The field of home security is changing fast, and while you may be keeping an eye on these emerging security trends, are you doing enough to integrate them into your business? While advances in AI, sensor capabilities, advanced video monitoring and analytics, and smart home technology are all shaking up the security sector in major ways, the key question security providers should now be asking is: how can we integrate these into our operations?
If you’re among the companies who are nimble and act fast, then you’ll be rewarded with a place at the leading edge of these advances, and be the one setting the standards, instead of playing catch-up. We challenge you to choose just one of these top 5 home security trends and create an action plan for how you’ll address it in your business this year. Here’s what we’re watching:
Challenge: What’s the Biggest Offering In the Home Security Industry?
#1. AI-enhanced security
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing security trend with huge potential. In fact, the Security Industry Association has listed it as a security mega-trend for 2022.
In the home security space, we’re already seeing AI-powered facial recognition and advanced video surveillance capabilities. For example, deep learning algorithms combined with computer vision can make decisions about when to zoom or pan across a property, filter out animals or passing vehicles that might otherwise trigger an alarm, and provide vital context so central monitoring stations can prioritize real emergencies. Meanwhile, facial recognition capabilities can enable authorized access for known people, such as family members.
AI promises to move security beyond rules-based functionality, so systems can make responsive and dynamic decisions in real time. For example, AI systems might use data from RF (radio frequency) interference and Wi-Fi to understand occupancy movement patterns throughout a home. Using that information, they can then arm or disarm an alarm based on real-time behavior, and even alert you to suspicious movements while the system is unarmed.
Challenge: How Can You Integrate AI Into Your Existing Security Offerings?
#2. A seamless security experience, driven by smart home technology
The home security industry is increasingly being challenged to evolve in response to the boom in smart home technology, especially smart speakers, which numbered 320 million in 2020 and were projected to double by 2024. As smart home technology brings our speakers, lights, doors and windows, thermostats, and more into its fold, every connected device can now become part of a home’s security landscape.
This is a time of incredible advances in home automation and security, from voice assistants that can close doors, switch off lights, and disarm security systems for recognized guests, to seamless security features integrated into existing products: think ultrasound motion sensing in devices like Amazon’s Echo and Echo Dot.
Challenge: How Can You Bring Multiple Smart Home Signals Together to Provide a Seamless Home Security Experience?
#3. Growing concerns about data privacy
Security systems have advanced by leaps and bounds in the past several years, with advanced sensing technologies, video and facial recognition, and cloud-based data storage now part of the landscape. But with more monitoring, more advanced systems, and more cloud-based storage, it’s prudent to ask: how does data privacy fit into the picture? A video doorbell with facial recognition is great–but what are the privacy implications when it captures the faces and movement patterns of every passing neighbor or delivery person?
When it comes to home security, we have to ask how much data should be collected at all, how it should be stored, who should be able to access it or share it, and how it should be disposed of. The rise of smart home devices like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, for example, raise important questions around privacy as homeowners’ every word and movement is recorded and stored online. People are increasingly aware of the ways they’re being tracked, so look for large-scale conversations around this topic as the technology continues to advance.
Challenge: How Can You Join the Growing Conversation Around Data Privacy?
#4. Advanced video monitoring and analytics
AI may be the rising star in the security universe, but video monitoring and analytics are the infrastructure upon which much of it sits. Right now we’re seeing major advances in video technology, with more homeowners asking for (and expecting) video monitoring in addition to traditional security offerings. Today’s video cameras integrate both video and audio to allow for two-way communication between you and the person on camera.
There are also more (and better) options for remote video monitoring, especially via smartphone apps that allow homeowners to act on security alarms or video footage immediately, in-app. And advances in drone technology are taking video monitoring to a whole new level, like Ring’s Always Home Cam drone promises to do.
Challenge: How Can You Bring Advanced Video Monitoring to Your Security Operation?
#5. Improvements in sensor abilities and range
Traditional motion sensors are quickly being replaced by WiFi, radar, and ultrasound that can all be used to monitor motion inside a home or its perimeter. Amazon Echo smart speakers, for example, are integrating ultrasound technology to detect occupancy in a home.
Meanwhile, better wireless sensors are coming out, and they have a much wider range than their predecessors–some even up to a quarter of a mile. This means property owners can now easily monitor exteriors that are far from the home’s security panel.
Challenge: How Can You Offer Advanced Security Features to Your Customers and Keep Them Informed of Advances Like These, So They Can Adopt Them Accordingly?
6. Accepting the challenge
The home security space is constantly evolving, and these trends are a testament to how dynamic technology is changing homeowners’ security needs and expectations. Home security is becoming more integrated, more advanced, and more nuanced in how it distinguishes potential threats–and the top security professionals are learning how to make the most of these emerging trends to respond to their customers’ changing preferences.
Bold Group is here to help you stay on top of these advances so you can offer the the best possible solutions. We’re also here to support you as you take on a leading role in this field, consulting with and advising your customers on emerging technologies while integrating them into your own operations. Contact us for more information on how we can help you expand and strengthen your service offerings.