How AI Agents Will Reimagine Corporate Security Departments
Key Highlights
- AI agents are set to radically change corporate security by automating surveillance, incident escalation, and real-time risk assessment.
- The integration of autonomous AI will enable security teams to focus on strategic tasks, reducing false alarms and manual monitoring burdens.
- Real-time insights from AI agents will help organizations understand the impact of threats like wildfires or geopolitical conflicts and plan appropriate responses.
- Security leaders are encouraged to collaborate with AI developers to ensure solutions address genuine organizational needs and challenges.
- The shift towards AI-driven security is imminent, marking a pivotal moment in how organizations manage risks and protect their assets in a complex global environment.
Over the last 15 years, I've seen technology transform enterprise risk management at some of the world’s largest companies. Yet, despite these advancements, many corporate security teams have yet to embrace AI to drive their security programs forward.
As we move into the agentic AI era, where intelligent, autonomous agents will radically change how humans and machines work together, profound change is coming to corporate security departments. AI agents will fundamentally transform how organizations keep their employees safe, facilities protected and respond to revenue-impacting events.
Time for Change
This AI transformation could not come at a more critical time, as security teams face unprecedented challenges across multiple fronts. Extreme weather events, workplace violence, executive threats, and geopolitical conflicts are impacting organizations around the world.
These threats create cascading effects: production delays, service outages, financial losses, and reputational damage. The financial impact is staggering: an Allied Universal report based on responses from nearly 1,800 security leaders at large global companies found that physical security incidents led to more than $1 trillion in revenue losses, with one in four publicly-listed companies reporting a drop in corporate value due to physical security incidents.
Yet many corporate security teams still focus on traditional physical measures, prioritizing security guards and equipment deployments over intelligence-led risk management programs. All the while, historic challenges, like manual video surveillance monitoring and persistent false alarms, have prevented some from expanding their programs beyond employee safety and facility protection.
AI Agents as Force Multipliers
But our world is about to change. AI agents that monitor video surveillance and access control systems and escalate critical incidents to human operators were the talk of the town at this year’s ISC West, the security industry’s premier U.S. tradeshow. The event provided a preview of what security departments of the future will look like: AI agents working alongside human specialists, transforming how decisions get made and security actions implemented.
AI agents, specifically designed for the corporate security industry, will enable in-house teams to deliver unimaginable services that were previously unimaginable. These agents will not only free up employees to work on more complex and strategic work but also help reduce financial loss by accelerating the decision-making process during disruptive events.
In the not-too-distant future, when a security incident occurs, AI agents will clarify why the event matters, predict what may happen next, and provide actionable guidance to the responding security team. These agents will introduce, for the first time, personalized real-time insights for every organization and redefine what proactive risk management means in the age of AI.
AI agents, specifically designed for the corporate security industry, will enable in-house teams to deliver unimaginable services that were previously unimaginable.
For example, when a wildfire occurs near a large industrial site, AI agents will not only assess ‘what’ is happening in real-time but instantly describe the ‘so what’ to each company. The agents will explain how the event is likely to impact employees, the facility, and nearby business operations, and predict what may happen next (‘the now what’) based upon everything the agents understand about wildfires and historic trends in that location.
This future is not too far away and will fundamentally change the type of decisions that public and private sector organizations can make in the face of security events and natural disasters.
Unprecedented Opportunity
Advancements in AI and today’s business environment have created an unprecedented opportunity for corporate security teams to increase their strategic relevance inside their organizations.
Business executives increasingly want security leaders to serve as trusted advisors on a range of issues–from geopolitical developments to supply chain disruptions–that are impacting their companies. AI platforms that provide real-time warnings are enabling this, but are just the start.
AI agents will help security teams not only identify, assess, and facilitate an organization's response to disruptive events, but also alleviate current capacity challenges by automating repetitive labor-intensive tasks. Empowering teams to focus more on the most significant risks to their company’s business objectives.
Creating the future together
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into corporate security departments, solutions must address genuine problems and user needs. Security practitioners can play a significant role in shaping how this technology develops by working closely with AI companies on the challenges they’re experiencing.
As organizations look to rewire how their departments operate in the AI-powered world, utilizing AI agents to augment real-time decision-making is an effective, real-world application for today’s technology.
When we look back in a few years and ask when AI started to transform corporate security departments, we will say now. Right now.
About the Author
Rob Crowley
Chief Security Officer at Dataminr.
Rob Crowley is the Chief Security Officer at Dataminr. He has extensive work experience in various leadership and analytical roles. Before this, he worked at Uber, where they held several positions, including Senior Program Manager for Global Law Enforcement Outreach and Partnerships from April 2020 to January 2022. Rob also served as a Global Program Manager for New Mobility Security & JUMP Asset Protection from January 2019 to March 2020 and as Manager of EMEA Threat & Crisis Team from October 2017 to December 2018. Before joining Uber, they were employed at Deutsche Bank as an Assistant Vice President for Corporate Security & Business Continuity from May 2015 to October 2016. Rob also worked as the Protective Intelligence Lead for the UK/MEA region.