At ISC West, Verkada showcase an interactive experience, featuring AI-powered solutions such as its Unified Timeline, Verkada Guest and Verkada Alarms
Communicating the benefits of security technology powered by advanced AI can be challenging even for the best companies, especially at trade shows such as ISC West, where the challenge is compounded by the need to stand out in a crowded field. As a cloud-first company focused on questioning established practices and disrupting them if necessary, Verkada has once more given center stage to an interactive experience at the Las Vegas trade show.
We talked to the company about it, in an exclusive interview with Max Shen, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, Verkada.
Asmag.com: For those who could not attend ISC West, what did they miss at the “What if the Louvre had Verkada?” experience?
Max Shen: At ISC West this year, we wanted to ask the question: “What if the Louvre had Verkada?” The high-profile break-in at the Louvre in October 2025 underscored the urgent need for more advanced security technology, and that idea became the foundation for our booth. We designed an experience that transported attendees to Paris. When they approached the Verkada booth, attendees saw an ornate stone façade, tall arched windows, and a classic Parisian café setting surrounding an immersive, Louvre-inspired interior. Over the three-day event, the activation drew more than 3,000 visitors.
Attendees who entered our booth received a unique, hands-on experience that turned guests into security investigators inside a reimagined museum setting.
After checking in with Verkada Guest, attendees were guided into an investigation room where they were told that the museum’s crown jewels had just been stolen, and their help was needed to recover them. Using Verkada’s platform, attendees worked through the case by pulling footage from multiple cameras and reconstructing the events around the theft using Verkada’s AI-powered search and AI-powered unified timeline. The experience demonstrated how Verkada simplifies investigations – turning what could have been hours of manual scrubbing into a matter of clicks.
Attendees then traced the suspect to the getaway vehicle and got a close-up of the license plate thanks to a Verkada security trailer in sentry mode – ultimately leading to the recovery of the stolen crown jewels.
To close out the scenario, attendees used their biometric credentials (ingested through Verkada Guest at check-in) to unlock the display case and return the treasure inside. They then re-armed the case using Verkada Alarms, ensuring that any subsequent theft attempt would immediately trigger a response.
Asmag.com: Verkada has lately launched some new solutions, such as AI-powered Deterrence. Aside from the Louvre experience, what innovations could visitors experience at the Verkada booth?
Max Shen: Beyond the investigation experience, the journey continued into our “art gallery” within the museum. As attendees moved through the space, framed digital displays showcased Verkada’s latest AI capabilities across its unified platform.
As attendees continued through the gallery, they were able to visualize how teams are experiencing Verkada’s signals day to day. With our AI-powered activity detection, visitors could see how Verkada’s platform detects and notifies teams of events such as a slip-and-fall in an aged care facility or a potential altercation in a school. Our goal was to show how alerts surface meaningful, high-confidence activity while filtering out unnecessary events.
These displays gave visitors a view into how security technology has evolved and where Verkada fits within that shift. One display in the hallway of our “museum” featured an NVR memorial, showcasing how video security once relied on complex, on-premise hardware.
Last but not least, attendees could stop by the AI deterrence photobooth, a separate demo station that offered a fun way for attendees to experience Verkada’s real-time response capabilities with a Parisian twist. Attendees selected a French-themed prop, posed in front of a Verkada camera, and received a personalized, AI-generated message. The technology behind the demo is exactly what powers our AI deterrence feature in Verkada Alarms, which can deter unwanted activity with talk-down messages that incorporate scene context.
Our hope for those stepping out of the booth was to leave a clear impression of how Verkada’s tools are being used to improve security and operations as well as reinforce the constant evolution of our platform.
Asmag.com: With its seven product lines, Verkada—once a newcomer and disrupter to the industry—has security broadly covered. Where is your development and product roadmap focus in 2026 and beyond? Going deeper into certain verticals or pushing the boundary of security further?
Max Shen: We’re particularly focused on how AI can accelerate the full lifecycle of an investigation, from detection through to reporting and review. That’s where the recent innovations displayed in our gallery come in, and it’s also part of our broader pace of innovation, with 174 new AI and product capabilities released over the past year alone. Features like AI-powered activity detection, AI-powered deterrence, and our latest investigation tools all build toward a more proactive, connected system that helps teams act faster and with greater context across the entire security lifecycle.
Looking ahead, we’re also focusing on making the platform more spatially aware, with a greater emphasis on maps and floorplans. This helps ground alerts in physical context so teams can immediately understand where something is happening and who needs to respond. It also opens the door to more guided response workflows, moving beyond notifications to helping direct teams through an environment in real time, based on live conditions.
Asmag.com: AI is doubtlessly the greatest field of innovation right now. How did you ensure ISC West visitors could experience the power of the latest AI? And where do you see AI innovation going from here?
Max Shen: AI was, unsurprisingly, one of the most discussed topics across the show floor, reflecting how quickly the industry is shifting toward more proactive, intelligence-led security. At ISC West, we wanted to make Verkada AI immediately tangible.
One area we focused on was AI-powered alerts. These alerts are designed to surface events of interest in real time with the relevant context teams need to respond quickly with confidence. Helping customers avoid alert fatigue is a key priority for us, which is why we offer preview features that show anticipated results and estimated daily volumes before an alert goes live.
We also showcased how compound alerts further improve signal quality by triggering notifications only when multiple conditions are met. For example, a manufacturer can be alerted when an employee is approaching machinery without required safety gear, or a retailer can be notified that an individual has entered a restricted area while carrying a large bag. This ensures notifications surface meaningful, high-confidence activity while filtering out unnecessary events.
Asmag.com: As a cloud-first company, what is your take on the shift to greater edge AI capabilities that we are seeing today?
Max Shen: At Verkada, we see the shift toward greater edge AI is an essential foundation of a truly reliable hybrid-cloud architecture. While the cloud provides the centralized management and remote access users crave, AI-enabled cameras at the edge provide the "brain" required to process high-bandwidth video data locally without straining the network.
By performing complex analytics like person detection and vehicle recognition directly on the camera, we eliminate the need for bulky local servers and ensure that critical security intelligence remains active even if the internet goes down. This approach allows us to deliver the best of both worlds: the massive scalability of the cloud and the real-time, proactive reliability of local hardware.
Furthermore, hybrid-cloud enables us to push over-the-air updates that continuously enhance a camera's AI capabilities, ensuring the hardware actually gets smarter over time. Ultimately, the future of physical security depends on this balance of onboard intelligence and cloud simplicity to provide a seamless, enterprise-grade experience.
Asmag.com: Standing out in an industry where many companies offer products that are similar (and similarly advanced) is not easy, but Verkada has managed to do it again. How do you keep coming up with ideas for innovative ways to present your solutions, such as the Louvre experience?
Asmag.com: We’re fortunate to operate in a space where innovation is moving quickly, so standing out isn’t just about what we build, but how we help people experience it.
A lot of our ideas start with real customer workflows and the problems they’re trying to solve day-to-day. From there, we think about how to make those capabilities tangible in a way that reflects how they actually show up in practice. With an experience like “What if the Louvre had Verkada?” we’re giving visitors the opportunity to step directly into a real-world scenario and experience firsthand how intuitive the platform is.
We also build on what resonates. Last year’s escape room experience received really positive feedback, which reinforced the value of creating more interactive, hands-on environments that bring the technology to life.
As we reflect on our incredible week at ISC West, we’re more excited than ever about making spaces intelligent. Conversations across the show floor reinforced what we hear from customers every day: cloud-native platforms are the foundation needed to deliver AI at enterprise scale.