Updated on April, 2026
Written in Field Circle 2022
What will the future of field service look like by 2030?
For many, 2030 is a distant future, but for those who are responsible for shaping the direction of the company—often at the level of a vice president of operations or other key decision makers—it is not that far away. And for that, they generally take critical decisions now to transform the organization and drive successful field service operations. It not only keeps them aligned with the disruption happening in the industry but also helps them figure out the white spaces where there is still untapped potential to improve customer service and meet growing customer expectations.
On the contrary, as pointed out by the Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, Kim Polese, “The short-term thinking disease is everywhere you look.” It traps leadership executives in determining tactical responses for current challenges, instead of taking actions for the future field service landscape. The difference in approach could be seen as:
To make the shift, you must engage yourself in developing a “clear vision for industry’s evolution”, according to this HBR article. In that process, if we take a look at the current “sustainable innovations” in field services, it would give us a preview of how the industry may evolve. Such innovations include data field service insights, advanced analytics, and real-time tracking of mobile workers, all of which can significantly transform service models and the overall customer experience. Here is an infographic of current field service trends that will shape this decade and trigger impactful evolutions in the next one, especially for service providers looking to keep pace with emerging demands in service management software.
Let us dissect each of these field service trends to see how these trends are setting in and the responses of service leaders within the field service industry.
1. Predictive Maintenance
The global predictive maintenance market size is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.2% during the forecast period, from USD 4.0 billion in 2020 to USD 12.3 billion by 2025, according to MarketsandMarkets research. The increasing pressure on companies in Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) sectors to reduce maintenance downtime and the cost of operations is a major factor driving this growth. Modern service teams recognize that data-driven approaches can help them anticipate issues in real time, improving customer service outcomes while optimizing resource usage.
In this YouTube video by Google Workspace, Prashant Dinghra, Machine Learning Lead, Advanced Solutions Lab, Google Cloud, explains how you can create a hypothesis and build data models around it to develop predictive maintenance capabilities, mainly to:
- Predict if equipment will fail in the next ‘N’ period
- Predict if equipment will fail in the next ‘N1’, ‘N2’…period
- Predict if the equipment will fail in the next ‘N’ period due to the fault in the part ‘X’
- Predict the time to failure or remaining life of equipment
- Find anomalies
In the same video, Manju Devdas, founder and CEO of Pluto7, also explains how predictive maintenance “makes your operations and monitoring team more productive” and saves money by reducing unforeseen downtime. By integrating real-time data from IoT-enabled devices, service organizations can utilize advanced analytics to understand exactly when and why issues emerge.
2. Digital Twin
Digital twin is a conflation of AI, ML, and IoT technologies to collect, process, and then drill down data to get actionable insight. It is basically creating a digital clone of the systems, products, and processes to analyze the implications of any action on them in the real-world environment. This technology empowers service technician teams to run simulations and proactively identify potential failures, thereby improving customer service and boosting customer satisfaction.
The global Digital Twin market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 24.7% during the forecast period 2021 to 2026, as reported by IndustryARC. Interestingly, 42% of market growth is expected to take place in North America, especially in the automobile and aerospace industries. Through real-time tracking and data-driven experimentation, digital twin technology aids service providers in crafting personalized service strategies and anticipating issues before they escalate into more costly problems.
While it has several applications in product design and development and business optimization, maintenance operations is leading the segment by 24%, closely followed by performance monitoring. This allows field service teams to adopt new service models that can extend operational lifespans and reduce the risk of downtime.
3. AR and VR for Remote Assistance
A survey by Gartner in 2018 found that “AR use has increased by 15% and now 1 in 4 field service organizations are driving AR implementations.” Integrating augmented reality into field service operations is becoming a core investment area for many service companies, with decision makers looking to improve accuracy, efficiency, and the customer experience.
