Today, Interface Systems chief revenue officer Sean Foley looks back at the biggest developments in the security industry in 2025 and looks forward to potential challenges and improvements in the sector in 2026 and beyond.
Sean Foley 2025 Security Industry Reflections and 2026 Predictions
Read on to check out Sean Foley’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 and physical security industries?
Sean Foley: 2025 has been a turning point. The industry has shifted from purely reactive security to proactive deterrence as retailers, restaurants and service chains face organized crime, labor shortages and increasing insurance scrutiny.
Remote video monitoring and artificial intelligence-based deterrence became mainstream because they deliver measurable outcomes: fewer incidents, lower shrink and safer environments across large, distributed footprints. Customers are no longer buying devices; they’re buying results.
SSI: What has been the most surprising development in the security industry this year?
Foley: The biggest surprise is how quickly enterprises have embraced AI when it is tied to human oversight and clear operational value. Two years ago, AI adoption was tentative. In 2025, retailers and restaurants are asking sophisticated questions about how AI detections feed into SOC workflows, how our operators intervene and how deterrent actions reduce repeat offenders.
This shift signals that customers now see AI not as a novelty, but as a core enabler of proactive security.
SSI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in security?
Foley: The most important change is the move toward exterior, perimeter-first protection. Businesses are investing in AI-enabled detection and remote monitoring outside the building—parking lots, storefronts, drive-thrus, loading docks—because stopping a threat earlier results in dramatically fewer incidents and lower costs.
We’re seeing budgets reallocated from purely interior alarm systems toward solutions that prevent crime before it happens.
SSI: What technology category or solution area do you see as 2026’s ripest, most profitable growth opportunity for security dealers, installers and integrators? Explain your reasoning.
Foley: The strongest growth opportunity is proactive, AI-enabled remote video monitoring—specifically virtual guarding and perimeter deterrence. These solutions solve real problems for multi-location brands: rising crime, staffing shortages, higher insurance requirements and the need for consistent security across hundreds or thousands of sites.
For integrators, this creates long-term recurring revenue with clear, data-validated ROI that customers now expect.
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?
Foley: Overplayed are analytics that operate in a vacuum—dashboards that provide interesting data but do not change outcomes or influence field operations.
What will truly transform integration are:
- AI detections that automatically trigger targeted deterrent actions,
- Remote monitoring workflows that integrate AI with trained operators, and
- Video analytics with tangible ROI for multi-location businesses, such as:
- speed of service and drive-thru throughput,
- loss prevention insights and shrink reduction,
- compliance monitoring (food handling, safety behaviors),
- benchmarking operational performance across stores.
This is the difference between “passive analytics” and analytics that improve revenue, reduce expenses and standardize operations across an entire brand.
SSI: What’s getting better about the security industry these days? What seems to be getting worse?
Foley: Getting better: The shift toward measurable outcomes. Customers now demand proof—incident reduction, faster intervention times, fewer repeat offenders and analytics that drive operational improvement. This focus elevates integrators who can deliver data-backed results.
Getting worse: The ecosystem is becoming more fragmented. Too many point solutions claim to “solve security with AI” but lack integration into monitoring platforms, compliance programs or store operations. Without consolidation and managed services, it becomes harder for businesses to scale security consistently.
SSI: What’s liable to catch some security industry dealers, installers and integrators off guard in the coming year?
Foley: Regulation and insurance requirements will evolve faster than many expect. Laws like the New York Retail Worker Safety Act and insurer-led mandates are already pushing businesses to adopt proactive security, silent alerting and documented preventive measures.
Integrators who are not prepared to guide customers through compliance and provide validated evidence of risk reduction may find themselves at a disadvantage.
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?
Foley: The biggest challenge is operationalizing AI responsibly and consistently across large portfolios. AI must be tightly integrated with SOC operations, site-level playbooks and clear escalation paths. Integrators should:
- Build or partner with monitoring centers that understand each vertical
- Combine AI detections with expert human analysts
- Continuously tune deterrent actions and performance based on real event data
- Provide customers with dashboards that connect AI insights to ROI.
This is how you deliver security that is predictable, scalable and trusted.
SSI: Finish this sentence: 2026 will be remembered as the year that the security industry…
Foley: … decisively shifted toward proactive, AI-powered deterrence supported by human expertise – demonstrating, at scale, that modern security is measured not by device counts but by real operational and financial outcomes for multi-location enterprises.
It will mark the point when remote video monitoring, intelligent detection and ROI-driven video analytics move from emerging innovations to the default expectations for retailers, restaurants, and other distributed businesses seeking to prevent incidents, improve efficiency and reduce risk across every location they operate.
Click here to check out all the entries in our 2026 security industry predictions series!
