As technology becomes more and more a part of everyday life, organizations in every industry have to think about its impact.

The private security industry is no different. Andrew Esseff, CEO of Cobalt Security Services, thinks the real fear security companies should have is being outdone by their competitors for not integrating new technology fast enough.

But where do you start? Technology can be so overwhelming and it can be hard to know what trends are worth time and effort.

One thing is for sure. Artificial intelligence is a technology worth investing in, especially for private security companies.

Not Just Fancy Robots

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a popular subject for a long time. Almost everyone has heard the term. Whether it was HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator or Agent Smith in The Matrix. Hollywood seems paranoid about violent, revenge-seeking robots making everyone slaves and taking over the world. Luckily, we’re a long way off from needing to worry about that.

AI is a hot topic and the term gets thrown around a lot. But what is artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer program or a machine to “think” by collecting huge amounts of information and then “learn” by seeing patterns in that information and watching the impact of events and decision making.

Basically, AI is used to help humans make better decisions by looking at more information in a few seconds than we can in years of research.

AI technologies are more a part of everyday life than people might think.

Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are AI “voice assistants” that can search the internet, run tasks on your phone, and even schedule dinner reservations. Car companies like Tesla are very close to getting cars to drive completely by themselves using “machine learning.” Companies like Nest and Ring are even beginning to use AI to help keep people safer with automated security systems.

Artificial Intelligence in the Security Industry

The Security Industry Association just released the 2020 megatrends for the security industry. The entire list has a huge emphasis on technology. 3 of the 10 megatrends are related to AI:

• Artificial intelligence
• Facial recognition
• Cloud Computing

These terms might sound a little confusing. We’ll come back to them in a minute. Let’s first look at how you might already be using AI in your company.

Chatbots

Chances are in the past couple of years you’ve seen a chatbot on at least one website. Chatbots use AI to communicate with website visitors for you to make their visit feel more personal.

Auto-Scheduling

Some of the industry’s top scheduling software have made easy-to-use scheduling software that uses AI. Their software looks at every aspect of scheduling - total labor hours needed, total number of properties, even how often a guard is late to a certain shift - and uses all of the information to make the best schedule possible for your entire operation.

Easy Ways to Start Integrating AI into your Security Company

ROG is a company dedicated to helping security companies with AI. Even better, it is designed to be used with standard surveillance camera systems. It doesn’t require any additional hardware to get up and running.

“ROG is creating a simple and easy platform for everyone to stay safe and connected through artificial intelligence and computer vision technology.  ROG empowers security organizations to detect and deter real-time threats for a safer world. With ROG, security teams are able to proactively protect communities, property, and people in a much bigger and cost-effective way.”

ROG basically enables a security operation to run “virtual guard tours.” Officers can cover more properties in less time by using AI to do the time-consuming part of their job. As a result, officers can focus on the parts of their job that are true difference-makers.

ROG in Action

Cobalt Security Services has taken advantage of both ROG and Silvertrac Software in its security operations. Cobalt, CEO Andrew Esseff, made it clear that security companies should not be afraid of moving toward technology.

Even though many people think AI and automation will take jobs away, especially in the security industry, the opposite is true at his company. Cobalt Security Services - a long-time Silvertrac customer - started using ROG with Silvertrac to empower his security guards - giving them more power and resources to conduct safe and efficient routes.

What Now?

Want to learn more about what AI can do for your security company? Silvertrac teamed up with ROG and Cobalt Security Services for a Thinkcurity Webinar about their experience with AI and how it can be used for people of all experience levels. Check out the recording with a full Q&A here.