Physical security operations are at a critical crossroads. The need to protect people and assets has never been greater, yet inefficiencies, high costs, and operator burnout bog down traditional methods. Today, HiveWatch announces its AI Operator—a groundbreaking tool powered by Anthropic’s Claude AI technology. This innovation aims to transform how security teams operate, moving from reactive monitoring to proactive, intelligence-driven protection.
The HiveWatch AI Operator leverages Claude's advanced language comprehension and reasoning capabilities to intelligently sift through and contextualize security alerts, significantly minimizing false alarms while detecting complex threats.
“Our collaboration with Anthropic is more than adding AI to existing systems. It’s about fundamentally reimagining enterprise security operations,” says Ryan Schonfeld, Co-Founder and CEO of HiveWatch.
The Catalyst for Change
The physical security industry is a $330 billion global market. Despite this massive investment, much of the expenditure goes towards repetitive tasks and training security operators, whose turnover rates reach 300% annually.
High turnover rates, exacerbated by the monotonous nature of traditional security roles, have driven organizations to seek smarter solutions. HiveWatch’s AI Operator is positioned as the game-changer, automating mundane tasks while empowering human professionals to focus on complex strategic initiatives.
The HiveWatch AI Operator
The AI Operator uses Anthropic’s Claude AI to filter and contextualize real-time security alerts, dramatically reducing false alarms and identifying complex threats. Customizable to fit any organization’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), the tool acknowledges, analyzes, escalates, and responds to alarms. Importantly, it also maintains detailed incident records to minimize human error.
“Claude’s ability to understand complex protocols, reason across data streams, and explain its decisions makes it ideal for security operations,” notes Jamie Neuwirth, Head of Startups at Anthropic.
Unlike many AI tools that replace human jobs, HiveWatch’s solution aims to elevate them. “We’re not replacing security teams—we’re supercharging them,” says Schonfeld. “Operators can now shift their focus from mundane tasks to strategic decision-making, which ultimately keeps people and assets safer.”
Leveraging Best-in-Class Technology
HiveWatch chose Anthropic for its advanced natural language processing and reasoning capabilities.
“By leveraging Anthropic's state-of-the-art Claude models, we've eliminated years of AI development time and millions in R&D costs while gaining access to one of the world's most sophisticated language models. The combination of Anthropic's advanced AI capabilities and our deep security expertise ensures that the AI Operator continually evolves to meet the complex demands of modern security operations. Unlike companies starting from scratch, we're not just developing AI - we're teaching it with decades of collective security experience and real-world incident data from our own command center,” says Jordan Hill, Co-Founder and Head of Product at HiveWatch.
The AI Operator also evolves through continuous learning. Hill explains, “We combine Anthropic’s advanced AI with our decades of real-world security experience. Customers can further refine the AI through feedback loops, making it smarter and more tailored to their unique threat landscapes.”
Security data remains protected within the customer’s environment, ensuring privacy. Hill emphasizes, “Our model is hosted securely, and data isn’t shared with Anthropic, aligning with SOC2-compliant standards.”
Early Adopters and Real-World Impact
The AI Operator has already garnered interest from high-profile companies, including Fortune 500 enterprises in technology, life sciences, retail, and gaming. These organizations, managing billions of dollars in assets, recognize the transformative potential of HiveWatch’s platform.
One anonymous Chief Security Officer from a $300 billion technology firm remarks, “HiveWatch’s AI Operator is enabling our team to evolve from alarm processors to strategic analysts, fundamentally strengthening our global security program.”
The product will be launched to enterprise customers in January 2025, but early access programs have shown promising results. Schonfeld envisions a future where physical security becomes a strategic business asset, not just an operational necessity.
Elevating the Role of Security Teams
The AI Operator addresses a critical industry challenge: operator burnout. Automating tedious tasks reduces turnover and frees security teams to tackle high-value initiatives such as business continuity and supply chain resilience.
Jordan Hill adds, “This isn’t about requiring fewer people but making better use of their time. Security professionals can focus on strategic thinking, proactive threat prevention, and supervising AI responses.”
HiveWatch users can also give feedback to the AI Operators’ security responses to improve constantly. Users can fine-tune their AI Operator's control by rewarding positive actions and explaining corrections. Internally, the platform has comprehensive evaluations to maintain base security proficiency.
AI in Security: Opportunities and Challenges
HiveWatch’s announcement comes amid growing interest in AI’s role in security operations. However, questions about ethics and reliability persist. Schonfeld clearly states the product’s intent: “While the AI Operator handles routine surveillance, critical decisions requiring human judgment remain with security professionals.”
He adds “Security teams are at a breaking point. They're drowning in endless video feeds and alarms while fighting a losing battle against staff burnout and missed threats. Every day, brilliant security professionals waste countless hours on mind-numbing tasks that machines can handle in seconds. But we're about to change all that.”
Schonfeld says Hivewatch is ushering in a new era where AI transforms security from reactive to proactive, from mundane to mission-critical, by automating the tedious work that's burning out security teams.
“We're not just cutting costs – we're empowering security professionals to do what they do best: protect people and assets with the strategic thinking that only humans can provide,” he explains. “This isn't just an upgrade to security operations. It's a complete reimagining of what's possible when human expertise is combined with AI's untapped potential.”
This human-AI collaboration is central to HiveWatch’s mission of redefining security operations. “We want security teams to view AI as a partner, not a replacement,” says Hill.
Looking Ahead
HiveWatch’s AI Operator signals a new era for physical security, defined by efficiency, intelligence, and innovation. The company is setting a new standard for enterprise protection by combining cutting-edge AI with decades of security expertise.
“Physical security continues to be a growing need as the world changes, yet companies struggle with high operational costs and inefficiencies. Organizations are being asked to do more with less and program dollars need to stretch further. HiveWatch in addition to changing how organizations keep their people and assets safe, wants to change how businesses view physical security,” says Schonfeld.
“Physical security can reduce risk, increase safety, and drive overall impact to the business. Instead of seeing physical security as a necessity, it can be viewed as a strategic asset. Physical security done right can and will produce a return on investment (ROI), as security teams can now focus more on high-value, more complex strategic initiatives, such as business continuity and supply chain resilience, instead of alarm-chasing,” he concludes.
Conclusion
As physical security evolves, HiveWatch’s AI Operator promises to address some of the industry’s most pressing challenges. The platform offers a glimpse into the future of strategic security operations by reducing inefficiencies, empowering professionals, and leveraging advanced AI.
Schonfeld stresses that the product's purpose isn’t necessarily replacing human operators. It’s about helping them be more efficient and elevating their role in the security team.
“Ultimately, this may mean they require fewer folks in many programs, but that is program dependent. Security will always require humans at a certain level to understand context and nuance to make a rapid decision. In the end, we protect organizations’ people, assets, and brands. Sometimes, that can mean critical life-and-death decisions,” concludes Schonfeld. “While the AI Operator handles routine surveillance and dispatch, the intent is that security professionals can focus on what humans do best – strategic thinking, complex decision-making, and proactive threat prevention. Operators will transition from being the responders to supervising AI responses at scale.”
