Diving into one of the most prominent and customer trends of 2022.

AI technology is continuing to rapidly transform the physical security landscape within various organizations throughout the world. The attitude in many enterprise finance offices – security as a cost – often mirrors the search results. There are currently 5 billion search results on Google for the phrase “Physical Security Cost.” There are 229 million results for “Physical Security Investment.” 

Our team recently looked at how these exciting advancements in AI-powered video intelligence are changing the physical security space for 2022 and beyond. There are three key ways data can be utilized within the physical security space to produce tangible results that go beyond physical security: Investing in physical security as part of a cyber security strategy, analyzing valuable data insights and realizing a return on investment.

As we look towards these driving forces in AI, one of the prominent market and customer trends surrounds the concept of realizing a Return on Security Investment (ROSI). With the proliferation and continued digitization of physical security infrastructures in recent years, security teams are becoming increasingly more cognizant of the intrinsic and extrinsic real value benefits associated with AI-powered video surveillance intelligence. (On the flip side of that equation, companies that experience a data breach due to a lack of strong security measures can expect to experience financial losses on average of $6.71M.).

AI-based technology is now becoming more readily integrated amongst surveillance teams within the corporate lexicon throughout the world. As such, physical security advancements are widely considered to be a valuable organizational asset for enterprise security teams. Let’s take a closer look at how artificial intelligence can help forward-thinking organizations realize massive financial savings while powering other key parts of the organization.  

Physical Security Investment Produces a Valuable Asset

Organizations must be able to quantify and justify the benefits associated with any large-scale financial expenditure. In 2022, enterprise finance teams are now coming to the vast realization that physical security can and should be viewed as an investment rather than a rudimentary cost.

Physical security has become more than a simple tool for companies to secure their people, places and things. The systems that manage this infrastructure now can produce valuable metadata about what’s happening within their organization, creating a tangible asset amongst forward-thinking, large-scale organizations. This rich metadata produced by AI-powered video analytics can deliver valuable ROSI in terms of physical security, cybersecurity, safety and business optimization. 

For some context, let’s take a look at two data points related to cybersecurity breaches:

1. The 2021 Thales Data Threat Report has found that 45% of US companies have suffered a data breach in the last year alone. With data breaches and information leaks becoming commonplace at companies of all-sizes, organizations must practice strong due diligence when it comes to protecting the sanctity of important data, confidential information and network infrastructure integrity. Failure to do so has the potential to result in devastating consequences in terms of financial ramifications and loss of consumer trust.
   
   
2. According to a 2020 Cost of a Data Breach report, 10% of malicious breaches were caused by a physical security compromise at an average cost of $4.36 million. Granular data obtained from cameras and access control reader systems can help assist companies by providing them a vast array of information regarding their physical spaces to help prevent the occurrence of future breaches.

Resourceful companies are employing machine learning technologies on billions of lines of data to better facilitate and understand various issues that affect HR, real estate, operations and more.

For physical security professionals, their work can be mission critical, as many data breaches are conducted by a disgruntled ex-employee, a vendor or partner who may attempt to use user credentials to access and threaten key digital assets such as server rooms and edge data centers.

Video intelligence can quickly spot potentially threatening individuals entering the building and can help immediately thwart off and prevent potential cyber attacks before they begin. With a strong physical security infrastructure fortified by AI-powered video analytics, smart organizations can take a proactive stance against these threats and illustrate a financial return on their investment.

Analyzing Data Insights from Physical Security

Physical security systems are also now providing new and valuable methods of analyzing data and deriving valuable insights using the help of AI. Prior to these newfound advancements in deep learning technologies, physical security data was widely considered to be expensive, labor intensive and vastly inefficient to analyze with any regular frequency and accuracy.

With a large network of connected cameras and other endpoint devices, physical security organizations are now utilizing new methods of deciphering and analyzing massive amounts of data inputs. Resourceful companies are employing these machine learning technologies on billions of lines of data to better facilitate and understand various issues including employee traffic flow, hoteling, crowding and other potential issues that affect HR, real estate, operations and more.

