Paul Rothman’s August 2026 Editor’s Note, “Where have all the integrator voices gone?” got me thinking: The disappearance of independent integrator voices didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't simply about private equity finding an attractive market. There is a larger technology and business story behind today's consolidation that reaches back nearly three decades – and understanding it matters, because AI is about to make the integrator's role more consequential, not less. 

A Fundamental Shift

For many established security integrator/installers, the introduction of IP technology meant an important part of their technological foundation was changing. A traditional security company could build substantial expertise around alarm systems, access control, video surveillance, electronics, wiring, control panels, and the products of the manufacturers it represented. Increasingly, successful integration required knowledge of computers, operating systems, databases, servers, storage, software, IP networking, and eventually virtualization, cybersecurity, cloud services, APIs, analytics, and AI.

For some owners – particularly those who had already spent decades building successful companies – it could feel as though the technological rug was being pulled out from under them. Continuing successfully meant making another significant investment in people, skills, training, management, and technology, and accepting the risks accompanying that transformation.

As security technologies became increasingly sophisticated, hearing directly from technology innovators became more important. Manufacturer participation became more valuable because the subject matter had changed. The trade show floor reflected the same transformation – it exploded with technologies, products, platforms, integrations, and new capabilities – making the physical security technology landscape overwhelmingly complicated.

Integrators increasingly needed new engineering and software skills, IT and cybersecurity understanding, manufacturer certifications, specialized technical personnel, and the ability to evaluate an expanding array of technologies.

At the same time, their customer relationships were changing. The integrator could no longer always operate primarily through the security director or facilities organization. IT, cybersecurity, procurement, HR, legal/privacy, enterprise risk management, and other stakeholders increasingly became involved.

Technological convergence was accompanied by something equally important: an expansion of the organizational knowledge required to apply the technology effectively. This involved mindset-changing at all levels.

Selling to PE Became Increasingly Rational

Against that background, successful independent integration company owners – many approaching retirement – were faced with a choice: continue investing in new technologies, new skills, new personnel, new management capabilities, cybersecurity, increasingly sophisticated customer relationships, and perhaps an entirely new generation of company leadership; or, sell a valuable business at an attractive valuation and retire.

Consolidation also had powerful forces operating from both directions. For sellers, decades of technological and organizational transformation made remaining an independent, first-rate integrator increasingly demanding, while retirement and succession were becoming immediate concerns for many founders. For buyers, integration companies had become increasingly attractive businesses. Recurring revenue, sticky customer relationships, geographic expansion opportunities, and a highly fragmented market made them attractive acquisition targets. Those forces eventually met.

AI Changes the Dynamic

The concern about the disappearance of independent integrator voices is particularly timely because high-value AI deployments do not come from cookie-cutter deployments; in fact, AI makes understanding the customer’s operational environment more – not less – important. The technology may be capable of detecting, classifying, correlating, predicting, or calling attention to something, but somebody still has to understand what matters to a particular organization.

What constitutes normal activity vs. an exception worth someone’s attention are familiar questions for integrators. Now, they have to answer what organizational capability the technology intended to establish or improve; who should receive the resulting information; what do they do with it; and how do they measure the results. Add continuous improvement into the mix and it’s a lot to understand, and most of those answers are not found in as-built drawings.

Rebuilding the Integrator Voice in the Business Community

Perhaps this points toward one way the integrator voice can re-emerge. The voice does not have to exist only inside the security industry. Integrators can establish a voice inside the business communities they serve. That requires talking less about cameras, readers, platforms, and AI features, and more about what the organization is trying to protect and accomplish.

Community involvement provides an opportunity for integrators to meet business leaders and help them understand – in formal presentations or informal conversations – how modern physical security can protect the business bottom line. That conversation should not begin with products; the objective is neither maximum security nor minimum spending. It is sufficient and appropriate safeguarding of the business.

AI-enabled physical security makes this kind of business-level conversation even more important. The value is not simply that AI can perform a new detection or analysis. The question is what the resulting capability enables the organization to protect, understand, decide, or do, and how that contributes to safeguarding the business value stream.

Community involvement can also lead to practical learning opportunities. An integrator might, for example, undertake a small pro-bono project jointly with a manufacturer for a smaller organization within a particular business niche (especially a niche that also contains much larger companies). Done thoughtfully, the value extends beyond goodwill or a demo, as the integrator and manufacturer learn the industry’s processes, terminology, operating constraints, physical security risks, and the ways in which technology can support the people and processes that create value. That knowledge can later make the integrator substantially more credible when engaging larger organizations in the same industry.

At precisely the point when physical security technology is becoming capable of doing extraordinary things, the industry needs thoughtful integrators who can talk not just about what the technology does, but about what customers can accomplish with it.