Allied Universal announced the launch of HELIAUS, an advanced artificial intelligence platform designed to improve safety and reduce risk by enhancing on-site guarding services. 

“We developed HELIAUS to deliver better results for our clients through advanced workflow automation, robust data capture and visualization and artificial intelligence that understands not only what’s likely to happen, but what to do to drive better outcomes,” said Steve Jones, CEO of Allied Universal, Santa Ana. “Now, our security officers are better equipped to help reduce incidents, respond faster to emergencies and provide unmatched operational performance accountability.”

Mark Mullison, chief information officer, Allied Universal, added, “Being able to equip the security professionals with tools that enable them to shift from ‘detect and respond’ to ‘predict and prevent’ drives the value. We are super excited to be announcing this and rolling out.” 

The main significance of HELIAUS is to bring together rich data, artificial intelligence, location-aware workflow automation and seamless user experience design for security professionals. This new technology solution provides insight into the drivers of risk; makes recommendations about how to reduce incidents; and, through dynamic workflow automation, ensures that those recommendations are implemented.

HELIAUS uses a combination of GPS, Bluetooth beacons and near-field communication (NFC) tags to quickly and accurately capture real-time location information both indoors and outdoors, Mullison explained. “The AI uses this information to understand what’s likely to happen at a client’s site regarding safety and security incidents and then automatically suggests workflows to our security professionals that drive better outcomes, thus reducing accidents and crime. 

“If you have knowledge you can understand what is predictive in nature," Mullison added. “Our AI goes one step further; it not only predicts, but makes recommendations about what to do to drive a better outcome. The third big differentiator is a very robust workflow engine. Prescription isn’t enough. You have to take the medicine. The workflow engine makes sure those recommendations coming out of the AI engine are acted upon and that security professionals are doing what they need to do.”

In addition, this new workforce management technology brings sophisticated data visualization capability to allow security operators to understand the who, what, where and when both in real-time and historically, which increases situational awareness and helps users develop powerful insights.

“HELIAUS represents a tremendous step forward in building AI technology that is not just smart like humans, but smart with humans,” Mullison said, adding that clients using this are seeing on average a 20 percent reduction in safety and security incidents.

Even more significant is how this new AI-driven technology has the potential to change the industry much like the iPhone did for cellphones, Mullison added. “If you were to look around this space you would see a whole bunch of mobile tech guarding platforms. We believe that just like when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, it’s not fair to call it just a new or better phone. The iPhone really gave legs and legitimacy to the category of the smart phone. HELIAUS does many things you would expect from a mobile guarding platform, but really it does so much more because of the way we have combined data with AI and the workflow engine. When those three things come together — that is where we do something amazing.

“AI will revolutionize every sector, and the security industry is no exception. There are things the human mind is very good at, and things that algorithms are very good at. The exciting prospect of AI is the … ability to understand and predict. The predictive nature is very, very powerful. That is something the security industry and others are going to benefit from greatly.” 

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