The Security Industry Association (SIA) has identified and forecasted the 2024 Security Megatrends, which form the basis of SIA’s signature annual Security Megatrends report defining the top 10 factors influencing both short- and long-term change in the global security industry.

SIA’s 2024 Security Megatrends were selected based on fall 2023 survey data and focus group input received from hundreds of top security industry business leaders, association leadership, key volunteers and speakers for the 2023 Securing New Ground (SNG) conference, held Oct. 17-18 in New York City.

Each year, SIA produces the Security Megatrends report, which is made available to download for free. These Security Megatrends are the top forces at play in security, shaping executives’ business decisions and expected to have far-reaching impacts on businesses across the industry. These trends play an instrumental role in the insights and discussions at SNG, which brings together the leading entrepreneurs, luminaries, CEOs and investors in the security industry for top-quality information sharing, networking and business analysis.

The 2024 report revealed that there is no trend larger or more impactful to the security industry than artificial intelligence (AI), but this trend is so vast and multifaceted that it is split into four components that are trends unto themselves:

Trend No. 1 — With AI rising to the No. 1 spot for 2024 and cybersecurity moving into a “foundational trend” spot, the Security of AI trend includes somewhat of a blend of AI and cybersecurity (and a lot more).

Trend No. 2 — AI: Visual Intelligence, Not Video Surveillance is something of a synthesis of two trends: 2023’s No. 10 Megatrend, the Proliferation of Sensors, and that year’s No. 2 trend, AI.

Trend No. 3 — Generative AI is brand new to the Megatrends for 2024, but this trend is an expansion of the overall AI trend that was ranked No. 2 in SIA’s 2023 report.

Trend No. 4 — Entirely new for the 2024 report, Regulation of AI rides on the wave of substantial legislative activity happening in the United States and the European Union.

In surveying SIA members as part of the research for the 2024 Security Megatrends report, 93 percent said they expected to see generative AI like ChatGPT make an impact on their business strategies within the next five years, and over 89 percent said they had AI projects active in their research and development (R&D) pipelines.

SIA said it has responded to this hyperfocus on AI by immediately establishing the SIA AI Advisory Board, a group comprised of industry leaders with a mission to educate our members about relevant trends, applications and regulations.

New for 2024’s report was a section on foundational trends — trends that have become so important that they are now structural to the business of security. The trends of cybersecurity, workforce development, sustainability, global tensions, the cloud model for technology delivery, changing economic conditions and supply chain assurance (some previously long recognized as Security Megatrends) are now so much part of the fabric of the world that they are viewed no longer as future-looking megatrends, but instead as common concerns that all business leaders must manage as they operate within the security industry.

The remaining six 2024 Security Megatrends are:

• Expansion and Evolution of Security’s Return on Investment
• Evolution of the Integration Business Model
• Security as a Service
• Impact of the Megatech Companies
• Real Estate Reoptimization
• IT-OT Convergence

Key stats highlighted in the report include:

• 54 percent  of security technology firms said their public perception of some AI technologies (e.g., facial recognition) was limiting their further expansion into AI applications
• 33 percent of surveyed SIA members expect sustainability initiatives to make a strong impact on their business or product strategies within the next five years
• 78 million security cameras were shipped globally in 2022
• 74 percent of surveyed security solutions developers characterized their firms’ R&D investments as being fully, heavily or somewhat focused on AI

In addition to defining the latest Security Megatrends, the 2024 forecast report shares perspectives on how these trends can affect security practitioners, integrators and chief security officers, examines key “microtrends” bound to impact business operations and security programs, features a collection of premier executive takeaways and includes numerous challenges and disruptors, as well as predictions for how trends will play out over the next year.

To view and/or download the 2024 Security Megatrends report, go here.