic system not only helps to work efficiently but also helps the place to retain its reputation.
- Westfield World Trade Center, New York: It’s a retail shop that uses smart escalators. They deployed KONE’s 24/7 Connected Services across their elevators and escalators. The data-driven insights help the team to work efficiently.
- Singapore Metro (SMRT): A trailblazer of smart city technologies, Singapore integrates a comprehensive IoT-based monitoring system for its escalators. Sensors foresee mechanical disruptions, while passenger flow data is connected with the extensive station management system to maximize crowd movement and platform protection during rush hours.
Final Thought
Smart escalators are no longer a niche add-on; they are a logical extension of intelligent building strategies that seek to reduce costs, improve safety, and deliver measurable sustainability gains. With major vendors embedding connectivity and analytics into product roadmaps and with solid market growth ahead, the smart escalator market represents a timely investment for commercial real-estate owners, transit authorities, and large venue operators. The future wave of smart infrastructure works on sensors, data, and services, and escalators are all set to move the industry forward.
Source: https://www.researchnester.com/reports/smart-escalator-market/7798
