As digital transformation reshapes physical infrastructure, the access control industry is experiencing its own evolution. Mobile credentials and artificial intelligence (AI) are redefining how organizations manage identities, secure assets, and optimize operations.
Traditionally focused on simply “opening doors,” access control systems were long seen as a backend function — necessary but siloed. That perception is quickly changing. As smartphones become ubiquitous and artificial intelligence gains real-time capabilities, security leaders are looking beyond perimeter protection to how access control can contribute to broader goals such as compliance, user convenience, data visibility, and operational efficiency.
“Mobile credentials are transforming from basic access control tools into comprehensive identity solutions that enhance enterprise operations, security, and user experience,” said Prabhuraj Patil, Senior Director of Physical Access Control Solutions at HID for the ASEAN and India Subcontinent.
This shift is being driven by increased smartphone penetration, the growing need for touchless solutions, and the convergence of physical and logical access systems. As organizations adapt to hybrid work environments and heightened data security concerns, access control is increasingly seen as an extension of enterprise IT strategy rather than a standalone security tool.
Beyond the door
The evolution of mobile credentials is most visible in how they are now applied across multiple enterprise systems. According to Patil, HID’s Mobile Access® platform allows employees to use their smartphones or wearables to move seamlessly through physical and digital environments.
“Beyond opening doors, mobile credentials now integrate with a variety of enterprise systems to support diverse use cases,” he said. “For instance, HID’s Mobile Access® solutions enable employees to use their smartphones or wearables for seamless access to turnstiles, meeting rooms, elevators and printers.”
This expanding utility has caught the attention of organizations seeking to reduce administrative overhead and enhance user convenience. Physical cards, once ubiquitous across office campuses, are being gradually replaced by mobile solutions that combine security and flexibility.
“Enterprises are leveraging mobile credentials for time and attendance tracking, secure printing, streamlining workflows, and reducing reliance on physical cards,” Patil added.
Such use cases align closely with growing demand in sectors like education, healthcare, and co-working spaces, where centralized credential management and contactless infrastructure are high priorities.
Intelligence at the edge
While mobile technology is changing how credentials are delivered and used, artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how access control systems interpret and act on data.
“Artificial intelligence of all kinds is making access control systems faster and smarter,” said Jeffrey Groom, co-founder of REKS.ai and part of the AI Development team at acre security. “Generative AI models, in particular, make access control systems more fluid and responsive by allowing security teams to obtain critical insights from their platforms using unique verbal operational terms and language.”
This includes using natural language to interact with systems, thereby lowering the barrier for operators to extract valuable insights. A simple command such as “Show me all the access denied events across our infrastructure for the last month” can now generate actionable reports without requiring complex queries or data extraction routines.
“Putting these insights within arm's reach at any moment using natural language allows security teams to learn from user behavior, detect unusual patterns, and enhance security where anomalies and access failures are most common,” Groom explained.
According to Adam Groom, also a co-founder at REKS.ai and a team lead at acre security, this level of accessibility helps operators become more proactive and efficient.
“This also helps prevent false alarms and false positives and improves the usability of the data-driven insights security teams require each day,” he said.
Privacy and compliance: An evolving frontier
As mobile and AI capabilities expand, so do concerns around data privacy, consent, and compliance. Enterprises must navigate an evolving landscape of regional and global regulations — including GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and others in Asia-Pacific markets — when deploying these technologies.
Security and IT teams must ensure that systems collecting behavioral data or enabling mobile tracking include clear opt-in mechanisms and robust encryption standards. Failing to do so can not only risk regulatory penalties but also damage user trust.
Integrators have a vital role to play here — not just in system installation, but also in advising clients on best practices for data governance, retention policies, and audit-readiness. Future-proofing access control implementations increasingly means aligning with both security needs and legal obligations.
Turning insights into action
The rise of AI-powered access control goes beyond analytics. It is also about decision-making. By training models on historical access patterns, AI systems can identify subtle deviations that may indicate credential misuse, tailgating, or insider threats.
This has implications for compliance and risk management. In high-security environments such as data centers, research facilities, and regulated industries, the ability to demonstrate continuous monitoring and generate audit-ready reports can reduce the burden on human operators and lower the likelihood of oversight.
At the same time, AI is helping unify access control with other security domains such as video surveillance and intrusion detection. Platforms that share metadata and event triggers allow security operations to act on context-rich data instead of siloed alerts.
The result is a shift from incident response to situational awareness, where threats are not just recorded but also contextualized and pre-empted.
Opportunities and challenges for integrators
For systems integrators, the dual rise of mobile and AI technologies represents both an opportunity and a learning curve.
On one hand, they can offer clients a more compelling value proposition by bundling access control with user experience, operational efficiency, and predictive security. On the other hand, these technologies demand a deeper understanding of APIs, cloud architectures, and data privacy regulations.
Likewise, deploying AI requires more than just enabling an algorithm. It involves training models, calibrating thresholds, and ensuring interoperability with existing systems.
Security consultants and vendors also point to a growing need for ethical guardrails. With AI making real-time decisions and mobile apps capturing location or behavioral data, end users are raising questions about consent, transparency, and data minimization.
Addressing these concerns will be essential as access control systems continue to mature and enter new markets.
Future outlook
Analysts say that as mobile and AI-based access control becomes mainstream, the definition of "access" itself will evolve. Already, organizations are exploring multi-modal approaches that combine mobile credentials, facial recognition, behavioral biometrics, and environmental cues to create dynamic access profiles.
What remains constant is the need for trust. The technologies driving innovation in access control are only as strong as the governance that surrounds them.
As the security landscape shifts, the role of access control will increasingly resemble that of an identity orchestrator—connecting the dots between people, spaces, and systems. In this new reality, the door is no longer just a barrier. It is a data point.