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. One in four publicly listed companies reported 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 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 monitoring 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 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.
