This article originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Security Business magazine. Don’t forget to mention Security Business magazine on LinkedIn and @SecBusinessMag on Twitter if you share it.
There is so much buzz surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) these days; however, if you are like many in the security and life safety business, you may think that applying AI to your business’s daily operations is a distant reality. In actuality, today’s security and life safety business executives are likely more concerned about being squeezed by economic factors like inflation, as well as an extremely tight labor market.
According to a 2023 analysis by Associated Builders and Contractors, a national trade association, the skilled trades industry is short more than half a million workers – a shortfall that security integrators have become all too familiar with, and many businesses simply need to do more with the same staff – increasing productivity of their operations without necessarily increasing headcount.
This is where the promise of AI comes into play.
We all know that software is better than a human at many tasks – for instance, surely no human wants to compete head-to-head with a computer to solve multiplication problems. AI is a broad toolset that expands the universe of tasks that can be completed by software.
But don’t be afraid, you will be relieved to know that your business does not need to jump into the latest in generative AI technology in order to start benefiting from artificial intelligence.
AI is a broad branch of study that encompasses software that acts “intelligent” even if, under the hood, its implementation consists of simple rules. These rules-based systems are how AI first began as a field of study. Given that automation powered by transparent rules are faster to implement and easier to understand, you may want to start with rules-based automation before moving up the ladder to using Generative AI.
Review Your Operations
Before determining what type of AI tool to use, it is important to diagnose the situation. First, review the standard workflows that your staff does on a daily and weekly basis.
Determine if any of these workflows are repetitive but simple in nature – for example, overdue billing reminders, appointment reminders, customer outreach for routine maintenance or inspections, and copying data from one system to another.
Determine which of these workflows could be automated with rules-based platforms like Zapier or Make.com. Or, perhaps there are even built-in automations or integrations in the systems already being used within the organization that can be utilized.
The Role of Generative AI
In parallel, at least begin experimenting with Generative AI. The easiest way to start is by creating a free ChatGPT account.
I use ChatGPT on a weekly, if not daily, basis. If I have a question that I would previously type into Google, I now feed it into ChatGPT and find that it can often put together a more coherent answer more quickly (and yes, it helped me write this article). It is a good brainstorming partner, though be sure to fact-check its output. If you have trouble getting good results, try to be as specific as possible – as if you are providing instructions to a bright but new employee.
While ChatGPT is powerful, it is very generic. There are other services available that use the power of ChatGPT but are able to train it on specific data, such as by using a document of FAQs (frequently asked questions).
More and more small business owners across verticals have trained their own ChatGPT version on internal data. These business owners can either provide this GPT version directly to their clients to answer questions, or use it internally to create the first draft version of responses and more. An example of this service is Creator.io.
Some businesses use the power of ChatGPT within a spreadsheet. For example, a business could use a service like Numerous.ai to clean up the unstructured data in their system to extract useful information from the many free-form text comments left by staff who have come and gone.
Generative AI tools can not only create text but also images (e.g. a new logo – give it a try for free at Playground.com) and even audio.
Within our industry, where phone calls are still a common form of communication, you may be interested to learn that AI phone calls are now very human-like and increasingly easy to implement. While these AI phone calls may not be as good as a trained staff member calling, they have come a long way and of course are great at high-volume calls. These AI calls now sound very close to a real human – complete with natural inflection and even filler words – and can take information such as approvals for upcoming inspections, updated access information to the property, and more. You can try out a demo on Bland.ai’s main website and see for yourself.
Lastly, while there are many interesting AI tools on the market, the ideal solution puts the power of AI directly into core workflows tailored to our industry. In a perfect world, businesses would have one software platform, customized to security use-cases, to handle everything from scheduling to payments to streamlining inspection reports and reporting, with AI infused throughout to increase productivity two-fold.
The good news is that the technology to create this is already there. All it takes are forward-thinking executives to make it a reality.
