With another year comes new security strategies and challenges. Here, security experts are sharing their insights on physical security predictions for 2025.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Fred Burton, Executive Director of Protective Intelligence at Ontic:
The rise of misinformation and disinformation has put a lot of pressure on companies to beef up their intelligence verification procedures. It’s hard to know what issues coming through various feeds are true. At the same time, the volume of information is astounding. There’s been some talk of deploying AI for it, but given the propensity of some AI applications to provide misleading information, the technology isn’t ready for prime time. Casting a wide net for intelligence isn’t really feasible at the moment. To get a handle on the problem, companies will need to fine-tune their feeds to make sure they are only focusing on information that directly impacts their environment. The guideposts of compliance and oversight are the new frontier here. Companies must focus on creating structures that ensure ethical and legal responsibility as they navigate complex issues like AI-driven disinformation.
Mike Lahiff, CEO and Co-Founder at ZeroEyes:
I believe that in 2025 we will see even more school districts, public spaces and businesses adopting AI-based security solutions. Reliance on computer vision is rapidly growing, thanks to a mix of new product innovations, rising demand from different industries, and breakthroughs in technology.
As the problem of gun-related violence continues in this country, thoughts and prayers just aren't enough. There is no 'one size fits all' solution, but a layered security program that includes perimeter security, access control, intrusion detection, and other advanced technologies is proving to be the most effective approach. We are seeing schools, hospitals, houses of worship, commercial businesses, public transit and other organizations increasingly investing in proactive AI-based solutions, and I expect this to continue into next year and beyond. I also think we will be seeing more state legislatures granting funds so schools can invest in AI technology.
People are realizing that AI has a valid role to play in preventing violence. Our Research Center has found that most shootings occur outside buildings as the result of an escalated dispute. AI can detect and warn others the second that a weapon is illegally brandished, so that action can be taken before the first shots are fired.
Employee training
Cynthia Marble, Senior Director, Threat Assessment Management Operations at Ontic:
Gone are the days of “See something, say something.”
Instead, it’s “See what? And say what?” In 2025 organizations are going to place more focus on employee training on the specific types of things that raise red flags. One factor that is driving this trend: an increasing number of employers fall under regulations or legislation that require them to build workplace violence prevention programs, which affect employers in New York and California, and hospitals around the country. Simply having a program isn’t enough. Employers will need to focus on training that helps them understand what behaviors raise concerns and where to report them.
Budgeting concerns
Charles Randolph, Chief Security Officer at Ontic:
The biggest threat facing many companies in 2025 will be a lack of money and resources due to an uncertain economic environment. Many of the folks one would typically see at security conferences in 2024 weren’t there because some companies seem to be holding on to their cash. Security leaders will need to contend with a threat environment that is not diminishing, in the face of no increased resources. How will they manage? I think technology is going to be the through line.
Video intelligence
Steve Lindsey, CTO at LVT:
Companies will evolve beyond video surveillance and leverage true video intelligence in 2025—implementing solutions that gather real-time data that is richer than we have ever seen to enable proactive crime fighting.
This shift is inevitable because video security solutions can now not only passively record environments but also collect meta-data and turn that information into actionable insights. This video intelligence will result in more informed security personnel, greater optimization of resources, and overall boosts to safety across environments.
These capabilities can be enabled without requiring new equipment in many cases, however, organizations will likely adopt more cloud services to accelerate the transition. It is much easier to operationalize video intelligence through cloud solutions than by building on-premise infrastructure that enables artificial intelligence and the necessary cross-platform connectivity. Cloud solutions provide ongoing access to the latest AI advancements and intuitive features and interfaces that can significantly improve security operations and lower upkeep costs.
Redaction and evidence sharing
Andreas Conrad VP of Marketing, Physical Security for Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial Division at Hexagon:
The need for compliance also extends to the sharing of CCTV with external stakeholders, including law enforcement. New masking and blurring capabilities available within the latest VMS systems are making this far easier to manage. However, getting video footage to police continues to be a challenge for many organizations.
The traditional method for exchanging video evidence (typically CCTV) has largely been a painstakingly slow manual process involving officers visiting a site to review footage and save it to a storage device. This can be further complicated if, for example, a retailer does not have the recording on-site, or the store manager cannot access the recording device. This has led to many retailers choosing not to report incidents, due to a lack of confidence in follow-up, and not wanting a law enforcement presence on premises during open hours.
In the UK the National Business Crime Centre is urging businesses to ensure their CCTV systems have “the capability to upload and share CCTV footage electronically with the police to speed up investigations and identify offenders.” In the U.S. the NYPD is running an initiative to help reduce instances of shoplifting by allowing businesses to feed security camera footage directly to the police department.
However, there is good news. Law enforcement agencies are investing in new systems to help them request and receive video footage electronically (known as DEMS and DAMS systems). Additionally, retail businesses can do a lot to improve the process. VMS systems can speed things along, giving them the ability to access video from the control room and beyond, quickly source all incident-related footage from across multiple cameras and, of course, redact sensitive information.
The next 12 months will see the world continue to face commercial and economic challenges, geopolitical instability, issues of extremism and societal unrest, and the physical security industry will continue to do what it does best: take advantage of new innovations and best practices to be the front-line of defense.
Proactive crime deterrence
Steve Lindsey, CTO at LVT:
We will see a necessary transition from passive evidence collection or simple alarm solutions to proactive crime detection and deterrence systems in the coming months, empowering teams to prevent crime instead of just detect it—forever changing the whole notion of security.
Security solutions have advanced to the point where artificial intelligence can gather real-time information about threats happening and constantly augment intelligence based on threat patterns. What used to take weeks or months to analyze will now take seconds, allowing security operations to scale in ways we could never scale before.
AI-powered solutions will provide teams with intuitive and highly actionable alerts about potential threats before a crime happens, and if a situation does occur, the systems can identify critical moments instantly to deliver the necessary evidence to help stop bad actors for good.
