Even for those of us who have worked in the tech industry for decades, the pace of change over the past 12 months has been staggering.
We are once again convinced that technological innovation presents not only great opportunities, but also more complex challenges than we have faced before, and shows no signs of slowing down. For businesses, customers, and regulators, keeping up with change and its impact requires focus, energy, and diligence.
The key technology trends we're seeing impacting the security industry in 2024 reflect this rapidly evolving environment. As ever, they are positive opportunities to be seized, but they also have challenges to address.
The diffusion of deep Xi to the edge is accelerating. In fact, any new webcam that is being launched has a deep Xi capability, which greatly improves the accuracy of the analysis. These capabilities are fundamental to building scalable cloud solutions because they eliminate heavy bandwidth requirements, reduce processing in the cloud, and make systems more reliable.
However, as far as AI is concerned, 2023 is the year when large language models (LLMs) enter the public consciousness as the foundation of generative AI. This form of AI supports the creation of new content based on the user's natural language prompts and questions – words, images, and even **.
Every business is looking for potential use cases for generative AI, and security is no exception. In 2024, we will see the emergence of security-centric applications based on the use of LLMs and generative AI. These may include operator assistants to help them interpret what is happening in the scenario more accurately and effectively, as well as to serve as interactive customer support to provide more useful and actionable responses to customer queries. In addition, generative AI has proven its value in software development, which will bring benefits to the entire security landscape.
Of course, we do need to be aware of the risks and potential pitfalls of industrial intelligence. There will be debate about which models to adopt and how, especially around whether to use an open source model or a proprietary model, but the biggest risk will be to ignore it.
Hybrid solution architectures—leveraging the benefits of on-premises, cloud, and edge technologies—are now the new standard for many security solutions. Capabilities are deployed where they are most efficient, taking advantage of the benefits of each instance in the system for increased flexibility. Ultimately, the system architecture should serve the needs of the customer, not the preferred structure of the vendor.
To a large extent, this is an accessibility issue. The more solutions that exist in an environment that is easily accessible to both the merchant and the customer, the more capable the vendor will be to manage the elements of the system, take on greater responsibility, and reduce the burden on the customer.
The hybrid architecture also supports AI-enabled and automated use cases in the management and operation of upcoming solutions;Improving system accessibility is valuable for both human support and AI, taking advantage of the benefits of each different instance.
Security and safety are often linked together as a single theme. They are increasingly considered separate use cases: security is related to preventing intentional acts (breaking in, vandalism, attacking others, etc.), while security is related to unexpected hazards and events that can cause harm to people, property, and the environment.
The use of monitoring and analytics in security use cases is growing rapidly and will continue to grow for a number of reasons.
Unfortunately, one of the reasons is climate change. As extreme weather conditions can lead to flooding, wildfires, landslides, avalanches, and more, monitoring, environmental sensors, and analytics will increasingly be used to warn of potential hazards and support the most rapid, effective response.
Risk management, compliance with health and safety directives, and regulatory requirements are another key reason for the continued growth of safety-related use cases. **Surveillance will be widely used within the business to ensure compliance with policies and safe work practices, such as wearing the required personal protective equipment (PPE). When an incident does occur, monitoring becomes an increasingly useful and important tool in investigations.
When it comes to compliance, the global regulatory environment has an increasing impact on the development, adoption, and use of technology. **Merchants and end users need to pay attention and work closely together to ensure compliance with these regulations.
Artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, sustainability, corporate governance, all these areas are under greater regulatory scrutiny. Businesses need to develop their own technology and run their business in a way that supports customer compliance requirements.
This is an area that is constantly evolving and changing, requiring constant diligence, development and transparency throughout the value chain. It's a matter of trust for users of security technology. Can they be sure that each link in the chain is operating in a way that supports its own regulatory compliance
The impact of all aspects of security systems will come under increasing scrutiny, with vendors and customers monitoring and measuring and increasingly reporting on a wide range of factors. Critical from a holistic system perspective.
Energy consumption is a good example. The camera itself consumes relatively little energy. But that changes when you consider servers, switches, hubs, and routers that are located in large data centers that need to be cooled to transmit data.
This holistic system perspective is useful and should be welcomed by the industry. It will bring new technologies and camera innovations that will bring benefits to the entire system rather than in isolation. A good example of this is a camera that reduces bitrate, storage, and server load to reduce server cooling requirements. More efficient product transport, sustainable packaging, and the use of standard components can also play a role. Visibility and greater control across the entire chain is crucial.
We all recognize that total cost of ownership (TCO) is an important measure, but security vendors will increasingly need to consider the overall impact of ownership, while also considering non-financial aspects, including environmental and social factors. It will no longer be possible for businesses to operate in isolation from their own value chain and that of their customers.
There is no doubt that 2024 will see further advances in technology, which also poses further challenges for all of us. As always, we look forward to working with our partners and customers to ensure positive outcomes for everyone inside and outside the industry."
Editor in charge: Jiang Hua**: Qianjia.com