Kone Oyj’s Intelligent Elevators: How a 100-Year-Old Company Is Rewriting Vertical Mobility

The Quiet Revolution Inside the Elevator Shaft

Urban infrastructure doesn’t usually make headlines until it fails. Yet every skyscraper, shopping mall, hospital, and metro system relies on one quietly critical layer: vertical mobility. That is where Kone Oyj has been rebuilding the category from the inside out, turning elevators and escalators into connected, software-defined platforms instead of anonymous metal boxes that simply move people up and down.

Kone Oyj, the Finnish elevator and escalator specialist, has spent the last several years pushing hard into cloud connectivity, AI-driven maintenance, and human-centric design. Its latest generations of elevators and digital services are less about steel and cables and more about data, APIs, and seamless integration with smart buildings.

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As megacities densify and sustainability regulations tighten, building owners are under pressure to extract more performance from every square meter and every kilowatt. Kone Oyj is betting that the elevator – once a static asset – can become a real-time, data-rich node inside the building’s digital nervous system. That bet is starting to show up not just in its product roadmap, but also in how investors value Kone Aktie on European exchanges.

Inside the Flagship: Kone Oyj

When people talk about Kone Oyj in 2026, they’re not talking about a single product in the way they might talk about a flagship smartphone. Instead, Kone Oyj has turned its elevator portfolio into a connected platform anchored by three core pillars: the KONE DX Class elevators, its KONE 24/7 Connected Services, and an open, API-first approach to smart building integration.

The result is a portfolio that operates more like an ecosystem than a collection of mechanical products.

DX Class: Elevators as a Software Platform

KONE DX Class elevators represent the core of this strategy. They are designed from the ground up to be digital and upgradeable. The hardware is still critical – ride comfort, door speed, energy consumption, noise levels – but the real innovation is in how these elevators connect, learn, and adapt over time.

Key characteristics of KONE DX Class include:

• Native connectivity: DX elevators ship with built-in connectivity to Kone Oyj’s cloud platform, meaning they can be monitored, updated, and configured remotely. This underpins features like predictive maintenance, traffic optimization, and personalized user experiences.
• Open APIs and integration: Kone Oyj exposes APIs that allow building management systems, access control providers, and even tenant apps to integrate with the elevator system. That allows scenarios like touchless elevator calls from a smartphone, access-controlled destination dispatch, or synchronization with office booking systems.
• Upgradable experiences: Instead of fixed-function control panels, Kone Oyj leans into digital signage, customizable car interiors, and software-defined features. Content, user flows, and service logic can be updated over time without replacing the core hardware.
• Energy efficiency baked in: Regenerative drives, standby modes, and smart group control algorithms aim to cut energy use while managing peak traffic. In markets where green building certifications like LEED and BREEAM matter, that’s a direct selling point.

In practice, DX Class elevators turn vertical transport into something that looks increasingly like a SaaS business layered on top of long-lived hardware. Building owners buy the physical system but can continue adding digital services, integrations, and optimizations through Kone Oyj’s platform.

24/7 Connected Services: AI as the New Maintenance Crew

The second pillar is Kone Oyj’s 24/7 Connected Services, a predictive maintenance service that uses IoT sensors, connectivity, and machine learning to monitor equipment health in real time. Rather than waiting for failures or relying on fixed service schedules, these systems track parameters like door cycles, motor performance, vibration, error codes, and traffic patterns.

Here’s what makes 24/7 Connected Services stand out:

• Continuous telemetry: Sensors inside elevators and escalators feed data into Kone Oyj’s cloud, generating a live picture of equipment health across a global installed base.
• Machine learning diagnostics: Algorithms flag anomalies before they turn into outages – for example, door mechanism wear that historically precedes breakdowns, or unusual motor behavior that correlates with future failures.
• Actionable alerts: Service technicians receive early warnings and recommended actions, which can be prioritized based on severity, traffic intensity at the site, or contractual SLAs.
• Transparent reporting: Building owners gain dashboards showing status, service history, and predicted issues, turning what used to be a black box into a managed, quantifiable service layer.

This predictive approach cuts unplanned downtime – the metric that really matters for shopping malls at peak hours or hospitals during emergencies. For Kone Oyj, it also creates stickier customer relationships and recurring service revenue, a key factor for investors tracking Kone Aktie’s resilience through economic cycles.

Human-Centric and Digital-First Design

Beyond the data layer, Kone Oyj has leaned into user experience and accessibility – areas that are often overlooked in industrial infrastructure. The company emphasizes smooth acceleration and deceleration curves, low noise, clear visual guidance, and custom interior design to match a building’s brand. Digital displays can deliver information, navigation, or even media content inside the elevator car.