In the field service industry, AR and VR technologies are used to create a simulated environment derived from real-world scenarios. It enables service technicians to visualize and identify problems beforehand, so that they can go prepared to the client’s location with the right tools and essential spare parts. This approach also allows them to connect with certified experts from remote locations to seek guidance and support. As a result, mobile workers receive instant feedback and instructions, leading to more personalized service and fewer repeat site visits.
One of the biggest developments in remote assistance is Microsoft’s HoloLens. According to Alex Kipman, the person in charge of the HoloLens project, HoloLens is for the “people that have been, in a sense, neglected or haven’t had access to technology [in their hands-on jobs] because PCs, tablets, phones don’t really lend themselves to those experiences.” It will improve collaboration across locations and facilitate better access and exchange of data in real time. Ultimately, these augmented reality tools can help field service teams overcome geographical constraints and meet rising customer expectations.
4. Dynamic Scheduling and Dispatch
Scheduling and dispatch processes act as the connective tissue between field service technicians and the back-office staff. Any error or mismanagement at this point is quickly reflected as a loss of productivity and a poor first-time fix rate.
In an article published by McKinsey on How Disruptive Technologies are Opening up Innovative Opportunities in Services, it is stated that “By using data and telematics to track technicians’ schedules in real time’, companies can add 20 to 30 percent to the working day. Such an approach is vital for service providers looking to streamline field service operations, whether those operations involve mobile devices or advanced software solutions.
Similarly, Deloitte stated that companies are “Reducing costs by optimizing dispatch processes through employing information such as skills, proximity, priority, and account allocations for scheduling and dispatch.” Such dispatch improvements are often a core element of robust service management software, which can route mobile workers more effectively, keep track of asset history, and provide real-time data to decision makers.
5. Route Optimization
The global route optimization software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.4% from USD 2.50 billion in 2017 to USD 5.07 billion by 2023. This growth rate signals how companies are using geographic information systems (GIS) technology to optimize routes and save time and fuel costs. Reducing transit times and distance can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and also help the field service workforce avoid unnecessary stress, preventing them from experiencing burnout and job conditions that can arise from overly complex routes.
Route optimization software solutions enable users to select fuel-efficient routes, track drive time, and prevent unplanned stops within the service delivery network. Usually, such software consists of a powerful route optimization engine that tests multiple scenarios and leverages data-driven analytics to check time and cost factors, ultimately making the best route recommendations for service technicians. When integrated, this provides service teams with the tools to meet strict customer expectations while efficiently managing scheduling.
6. Customer Self-service Portals
According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the customer self-service software market was valued at USD 7.20 billion in 2019, and it is expected to register a CAGR of 20.94% during the forecast period from 2020 to 2025.
Self-service portals for customers provide information and tools that enable them to schedule technician appointments, locate service providers, and provide feedback on the job done by them. There are two incredible benefits of deploying self-service portals:
- It provides more control to the customers in deciding when and how they want to be served.
- It could help you build a community around your product or service to effectively engage customers with resourceful content and other activities.
Well, the self-service economy might grow much faster than you expect, considering that “70% of customers expect a company’s website to have a self-service portal,” according to Steven Van Belleghem, a global keynote speaker. A similar study conducted by DimensionData reported that “73% of customers prefer to use a company’s website, instead of using social media, SMS, and live chat for support.” For field service teams, dedicating resources to build and maintain an effective self-service platform can be a key driver of personalized service and improved customer experience.
7. Workforce as a Service
The global consulting firm McKinsey reported that there are approximately “68 million freelancers in the US.” Most gig workers support B2C models, working for companies such as Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit, Instacart, Airbnb, and Shyp. As technology evolves field service operations, the field service workforce, too, is expected to see a rise in freelance technicians and contractors. This service workforce model can allow field service companies more flexibility in handling work fluctuations, especially if they have robust service management software in place.
IBM, in an article about how the gig economy will transform field service management, stated that “companies can more accurately predict outages and deploy their workforce” with “systems to track work orders and maintenance records for all field infrastructure.” Thanks to real-time data and advanced analytics, these sorts of gig-economy-based field service models are easier than ever to coordinate.
