Edge AI and unified platforms were the “winners” of this year’s Security 50 Survey Sponsored by
ZKTeco, indicating that technologies that reach beyond the erstwhile barrier between video surveillance and access control dominate in physical security. The new matrix we used for our survey, which is described here, brought about some surprises, such as the limitations of AI agents in real-life deployments, but also confirmed trends we’ve been seeing grow over the years—the strength of edge AI and unified platforms among them.
Edge AI
When we asked our reader what the single-most important technology is in security today, 33% chose edge AI, while 39% included the technology in their “top 5” of most important technologies. Among the items in our survey, edge AI is clearly the one that is on top of the minds of our readers.
The strength of edge AI was confirmed when we asked how strongly edge AI is being pushed by vendors (for example in their advertising or marketing to end users and channel partners); how often it is being inquired about by clients (for example end users in procurement meetings); and how often edge AI actually becomes part of their projects.
For edge AI, “vendor push” turned out to be very strong (0.68 on a scale from minus-1 to 1), while “client pull” (0.51) and “sales reality” (0.47) do not trail much behind. This shows that edge AI has fully arrived in reality. Vendors push it, clients ask for it, and channel players integrate it in their projects.
Unified platforms
Unified platforms came in second overall when we asked our readers what technology they consider most important, with 18% saying it’s the single-most important technology and 31% mentioning it in their top 5.
“Vendor push” is strong (0.32), but “client pull” (0) and “sales reality” (0.1) trail behind more clearly.
To us, this shows that vendors see great potential in the unification of access control and video security, while clients are still skeptical whether they really need to go such a decisive step that they fear could upend the architecture of their system.
However, it is interesting in this case that “sales reality” is stronger than “client pull,” meaning there are cases where clients did not ask for unification in initial meetings, but could be convinced that a unified platform serves their needs best.
Reluctance on part of the end user can be overcome by the technological expertise of the channel professional when it comes to unified platforms.
AI agents
AI agents are the hottest topic in security and wider IT today, so it is no surprise that the technology was mentioned by 34% in their top 5 while 11% chose it as their single top category.
AI agents, however, were also the category where the strongest rift emerged between “vendor push”, “client pull” and “sales reality.” Our readers see AI agents being pushed strongly (0.51), while clients only ask for them sometimes (minus-0.06) and, even more decisively, only play a marginal role in their sales reality (minus-0.64).
The easiest explanation would be that vendors themselves feel pushed to join the AI agents “hype,” while end users are reluctant whether agentic AI will do their organizations any good at this point and channel professionals confirm their fears in procurement meetings.
Reality might not be as simple, however. It is for example possible that the majority of our readers’ security projects involve retailers and other SMBs who do not have vast IT landscapes that should, could or need to be optimized by agentic AI—as opposed to large-scale deployments that are ripe for a higher degree of automatization and are therefore more susceptible to the “vendor push” of AI agents.
Large-scale and multimodal AI
Large-scale and multimodal AI has certainly become a decisive technology in security, receiving single top mentions from 10% of respondents and top 5 mentions from 21%.
However, a rift also emerged here between “vendor push” (0.29), “client pull” (minus-0.35) and “sales reality” (minus-0.38), with the latter two lagging behind.
It is possible that “vendor push” will translate into “client pull” and “sales reality” in the future. The technology, or maybe rather the terms vendors use to describe transformer-based models, are relatively new after all.
It is also possible, though, that technical terms that describe how an AI works “on its inside” are less important to end users than how it performs and what it enables. They might buy the respective product, regardless of whether the AI it includes is “large-scale,” “multimodal” or has any other label.
Cloud
Hybrid cloud architectures (6% single top mentions; 20% top 5 mentions) and cloud analytics and management (6% single top; 15% top 5) also received significant attention from our readers.
For both, “vendor push”, “client pull” and “sales reality” were closely aligned, with values between 0.22 and 0.07. To us, this shows that cloud-managed systems that make use of both on-prem/edge and cloud storage and analytics are the gold standard in new video security projects these days.
One interesting finding is that end users seem to ask specifically for cloud managed systems more often than for hybrid systems in general. This indicates that users feel comfortable with keeping storage and analytics on-prem, while seeking a helping hand from cloud-managed services to keep their systems up to date, for example regarding cybersecurity.
Cyber-physical convergence
Last year, we asked our readers about “cybersecurity” in general, while this year we narrowed the focus on “cyber-physical convergence,” a concept that no longer treats physical and cyber defenses of a system as different domains. While cybersecurity almost topped the ranking last year—every system needs it after all—this year’s narrower category garnered less attention, with 5% single top mentions and 20% top 5 mentions.
“Vendor push”, “client pull” and “sales reality” were closely aligned, with values between minus-0.18 and minus-0.04. This shows that unifying cyber and physical defenses is of great importance in some quarters of the channel, but still has a long way to go to become reality across the board.
5G
5G offered a small surprise. While its “importance rating” was somewhat in line with what we had seen last year (5% single top mentions; 11% top 5 mentions), it played an outsized role in the projects of those who chose 5G in their top 5.
“Client pull” (0.41) and “sales reality” (0.5) for 5G are strong, even though “vendor push” (0.08) lagged behind decisively. This might mean different things: Either 5G is a hidden champion and vendors should push it more, or it is simply a technology that some of our readers have specialized in and therefore include in many of their project.
Legacy hardware
The true hidden champion, however, was legacy hardware integration, and it was somewhat by design. While few of our readers consider it most important (2%) or in the top 5 of most important technologies (12%), it played an outsized role in their daily work.
Even though “vendor push” for legacy hardware integration is decisively weak (minus-0.58), “client pull” (0.54) is strong and “sales reality” is even stronger (0.62). Naturally vendors push new technologies more strongly than the integration of old technology that customers already have, while the relation is turned on its head for end users. Naturally they cannot (and should not have to) replace every single camera they already have as long as they still do the job.
The fact that “sales reality” is stronger than “client pull” shows that legacy hardware integration is a topic championed by channel players. They enter procurement meetings with clients who want access to new technologies, and end up installing projects that make the best of the system that has already been in place at the client.
Biometrics
For biometrics, we offered our readers two options to choose from—biometrics in access control and biometrics in video security. Both performed similar in terms of importance, with a strong overlap in answers. Both are in the top 5 for 10% of respondents, while the video security category garnered no single top mentions and the access control category was picked by a meager 1%.
For both vendor push was moderate (0 for access and 0.05 for video), while “client pull” and “sales reality” were lagging behind, with values between minus-0.1 and minus-0.35.
This doesn’t mean biometrics don’t play a role in the industry though; they are, as we understand, just technologies that are deeply integrated in systems and are therefore taken for granted.
In general, we would not overinterpret the findings about biometrics. Biometrics remain important in vendor pitches, but installers and clients are more focused on what their systems can do rather than paying attention to whether a VMS uses biometrics, for example, for advanced analytics or whether an access control reader includes a fingerprint reader of the latest generation.
Mobile credentials
Similarly, mobile credentials look like an underperformer on surface level, but remains an important technology nonetheless. While it garnered hardly any single top (2%) and top 5 (3%) mentions, mobile credentials are strong in “client pull” (0.83) and “sales reality” (0.83), despite “vendor push” (0.33) lagging behind.
The reason might be the same as for 5G: Those who picked mobile credentials in their top 5 have specialized in the technology and sell it to clients who want to integrate it in their systems without changing much else.
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