On the control side, touchless interfaces, mobile-based calling, and integration with facial recognition or badge systems are designed to cut friction and improve throughput in high-traffic buildings. These aren’t just nice-to-have features; in premium office towers and residential developments, the elevator ride is part of the perceived quality of the building itself.

Future-Proofing for Smart Cities

What makes Kone Oyj’s current offering particularly relevant right now is the convergence of three macro trends:

• Urban densification: Cities continue to build upwards, increasing the demand for high-speed, high-capacity lifts that can move thousands of people per hour efficiently and safely.
• Climate and regulation: Building codes and ESG mandates are forcing owners to reduce energy consumption and report on sustainability metrics. Elevators are a visible and measurable part of that footprint.
• Smart building digitization: Property developers and facility managers are deploying integrated platforms that tie HVAC, lighting, access control, and vertical transport into a single orchestration layer. Kone Oyj’s API-driven, connected approach drops neatly into that architecture.

The upshot: Kone Oyj is increasingly selling not just elevator cabins and escalator steps, but a long-term digital partnership around reliability, efficiency, and tenant experience.

Market Rivals: Kone Aktie vs. The Competition

The vertical transport market is dominated by a small number of global heavyweights. For Kone Oyj, the most direct rivals are Otis Worldwide Corporation, Schindler Group, and TK Elevator (formerly ThyssenKrupp Elevator). All three have their own flagship digital offerings, and the competitive battlefield looks less like pure hardware rivalry and more like a race to lock in building owners with connected ecosystems.

Otis and the Otis Gen2 / Gen3 Platform

Otis, the US-based giant, pushes its Otis Gen2 and newer Gen3 platforms as its digital-first answer. These systems offer:

• Otis ONE IoT platform: A service layer comparable to Kone Oyj’s 24/7 Connected Services, aggregating sensor data and using analytics for predictive maintenance.
• Integrated modernization kits: Solutions aimed at retrofitting existing shafts with new digital capabilities, including destination dispatch and touchless controls.
• Cloud connectivity and apps: Mobile apps for building managers and APIs to support smart building integration.

Compared directly to Otis Gen2 and Gen3, Kone Oyj leans more visibly into open APIs and customizable digital experiences through its DX Class platform. Otis has strong brand recognition, especially in North America, but Kone Oyj often positions itself as the more agile, design-forward, and integration-friendly choice, particularly in Europe and Asia.

Schindler and Schindler PORT Technology

Schindler’s headline digital product is Schindler PORT Technology, a destination control and access system that optimizes passenger flow by grouping people going to the same floors. The system promises reduced waiting times and higher handling capacity through smart routing.

Compared directly to Schindler PORT Technology, Kone Oyj’s destination control and integrated smart building interfaces are similarly sophisticated but embedded deeper into a broader platform play. Where Schindler often highlights PORT as an add-on that can dramatically upgrade existing systems, Kone Oyj pitches an end-to-end, from-cab-interior to cloud-service approach with DX Class and connected services at the core.

TK Elevator and MAX Predictive Maintenance

TK Elevator’s flagship digital service, MAX, is a cloud-based predictive maintenance solution built in partnership with Microsoft Azure. It is designed to detect issues and reduce downtime through data analysis and remote monitoring.

Compared directly to TK Elevator’s MAX, Kone Oyj’s 24/7 Connected Services is similar in ambition but differentiates through tighter coupling with the company’s ecosystem and a strong focus on transparency for building owners. Both services aim to minimize unscheduled downtime, but Kone Oyj has been especially vocal about turning data into customer-facing dashboards and insights, not just backend alerts.

Where Kone Oyj Stands Out

Across all three rivals, the playing field looks similar: connected elevators, IoT-driven maintenance, destination control, and energy efficiency. The competitive difference comes down to depth of integration, openness of the platform, and the quality of the user experience.

Kone Oyj’s differentiator is its fully integrated digital platform around DX Class and 24/7 Connected Services, which is designed from the outset for ecosystem play – not bolted on as an afterthought. The company emphasizes open APIs, smart building partnerships, and customizable experiences in a way that more closely mirrors modern software platforms than traditional industrial products.

The Competitive Edge: Why it Wins

Looking at the current generation of products, Kone Oyj has carved out a clear value proposition that resonates with both property developers and long-term asset managers.

1. A True Platform, Not Just a Product

Kone Oyj’s strategic shift is to treat each elevator as a node in a connected, upgradable system. This means:

• Future-proofing: Building owners can deploy KONE DX Class elevators now and activate new digital services later, instead of locking today’s capabilities into 20–30 years of usage.
• Ecosystem partnerships: Open APIs allow third-party developers and building IT teams to integrate the elevator system into tenant apps, workspace platforms, or custom dashboards.
• New business models: The platform opens doors to subscription-based services, feature unlocks, and value-added analytics – all of which create recurring revenue and enhance customer lock-in.

