2025 Security Industry Predictions: Kirk MacDowell, MacGuard Security Advisors
2024 SSI Industry Hall of Fame inductee shares his thoughts on what to expect in the security industry in the next year.
Photo courtesy of Security Industry Association.
We’ve already seen 2025 security industry predictions from Paul Boucherle, Jeffrey Zwirn and Peter Giacalone. Now, it’s time for 2024 SSI Industry Hall of Fame inductee Kirk MacDowell, president of MacGuard Security Advisors and 2023 Total Tech Summit keynote speaker, to take his turn as a security industry analyst.
Here, we present his predictions and analysis as we look ahead to 2025.
Security Sales & Integration: Without getting into any specific vendors or branded solutions, what technology category or solution area do you see as 2025’s ripest, most profitable growth opportunity for security dealers, installers and integrators? Explain your reasoning.
Kirk MacDowell: Remote video monitoring and intervention are the new normal. They are an ultimate win for the consumer, the integrator and law enforcement agencies. In fact, a recent report indicated that voice-down interventions resolved 99.86% of the incidents without a police response.
As AI becomes even more enhanced, security dealers and integrators need to focus on the outside of the premises utilizing concentric layers of security. Perimeter sensors, cameras, and voice recognition will all play a more significant part of detection in 2025 and beyond.
SSI: These days, we’re all hearing a lot about the cloud migration, AI/machine learning, crime deterrence vs. crime reactiveness, etc. Which of these “hot topics” do you think is overplayed? Which ones do you think will truly transform the practice of security integration in the coming years?
MacDowell: I don’t think these are being overplayed, but they are becoming buzzwords and consequently tossed around so much that they lose meaning and context. AI may spark different meaning to specific audiences. Security practitioners must communicate what the end user should and will experience.
I am intrigued with crime deterrence and crime reactiveness as they will come full circle. Bad actors and criminals will soon realize that outdoor sensors and cameras are more than a post crime analysis with suspect identification.
Remote monitoring with remote operator intervention will alert the criminal that what they are doing is being detected in real-time and therefore police will respond accordingly. The quick reaction of the monitoring center will prove to be a reinforcement that the detection devices are now a true crime deterrence.
SSI: On the business and operations side, which single factor (e.g., interest rates, talent-related issues, geopolitical stressors) poses the biggest challenge for security businesses right now? How can business owners mitigate their downside risk?
MacDowell: Retaining talent is job one; attracting talent is job two. Leaders should be held accountable for talent attrition. It sounds harsh, but once a company shifts their priority inward toward talent, factors such as growth and profitability fall into place.
SSI: What’s getting better about the security industry these days? What seems to be getting worse and worse?
MacDowell: Better – Technological enhancements both in new products and the retrofit market are producing great opportunities for upselling, which consumers want.
Worse – These wonderful technological enhancements are creating a strain on how the integrator communicates the features to the client. The lack of training by the manufacturer or software company, can place the integrator in a bad situation with the consumer.
SSI: What’s liable to catch some security dealers, installers and integrators off guard in the coming year?
MacDowell: Exterior protection keeps getting better, faster, more accurate and less expensive. That trend has opened the gates for smaller and possibly more nimble companies to enter the security space.
Evaluate and stay current on security options that truly integrate exterior and interior protection and provides a complete solution for a client. If you don’t, others will and are waiting for an opportunity. Stay informed. Don’t get caught off-guard.
SSI: What’s the single most pressing issue that professionals in the security industry should look to tackle right now?
Continue to reinvent yourself and your company. If I were to choose one word, it would be to stay relevant. That relevancy should encompass advanced training, education, industry association involvement, mentoring, and most importantly, giving back to others.
SSI: Finish this sentence: 2025 will be remembered as the year in the security industry…
MacDowell: … where clients perceive exterior video with advanced analytics and AI are perceived equal to or better than an intrusion (only) system.
and/or
… when security dealers and integrators come to grips with truly understanding the root cause for attrition and takes internal steps to thwart that attrition by using key metrics and indicators to identify at risk customers.
Click here for the 2025 Security Industry Predictions series!
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