What happens after detection?

Danny Gagnon, senior director of cloud video sales at Motorola Solutions, sees another version of the same problem.

Detection capabilities have advanced to the point where video systems can identify an increasingly wide range of events. Gagnon said the more important question for customers is what happens next.

“I feel that detection is being commoditized,” he said. “You can detect almost anything with a video surveillance camera now. But the question is, what do you do once a detection happens?”

For a school, hospital or manufacturing operation, security technology is ultimately supporting a larger organizational mission. Customers therefore are looking beyond individual features to workflows, outcomes and the role humans play once technology identifies something requiring attention.

That also changes the way organizations may measure the value of security technology. Gagnon pointed to mean time to resolution — how quickly an organization can move from an incident back to normal operations — as one way customers can think about the outcome rather than the detection itself.

With more technologies and vendors to choose from, customers also have to consider whether what they deploy today can scale without creating technical debt later.

“There’s a lot coming at them,” Gagnon said. “There’s more options than they’ve ever had today. Things are moving really fast, but their businesses haven’t necessarily changed in the same ways.”

Finding useful AI amid the noise

For Alberto Farronato, chief marketing officer at Ambient.ai, the issue comes down in part to giving security operators useful information without overwhelming them with noise.

He said the traditional security model has largely centered on detecting an event so someone can respond. AI creates an opportunity, he said, to identify information and potential indicators earlier while also helping operators determine what deserves their attention.

The goal shouldn't simply be automating an existing process.

Instead, Farronato said organizations should consider whether AI can eliminate unnecessary steps and help operators become more efficient when action is required.

The objective, he said, is giving operators “the right information at the right time without noise.”

Itai Dadon, vice president for strategic partnerships and alliances at Ouster, is hearing increasing discussion about “physical AI,” although he cautioned that the term itself requires some definition.

“I think it’s a buzzword that needs a little bit of framing,” Dadon said.

Rather than treating AI as an outcome by itself, he views it as one of the technologies available to solve a specific problem.

“AI is just a tool, like many other tools that along the evolution of technology we’ve used to get to a certain outcome,” he said.

In Ouster's case, Dadon discussed using AI with lidar data to distinguish among people, animals, vehicles and other objects, with the aim of improving detection and reducing false alarms. His broader point, however, was that the value comes from the result rather than simply applying the AI label.

Customers may have more basic priorities

Everon CEO Don Young offered perhaps the clearest distinction between the technology conversation taking place within the security industry and what customers may actually be asking providers to deliver.

“Everyone here at the show, for example, are all talking about AI,” Young said.

But he said conversations with Everon's customers frequently come back to something much more fundamental: consistent and reliable service.

“They can't afford to go and be partnered with a vendor that's going to deliver an unreliable or inconsistent experience to all of their customers, which are basically their end users,” he said.

For those customers, whether AI helps a provider achieve that reliability is less important than the result.

“Whether we use AI to make that possible or not, that's secondary to them,” Young said.

His observation provides a useful counterpoint to the amount of attention AI commands throughout the industry. New technology may change how security services are delivered, but customers still judge providers on whether those services work consistently.

What comes after the card?

Not every conversation is centered on AI.

Greg Sarrail, senior vice president of sales at Alcatraz, said enterprise security professionals he speaks with are asking a more specific question: What is the future of access control?

Cards and fobs have been the standard for decades, while mobile credentials have emerged more recently without entirely displacing them. Sarrail said customers are now looking further ahead at what might eventually replace or supplement those approaches.

“Card probably isn't what we should be using,” he said, describing the questions he hears from security professionals about what comes next.

Sarrail expects the answer to involve a combination of technologies rather than a single replacement. That could include a secure credential stored on a phone, card, fob, watch or another wearable combined with authentication based on the individual.

“I think people are now thinking, what is the future?” he said.

For Sarrail, those conversations reflect a willingness among security professionals to reconsider technologies and practices that have long been taken for granted, even as the industry continues working through what their successors will look like.

From possibility to practical value

Seven conversations on one GSX show floor don't constitute a survey of the security industry, and the executives approached the question from the markets and customers they know best.

But their answers provide a window into some of the conversations taking place as security organizations confront an expanding set of technologies and choices.

AI was difficult to escape, but it wasn't necessarily the endpoint of those conversations. Several executives instead returned to questions of implementation, usability and outcomes. Others pointed to concerns as fundamental as reliable service or as long-term as what will eventually replace the access card.

The technology displayed at GSX will continue to change, perhaps faster than ever. The questions customers and security professionals are asking are more durable: Does it work? Does it solve a real problem? Can we put it into practice? And what comes next?