In a market where hardware specs are converging, this software-defined positioning gives Kone Oyj a meaningful edge.

2. Differentiated User and Tenant Experience

Most elevator pitches focus on reliability and speed. Kone Oyj adds a layer of user experience design that many competitors still treat as secondary. With customizable interiors, digital signage, and touchless or mobile-first control options, Kone Oyj helps building owners turn a commodity touchpoint into a differentiator.

For premium office towers competing to attract top tenants, or residential developments selling a lifestyle brand, that extra polish matters. Compared to a standard elevator ride from a rival, a Kone Oyj deployment can feel more aligned with a building’s identity and digital ecosystem.

3. Hard Metrics: Downtime and Efficiency

Under the hood, however, the metrics that truly convince buyers are operational:

• Reduced unplanned outages: Predictive maintenance from KONE 24/7 Connected Services leads directly to fewer breakdowns, which translates into measurable tenant satisfaction, fewer complaints, and avoided reputational damage.
• Optimized energy usage: Smarter group control and regenerative technologies help buildings meet efficiency and emissions targets, which increasingly factor into valuations and financing conditions.
• Higher handling capacity: Intelligent dispatch and traffic analysis enable existing shafts to move more people without massive structural changes – an important factor in dense urban locations.

When compared directly to Otis Gen2/Gen3, Schindler PORT Technology, or TK Elevator’s MAX-enabled systems, Kone Oyj competes strongly on these fundamentals while layering on a more overtly platform-first narrative.

4. Alignment With ESG and Regulatory Pressure

Many institutional investors, REITs, and large developers now bake environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into every capex decision. Kone Oyj’s emphasis on energy efficiency, safety, accessibility, and transparent service data maps cleanly onto that checklist.

The ability to document maintenance history, uptime, and energy use is not just a facilities concern; it is increasingly central to how large property portfolios are reported and valued. Kone Oyj is positioning its products as tools to support that level of reporting and compliance.

Impact on Valuation and Stock

The product strategy around Kone Oyj’s connected platforms is already reflected in how the market views Kone Aktie (ISIN: FI0009013403).

Using live market data from multiple financial sources, Kone Aktie recently traded on the Helsinki Stock Exchange at a level that reflects solid investor confidence in its long-term, service-heavy business model. As of the most recent trading session checked via online financial platforms, the share price and performance metrics show that the market continues to value Kone as a relatively defensive industrial with a strong recurring revenue component, rather than a purely cyclical construction play.

Because elevator and escalator installations are tied to construction cycles, new equipment orders can fluctuate with macroeconomic conditions. But Kone Oyj’s installed base – millions of units worldwide – generates steady, contract-based service revenue. The push toward KONE DX Class and 24/7 Connected Services deepens that installed base advantage:

• Higher-margin services: Digital maintenance, analytics, and software-defined features carry better margins than pure mechanical servicing. As adoption grows, that mix shift can support earnings resilience even in slower construction markets.
• Customer stickiness: Once a building’s vertical transport is tightly integrated into its access control, tenant apps, and building management systems, switching vendors becomes complex and risky. This reduces churn and extends contract lifetimes.
• Visibility and predictability: Long-term maintenance and digital service contracts give Kone Oyj more predictable cash flows, which typically supports valuation multiples for Kone Aktie.

Analysts tracking Kone Aktie increasingly focus on metrics like the penetration of 24/7 Connected Services in the installed base, DX Class uptake in modernization projects, and the share of revenue coming from digital and value-added services. These indicators point to how effectively Kone Oyj can convert a traditional industrial footprint into a modern, platform-driven recurring revenue model.

In other words, the success of Kone Oyj’s latest product generation does not just influence how fast or smoothly people move between floors; it also feeds directly into how investors price the growth and defensiveness of Kone Aktie on European markets.

The Bottom Line

Kone Oyj has managed a rare feat for a century-old industrial player: it has reframed a mature, arguably commoditized category as a software and data story. Through KONE DX Class elevators, 24/7 Connected Services, and an open, API-centric ecosystem, the company is turning vertical mobility into a digital platform that connects architects, building managers, tenants, and service technicians.

Against heavyweight rivals like Otis, Schindler, and TK Elevator, Kone Oyj competes on familiar battle lines – reliability, safety, speed, energy efficiency – but differentiates itself with a more cohesive platform vision and a sharper focus on user experience and ecosystem integration.

For cities grappling with density, sustainability, and smarter infrastructure, and for investors watching Kone Aktie for cues on long-term resilience, the message is the same: the elevator has become intelligent infrastructure. And Kone Oyj is one of the companies proving that even the most mundane daily journey – from lobby to office – can be reimagined as a connected, data-driven service.