Allied Universal, a security and facility services company in North America, has an advanced artificial intelligence platform, HELIAUS, that is helping to keep facilities secure during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

To support Allied Universal's customers' return to workplace initiatives, the company has enhanced the HELIAUS technology platform to include a new visitor screening application. The new application is fully configurable to support different clients’ visitor screening procedures. It offers screening questions based on CDC guidelines and implements customer-specific visitor screening protocols such as instructing the security professional to take a visitor's temperature or asking the visitor to use a hand sanitization station before entry.

"The HELIAUS visitor screening application includes new suggestions for workflows that help with visitor screening, social distancing management, workplace signage and maintaining a safe and clean workplace," said Mark Mullison, chief information officer, Allied Universal. "All of the information collected in the course of visitor screening or custom workflows is captured electronically and fed into the platform's AI engine, which makes recommendations for improving the site's condition."

Using GPS and Bluetooth beacons, HELIAUS understands security professional locations in real-time, even indoors. If they approach an elevator bay, it might ask whether people are present, and if they are obeying social distancing guidelines. These answers are then recorded. Over time, based on the knowledge collected, the AI engine will make predictions about when enforcement of social distancing guidelines is most likely to be needed and will notify security professionals to inspect the elevator bays and encourage social distancing at the right times.

"HELIAUS has the ability to remotely message important updates or assign important tasks to your security professionals," Mullison said. "Clients can receive custom email/ text reports in real-time."