These systems also make it possible for field services companies to provide role-based permissions for anytime, anywhere accessibility of information to freelance technicians. While these technicians can access the necessary details to complete maintenance or repair tasks, companies still maintain control over how much information a freelance service technician sees. This personalized service approach ensures data security and consistent service delivery.
8. Technician Enablement Tools
To have a clear understanding of technician enablement tools, you need to see the whole FSM process from a field service technician’s perspective. A person, not just a resource, is prone to fatigue, frustrations, and mistakes. Facilitating technicians with tools that share their burden and support them during tough times is the next step in building a stronger field service workforce.
For instance, diagnostic tools could provide them with information such as service manuals, service history, suggestions for diagnosis and repair, and relevant instructions to solve the issue accurately. As stated by Deloitte in the article, Smart Field Service, “Creating the right experiences for your field technicians is essential in delivering delightful experiences for your customers.” This includes equipping mobile workers with mobile devices that can access real-time tracking dashboards, advanced analytics, and up-to-date IoT data on the go.
Yogesh Choudhary, CEO at FieldCircle, elaborates on this as, “The people critical to your business success are out in the field and their empowerment can not only provide immense business and customer insights but can simply be transformative for your service business.” Proper enablement ensures that the service workforce remains satisfied, which in turn reduces the chance of them experiencing burnout job conditions that can hinder customer service levels.
9. Performance Management Tools
A typical FSM process requires performance evaluation of people, processes, and assets. Most field service organizations use KPIs or metrics to evaluate performance. Some of the top KPIs, according to the Field Service News report, include customer satisfaction, service revenue, mean time to repair, SLA compliance, field technician utilization rate, and service part revenue.
As companies move their processes online, it increases the adoption of performance management tools to set, define, monitor, and measure KPIs, be it assets, field service teams, or both. These tools can provide real-time data, delivering a data-driven methodology to improve service delivery and meet customer expectations. Many organizations also run survey field service initiatives to understand where to invest for better field service trend adoption.
Currently, the global asset performance management market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.7% to reach a market value of 18,765 million in 2025. On the same line, the global field service management market size is expected to grow from USD 3.0 billion in 2020 to USD 5.1 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.0% during the forecast period. This growth correlates with service models becoming more reliant on advanced analytics and data field service metrics to ensure continual improvement.
10. Knowledge Management
The efforts to prevent the loss of knowledge with an aging workforce, high employee turnover, and operational complexity would increase in the field service industry. According to the Field Service News report, “48% of field service companies stated the threat of an ageing workforce was indeed a genuine threat to their service operations.” This workforce challenge can often lead to employees who report experiencing burnout if knowledge transfer processes are lacking or if personalized service approaches for employees are not in place.
However, it may be one of the reasons for knowledge management. Another critical reason for increased knowledge management efforts in the industry is the improved first-time fix rate. By making critical information such as service manuals associated with work orders, accessible for technicians in the field, companies have a better opportunity to ensure quick and accurate resolution of the problem. Centralizing service data also allows for advanced analytics that make the entire service workforce more efficient.
An Afterthought
What seems “nice to have” may become “must-have” in the blink of an eye, considering the rapid changes in technology and the acceptance of new solutions among consumers. And these disruptions, most times, lead to businesses going out of business because they fail to adapt and adopt the latest field service trend.
Now is the time to start thinking about what may happen 4, 6, or 10 years down the line in your industry and plan to be ahead in the game, serve your customers better, and build a business that is a disruptor in the future field service space. By proactively incorporating real-time tracking, robust service management software, advanced analytics, and supporting mobile workers with the right resources, companies can meet rising customer expectations and remain competitive.
Predictive Maintenance & Monitoring using Machine Learning: Demo & Case study (Cloud Next ’18) – YouTube
