By Medoune Gueye, COO, All Protection Security
Technology Is Changing Security. It Is Not Eliminating the Need for People.
If you work in security long enough, you learn that the industry is always changing.
The threats change. Technology changes. Clients change. The way criminals operate changes.
But I believe we are entering a period that will change the security industry more than most of what we have seen before.
The reason is artificial intelligence.
AI is already changing cybersecurity, surveillance, access control, video monitoring, investigations, reporting, and the way companies analyze risk. And we are still at the beginning.
So there is a fair question that people in our industry should be asking:
If technology becomes this capable, what happens to the security officer?
My answer is simple.
The job is going to change.
But physical security is not going away.
The Numbers Tell an Interesting Story
Security remains a massive workforce in the United States.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 1.28 million security guards were employed nationwide as of May 2025. Bureau of Labor Statistics
BLS projects relatively slow overall employment growth for security guards and gambling surveillance officers—about 1% from 2025 to 2035—but still expects approximately 157,200 job openings every year, primarily as workers leave the occupation or labor force. The agency also states that security guards will continue to be needed to protect people and property because of concerns about crime and vandalism. Bureau of Labor Statistics
I think that distinction matters.
The future of this industry may not simply be about putting more guards everywhere.
It may be about expecting more from every guard we put somewhere.
The Threat Is Evolving Too
We also have to be careful about how we talk about crime and security.
The latest FBI data does not show every category of crime increasing. In fact, preliminary national data covering May 2025 through April 2026 shows reported larceny declining by 9.8%, burglary by 16.5%, and motor vehicle theft by 21.6%. CDE UCR CJIS
That is important.
But lower numbers in certain traditional crime categories do not mean businesses can stop thinking about security.
The nature of the threat is changing.
The National Retail Federation reported in 2026 that retailers saw shoplifting incidents decrease 12.4% and merchandise theft incidents decrease 8.1% in 2025 compared with 2024. At the same time, retailers reported that other forms of external theft, fraud and scams increased. National Retail Federation
The FBI describes organized retail theft as coordinated activity that can involve multiple offenders, multiple stores, resale networks and sophisticated methods of converting stolen merchandise into money. FBI
And the line between physical and digital crime is becoming less clear.
In 2026, the FBI warned that cargo theft organizations were increasingly using cyber-enabled methods such as phishing, compromised accounts, fraudulent load postings and impersonation to ultimately steal physical shipments. Estimated U.S. and Canadian cargo theft losses reached nearly $725 million in 2025, according to the FBI warning. FBI
That tells me something important about where security is headed.
Physical security and digital security are no longer two completely separate conversations.
AI Is Already Entering Physical Security
When people hear “AI security,” they often think about cybersecurity.
But AI is moving quickly into physical security as well.
Today’s systems can help operators search hours of surveillance footage much faster, identify people or vehicles of interest, detect unusual activity, analyze patterns and bring important events to someone’s attention without requiring a person to stare at dozens of camera feeds continuously. Security Industry Association
And this technology is going to get better.
The Security Industry Association’s 2026 outlook describes AI as the industry’s largest macro-level disruption and anticipates significant automation in monitoring and security operations centers. Security Industry Association
Eventually, security systems will become much more proactive.
A system may recognize unusual behavior, reposition cameras, control an access point, alert management, retrieve relevant information and notify the appropriate responder before a person has manually completed any of those steps. SIA describes this emerging direction as AI moving from an investigative tool toward more agentic security workflows, while keeping human operators involved in key decisions. Security Industry Association
That is a major change.
But there is something technology still cannot do.
A Camera Cannot Physically Be There
This is where I think the conversation about AI sometimes becomes unrealistic.
AI can see something.
It can identify something.
It can analyze something.
It can alert someone.
It can document something.
But when a situation is happening inside a store, building, event, warehouse or property, eventually the digital world meets the physical world.
Someone may need to approach a person.
Someone may need to help an employee.
Someone may need to manage a crowd.
Someone may need to secure an area.
Someone may need to communicate with police or emergency services.
Someone may simply need to stand there and prevent a situation from developing in the first place.
That physical presence matters.
A visible officer can also influence behavior before an incident occurs. And when something does happen, that officer is dealing with human beings—not data points.
Body language matters.
Tone matters.
Judgment matters.
Knowing when not to intervene matters just as much as knowing when to act.
AI will become extremely good at giving security professionals information.
The human being still has to understand what to do with it.
The Security Officer of the Future Will Be Different
This is where I believe our industry needs to pay attention.
The security officer of the future should not just be someone standing in front of a door for eight hours.
Technology will increasingly handle some of the repetitive parts of security.
That should allow the officer to become more valuable, not less.
Imagine an officer receiving an intelligent alert instead of trying to monitor multiple cameras.
Imagine arriving at an incident already knowing what happened seconds earlier.
Imagine supervisors identifying patterns across several locations because AI analyzed reports that previously sat separately in different files.
Imagine training systems that can recreate situations officers are actually encountering in the field.
The officer becomes part of a larger security system.
AI becomes another tool on the officer’s belt.
And companies that combine good people with good technology will have an advantage over companies that choose only one.
This Changes Training Too
There is another side to this that matters to me personally.
If officers are going to be given better technology, we need better-trained officers.
Giving someone more information does not automatically give them better judgment.
An AI system can identify behavior as unusual. The officer still needs to determine how to approach the situation professionally.
Technology can provide an alert. The officer still needs to understand de-escalation.
A camera can capture an incident. The officer still needs to communicate with the client, witnesses, management and law enforcement.
This is one reason I believe training will become more important as technology improves, not less important.
The standard for the security professional should rise with the technology around them.
Cybersecurity and Physical Security Are Moving Closer Together
I also believe the next major change will be the continued convergence between cybersecurity and physical security.
A modern building may have internet-connected cameras, access-control systems, alarms, visitor-management platforms, cloud-based reporting and AI analytics.
Those are physical-security systems.
But they are also technology systems.
DHS has already emphasized the importance of protecting the physical infrastructure supporting AI while also addressing vulnerabilities, access management and anomalous activity across AI-enabled critical infrastructure. Department of Homeland Security
For security companies, that means understanding technology can no longer be optional.
We do not all need to become cybersecurity engineers.
But tomorrow’s physical-security company needs to understand the systems surrounding its officers.
Where I Believe the Industry Is Going
I don’t believe the future is AI or security officers.
I believe it is AI and security officers.
There will probably be assignments where technology allows businesses to operate with fewer people.
There will be tasks that used to require someone watching a screen that AI will perform faster and more accurately.
There will be security companies that fail to adapt because they continue operating exactly as they did ten years ago.
But I do not believe we are approaching a world where businesses simply remove the human element from physical security.
Instead, I believe the value of the human being will shift.
The strongest officers will be the ones who can communicate, make good decisions, de-escalate situations, understand technology and act appropriately when technology identifies something that requires a physical response.
And the strongest security companies will be the ones that understand both sides.
Technology gives us better eyes.
AI gives us better information.
But someone still has to protect what exists in the physical world.
That is where I believe the security industry is headed.
And at All Protection Security, that is the industry we are preparing for.
Medoune Gueye
COO, All Protection Security