Jody Russell, Senior Solutions Engineer, Ambient.ai explores the future of AI-driven security.

The AI security imperative in 2025

As organizations face increasing threats, rising operational costs and a shrinking labor force, AI has emerged as the force multiplier reshaping security operations.

The convergence of computer vision intelligence and security operations has framed a new technology concept in physical security: operational intelligence.

What was once an ecosystem of disparate technologies integrated together to serve the operational needs of physical security organizations is now a complete AI-powered security operations intelligence platform.

In 2025, we expect to see AI security continue to move beyond simple video analytics toward true computer vision intelligence – systems that don’t just detect threats but understand context, assess risks and provide actionable insights.

This shift will define the future of security operations.

These new systems will utilize foundational AI detection and classification models while incorporating newer technologies like large vision models (LVM) and large multi-modal models (LMM) to super-charge context and drive value beyond simple asset and property protection in the form of Agentic AIs and data-centric insights.

Key predictions for AI-driven security in 2025

1. From computer vision to computer vision intelligence

In 2024, the industry showed an overwhelming adoption of AI detection and classification models as the primary methods of detecting people and objects.

These models are impressive in action and have proven to be superior to traditional pixel-based blob detection; however, they lack an important function to truly move the needle from signal noise to signal value.

In 2025, we expect the application of behavior and interaction to become the foundation of how threats are detected and managed.

Detecting a person and a firearm is important, but the action of a person brandishing the firearm proves to be more valuable in the signal value to signal noise equation.

Consider an armed law enforcement officer entering a school versus an active shooter entering.

There shouldn’t be a “boy cried wolf” circumstance in such a scenario.

Understanding the interactions of people, objects and behaviors is crucial to actionable detections, however that is only half of the puzzle.

Context is where the real value of computer vision intelligence will show in 2025.

The implementation of LVMs that can understand the context and delineate threat levels will provide security practitioners a welcomed respite from alert fatigue and help to ensure detections are escalated according to the logical evaluation of what’s really happening on screen.

A person loitering while emptying a mop bucket is much different than a person wearing a mask and holding bolt cutters.

Coupled with behavior-based detections, LVMs will play a crucial role in eliminating noise and increasing the actual value of the signals.

2. Agentic AI as the security operator’s copilot

The labor shortage in security operations centers (SOC) continues to be a challenge, as does attention spans.

With fewer people (and more and more technology), we also suffer from less situational awareness.

Humans are already bad at paying attention, so by having fewer of them while adding more things that require attention, we may just be inadvertently encouraging more chaos in our SOC.

AI in security is not about replacing security operators; it’s about augmenting them with better, more intelligent tools – ultimately allowing organizations to do more with less.

In 2025, AI will increasingly serve as an intelligent copilot, assisting security teams by filtering noise, escalating high-risk events and automating workflows.

While LVMs will enhance this capability, bringing hyper-contextualization to security alerts and enabling security professionals to make faster, more informed decisions, the advent of LMMs will usher in a new wave of Agentic AI operators to work alongside human counterparts, increasing coverage and allowing humans to focus on more strategic and operational responsibilities.

Multimodality is the key to unlocking human-level productivity in Agentic AI.

LMMs can receive inputs from multiple forms of data – visual, text, sound, etc. – to form a whole assessment of the environment, the unfolding situation and the context of what constitutes a threat.

3. The AI-first mandate

With security budgets under constant scrutiny, enterprises will prioritize AI-driven efficiency to reduce operational costs.

As organizations strategize for growth, labor costs will be re-evaluated as technology costs.

The expansion of a facility and the accompanying addition of security infrastructure will require less manpower, reducing the need to scale headcount as organizations grow.

AI-powered security solutions will help organizations reduce guard costs, optimize SOC operations and eliminate unnecessary incident escalations, ensuring that security investments yield a tangible return on investment.

Just as organizations once turned to a “cloud-first” mandate, AI-powered solutions will also become a requisite criterion for boardroom considerations in fiscal planning.

Ambient.ai’s vision for 2025

At Ambient.ai, we are committed to leading the industry toward a new era of security intelligence.

Our focus for 2025 includes:

Advancing AI-powered threat detection and contextualization

• Our latest Ambient Intelligence capabilities leverage LVMs to contextualize alerts, reducing false positives and providing clear, explainable AI-driven reasoning
• We are doubling down on operational intelligence, bringing true security intelligence to our customers in the form of Agentic AI
• With signals intelligence, AI-powered forensics, and AI-powered data insights, we are committed to driving operational efficiency in security operations

AI will help organizations automate workflows, streamline security responses and optimize resource allocation, making security teams more effective.

Expanding enterprise integrations

We are strengthening our partnerships across physical access control systems (PACS), video management systems (VMS) and other conventional physical security technologies to provide a fully integrated, intelligent security ecosystem.

As the Platinum Partner for this year’s SJA Leaders in Security Conference, Ambient.ai is committed to fostering conversations that will shape the future of security.

Supporting this premier event for security professionals and this partnership reflects our dedication to:

• Advancing the AI security dialogue and educating industry leaders on the benefits of AI-driven security intelligence
• Collaborating with security professionals to understand their challenges and develop AI-powered solutions that align with their operational needs
• Demonstrating the power of AI in security with real-world applications that drive efficiency and cost savings

Looking ahead

2025 is poised to be a transformative year for security operations.

AI is no longer just a feature – it is becoming the backbone of intelligent security ecosystems.

At Ambient.ai, we are excited to drive this evolution, ensuring that enterprises move beyond simple automation toward true security operational intelligence.

Register your interest in attending the SJA Leaders in Security Conference here.

This article was originally published in the special ISC West 2025 March edition of Security Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.