AI drives urgency as software reshapes security value chain

YARMOUTH, Maine—As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded across security products, customer expectations are shifting rapidly, creating a new sense of urgency around adoption and long-term strategy, industry leaders said during a recent Security Systems News webcast. 

“As the world has begun to see the truly transformative potential of these technologies … there’s clearly a belief from stakeholders and customer organizations that AI will improve our ability to deliver security outcomes, limit risk, and enhance resilience and compliance,” said Eric Yunag, EVP of products and services at Convergint. 

Yunag was joined by Tara Dunning, vice president of global security and converging technology practice at Wesco, and Steve Van Till, founder and president of Brivo, during the webcast, “Converged security: How is it reshaping the modern tech stack?” 

Software as value driver 

Panelists emphasized that the rise of AI is accelerating a broader shift in the industry, with software increasingly driving value while hardware becomes more standardized. 

“The very nature of AI is that it’s an application - it’s software - and it’s making the hardware … smarter,” said Dunning. “It creates opportunity not just for the traditional participants in the physical security industry, but others.” 

That shift is also expanding the scope of security systems beyond traditional use cases such as intrusion detection and monitoring, she added, opening the door to applications tied to operational efficiency, compliance and business intelligence. 

“There are so many opportunities to create value with the solutions that we have in the security industry beyond traditional uses,” Dunning said. “It’s an exciting time.” 

Balancing enthusiasm with real-world constraints 

While interest in AI continues to grow, Yunag noted that successfully deploying these technologies at scale still presents challenges, particularly around governance and organizational readiness. 

“This is where our industry can really help customers understand that governance and compliance are not obstacles,” he said. “They’re actually enablers for the adoption of these technologies.” 

Rather than approaching AI in isolation, Yunag said integrators and end users should look across their organizations to understand how AI is already being deployed and apply those lessons to security. 

“It’s beneficial to take a step back … and ask where there are active AI initiatives and what has already been learned,” he said. 

AI’s long-term impact on revenue 

As value shifts toward software and analytics, the panelists said the implications for revenue models could be significant. 

“More and more value gets stacked in the software,” said Van Till. “If we’re not the ones providing those layers and others come in over the top, then we’re missing out on our own future.” 

Van Till pointed to emerging AI-driven analytics providers that can integrate with existing video systems via APIs (application programming interfaces), adding new capabilities without replacing underlying infrastructure. 

“The original VMS vendor is missing out on that additional revenue if they didn’t build those features themselves,” he said. “Because these AI-native companies are more agile, they’re going to continue to do more of that.” 

At the same time, he noted the core infrastructure of the industry is unlikely to be displaced. 

“I don’t think the disruption is in the existing tech stack,” Van Till said. “The hardware is still going to be there, and integrators are still going to play a critical role in bringing it all together.” 

You can watch the full webcast online here.

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