We continue our series of security industry heavyweights offering up their reflections on the security industry in 2025 and a look ahead at what to expect in the sector in 2026 and beyond with Andrew Elvish, vice president of marketing at Genetec.
Andrew Elvish 2025 Security Industry Reflections and 2026 Predictions
Read on to check out Andrew Elvish’s 2025 security industry reflections and 2026 predictions. We’ll have many more predictions from others among the brightest minds in the security industry throughout the month!
Security Sales & Integration: What kind of year has 2025 been for the electronic security and physical security industries?
Andrew Elvish: 2025 has been a strong year for the physical security industry. What stands out the most is how quickly the market has embraced more sophisticated technology. For a long time, our industry had a reputation for slow adoption, but that is no longer the case.
When IT teams started to become more involved in security decisions, many expected security professionals to be pushed aside. But in fact, the exact opposite has happened and their role has grown. Organizations now see physical security as an essential part of their broader technology stack, not just something that gets attention after an incident.
It is now viewed as a strategic function that supports business continuity, risk management and operational insight. This has created a real appetite for modern, scalable enterprise grade systems. Security teams want more innovation, not less, and they want partners who can help them modernize without adding complexity.
SSI: Which emerging security technologies do you think are overplayed? Which ones do you think will truly transform the practice of security integration in the coming years?
Elvish: Artificial intelligence marketing is one of the most overplayed “emerging technologies” in our industry right now. Judging by the trade show floor banners and social media posts we see, you would think every product out there is powered by “advanced intelligence.”
In reality, there are still very few implementations where AI is built, tested and deployed in a way that delivers real value to security teams. Putting “AI” on a feature does not solve real problems for security professionals, nor does it make it useful.
What will actually transform security integration in the coming years is thoughtful engineering backed by modern software architecture. When vendors invest in solid foundations, they can deliver analytics and automation that improve detection quality, reduce noise and shorten investigations. That is where AI becomes a tool that helps people do their jobs better instead of a marketing slogan.
Integrators will benefit the most from technologies that are reliable, well-designed and easy to operate at scale. The real advancements will come from solutions that deliver measurable outcomes and integrate cleanly into the environments customers rely on every day.
SSI: What’s liable to catch some security industry dealers, installers and integrators off guard in the coming year?
Elvish: One thing that may catch some dealers, installers and integrators off guard in the coming year is how quickly some current business models can erode and undermine their role in the customer relationship.
There are manufacturers in our industry whose go-to-market models erode the integrator’s role over time, reducing their strategic value to a pricing exercise. On the surface, these programs can look attractive because they promise a steady stream of leads. But over time, they reduce the integrator’s influence, limit their ability to design the right solution and push them into a situation where they are judged mainly on price.
Integrators bring real expertise to the table. When that expertise is sidelined, it limits their ability to guide design decisions and serve as trusted advisors. The integrators who stay ahead will be the ones who choose manufacturers that respect their role, involve them throughout the lifecycle and recognize the meaningful value they bring to complex deployments.
SSI: What’s the single most pressing challenge that professionals in the security industry must tackle right now? And how would you suggest tackling it?
Elvish: The most pressing challenge in our industry right now is cybersecurity. We continue to see a real gap between how IT teams manage cyber-risk and how many physical security systems are deployed and maintained.
Too often, critical devices and applications run on outdated software, weak credentials or inconsistent patching routines. For an industry that sits so close to core infrastructure and sensitive data, that gap is a problem.
The best way to tackle it is to start with people. Technology helps, but it does not replace basic discipline. Teams need regular, practical training so that technicians, operators and administrators understand how their everyday decisions affect security.
Good password hygiene, stronger configuration habits and a working understanding of common attack paths go a long way. From there, organizations can adopt more robust processes and tools. Cybersecurity in physical security is a shared responsibility and building that mindset is the first and most important step.
