By the time you read this, you will probably be returning from ISC West — arguably the security industry’s flagship event — buzzing from information (and Las Vegas) overload and just beginning to digest all the new technology and developments you saw there.

As I write this a few weeks before the show, I am just guessing (call it an educated guess), that we will see a lot of AI, cloud solutions and more integrations. Maybe something else new on the horizon? We shall see. But whatever it is, the new technology is not really the point, as exciting as it may be.

I recall last year many people at the booths I visited were talking more about customers wanting to use security technology for gaining business insights than about the latest widget or camera. And I would imagine this year will be more along those lines, particularly as AI continues to gain traction not just in the video realm but in access control and other areas of security.

In this month’s cover story (link to story) on access control — the second in our annual State of the Market series — SDM Associate Editor Christopher Crumley writes, “Another opportunity with AI is the processing of data. The security industry generates quite a bit of data, and manually reviewing that or trying to harvest meaningful insights from that data has been a challenge. But AI can streamline this process substantially.”

Regardless of which technologies you or your customers are most interested in, chances are the most important factor of all is the pain point that technology addresses.

What might this mean for access control customers? AMAG Technology’s Kyle Gordon gives a hint of where at least one manufacturer is heading with this: “There’s so much data there that the customers can leverage, but making that data available in a form that works for our customers has been a struggle in the past. What we’re doing with our technology is enabling access to data in a form that makes sense for the customer. We’re getting out of the report game. There’s a ton of companies out there that can build really great reports. In my opinion, access control companies shouldn’t be one of them. They should be focused on keeping bad people out, letting good people come in through sophisticated and secure credentials. Let really good report companies have access to that data so that the customer can use it in a way that works for their business. When we talk to our customers and we show them where we’re going in terms of data access, it gets them very excited.”

Another big trend in the security industry I expect we will continue to see more of is cloud-based services, which are a good way for security integrators to add RMR while also giving customers more of what they want. This is something Laura Stepanek addresses in her feature, Easing Your Clients Through a VMS Upgrade:

“The advantage to security integrators in upgrading a customer’s VMS is that it can add revenue streams from items like cloud subscription fees, service and maintenance agreements, hardware upgrades, remote monitoring, and more,” she writes. “It’s usually a win-win.”

For the customer it can equally be a win, Stone Security’s Andy Schreyer says in the article: “Most of our clients that are trying to future-proof their security solutions are looking to the cloud because every other system that they use in their business has moved to the cloud already and security is kind of the last [one].”

Regardless of which technologies you or your customers are most interested in this trade show season, chances are the most important factor of all is the pain point that technology addresses. Which gets me back to where things are all heading. I am no expert, but I have a hunch that there are some big shifts coming as these game-changing technologies such as AI and cloud gain their footing and the logistics get worked out.