In fact, according to a survey conducted by Refinitiv, 46% of organizations consider ML to be an essential tool within their organization. Physical security teams are readily focused on the utilization of APIs, a type of interface that provides easily accessible strategies for managing people, places, systems, data and algorithms within integrated enterprise systems. Gartner has been keenly focused on using these API strategies for some time, seeing their potential to enhance business platform integration capabilities.

Vintra is proud to now be working with 3 of the 10 largest companies by market cap in the United States. Each of these organizations have dedicated software developers on their physical security teams that closely utilize data generated from security infrastructures and feed that information through APIs to other parts of the organization.

Using the help of business intelligence tools, organizations can use applications such as HR software and real estate space planning software to seamlessly send information to other departments. Expansive camera systems, with their valuable metadata outputs, can be analyzed via machine learning and that information shared to other parts of the organization, helping companies provide a level of insight not previously seen and realize a very strategic ROSI. 

How do Organizations Realize These Returns? 

Companies of all sizes are realizing massive financial returns through various components of AI technologies. Forward-thinking organizations are utilizing AI physical security capabilities to appropriately scale technologies within massive corporate strategic infrastructures.

For example, because AI-driven approaches can help force-multiply existing technologies and staff, security operations are able to quickly and easily deploy smaller, regional locations rather than need to scale up a larger, more centralized infrastructure. The nature of AI scalability within physical security infrastructures can result in substantial cost saving initiatives in the form of reduced investigative times and increased efficiency.

Our analysis has shown that organizations spending $1,000,000 or more on physical security labor can achieve a 2x ROSI with Vintra. Medium- and large-sized locations can operate utilizing fewer security personnel, which could result in $50k to $60k in savings staff member annually. But leading organizations aren’t simply cutting staff – they can redeploy this manpower to different roles and tasks to force-multiply their security efforts like never before.

Additionally, organizations also may realize returns by more quickly identifying potential security and safety liabilities. Pinpointing potential areas of weakness, such as in the field of environmental health and safety, can help provide substantial returns on security investments. The costs of OSHA violations and potential non-compliances may range from $5,000 up to $70,000 per violation. These violations can be easily avoided if threats are identified at an early stage. AI technology can be used to monitor and report widespread issues before they result in massive financial losses.

Here’s a quick example that brings this to life: One of our manufacturing customers that utilizes AI to report individuals who improperly access various regions of their buildings. Over time, the security team began observing that many people began taking shortcuts through these high-risk zones and restricted areas. Each single disruption has the potential to cause financial consequences resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial damages if serious injury or non-compliance occurs.

Detecting each of these incidents prior to occurrence and providing remediating behavior can save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars by virtue of avoiding future liabilities. According to OSHA’s Office of Regulatory Analysis, companies that implement effective safety and health programs can expect reductions of 20% or greater in their injury and illness rates along with a return of $4 to $6 for every $1 invested.

Real estate and facilities teams must also practice their due diligence when it comes to understanding how their physical environments are being used. Space utilization, traffic flow and density will be key inputs in 2022, as security teams can provide valuable data into designing and executing the “Next Normal” for how enterprises get work done. The global average cost per desk is $18k, but many times the space isn't being utilized efficiently. Using these types of data-driven strategies can help security leaders scale efforts in a manner that mitigates the risk of potential future issues. The resulting factor is an increase to an organization’s bottom line and a positive return on security investments.

How to Keep Things Looking ROSI

Return on Security Investments will continue to become more common in the world of corporate lexicon throughout 2022 and beyond. As corporations continue to view physical security infrastructures and the rich metadata they produce as valuable organizational assets, companies must be able to closely analyze data metrics and derive valuable insights as a result.

Business intelligence tools can assist forward-thinking organizations by providing them with the tools and knowledge needed to successfully integrate physical security infrastructures as valuable organizational assets. The digital transformation of physical security teams within enterprises will likely continue to grow exponentially in the years to come.

We’re proud to work so closely with companies that will continually view AI as an increasingly valuable organizational asset with massive financial benefits for their businesses. With AI-powered video analytics we’re working hard to enable our customers to build and maintain the safest and most productive organizations in the world.

Want to learn more about how business intelligence can power your ROSI? Click here.