Features

The Technology Trends Affecting the Security Sector in 2023

Published

2 years ago

December 13, 2022

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By – Johan Paulsson, CTO at Axis Communications

The fact that technology has become pervasive in our personal and work lives is not news. This is largely due to the benefits that new technologies bring to businesses and citizens around the world in delivering new, more effective, and increasingly efficient services.

However, the depth of technology’s integration into our lives, advances in its capabilities, and heightened awareness of its implications in society are also greater than ever and continue to accelerate.

Given this, many of the broad macro trends around the globe – spanning geopolitical issues, economic uncertainty, environmental concerns, and human rights – have implications for all technology sectors, the security industry included.

Ours is a sector making use of increasingly intelligent technology, one inherently involved in collecting sensitive data, and as impacted by geopolitical issues affecting international trade as any. Yet we’re still resolute in our view that our innovations will create a smarter, safer world.

These are the six key technology trends that we believe will affect the security sector in 2023.

A move towards actionable insights

The increasing application of AI and machine learning have seen a focus on the opportunity for advanced analytics in recent years. Moving forward, the shift in focus will move from the analytics themselves, to the actionable insights they deliver in specific use cases. It’s less about telling you something is wrong, and more about helping you decide what action to take.

A key driver for employing analytics to deliver actionable insights is the huge increase in data being generated by surveillance cameras, along with other sensors integrated into a solution. The data (and metadata) being created would be impossible for human operators to interpret and act upon quickly enough, even with huge and costly increases in resources.

The use of analytics can drive real-time actions which support safety, security, and operational efficiency. From prompts to call emergency services in the case of incidents to redirecting traffic in cities to alleviate jams to redeploying staff in busy retail outlets, to saving energy in buildings through more efficient lighting and heating, analytics are recommending, prompting, and even starting to take the actions that support human operators.

Beyond ‘live’ actionable insights, analytics can support forensic analysis post-incident. Again, given the vast amount of data being created by surveillance cameras, finding the relevant views of a scene can take significant time. This can hinder investigations and reduce the likelihood of suspects being found. Assisted search addresses this issue, helping operators quickly find individuals and objects of interest among hours of footage.

Finally, proposed actions promoted by analytics are increasingly forward-looking. Downtime in industrial sites and factories can be costly. A combination of sensors allows intelligent analytics to propose preventative maintenance ahead of outright failure.

“From analytics to action” will become a mantra for 2023.

Use case-defined hybrid architectures

As we’ve highlighted in previous technology trends posts, it’s now commonly accepted that a hybrid technology architecture is best-suited for security systems, mixing on-premises servers, cloud-based computing, and powerful edge devices.

No one architecture fits all scenarios, however. But here lies the solution: first assess what needs to be addressed in your specific use case, and then define the hybrid solution that will meet your needs. Several factors need to be considered.

Undoubtedly the advantages of advanced analytics embedded in surveillance cameras on the edge of the network are clear to see. Analysis of the highest-quality images the instant they are captured gives organizations the best chance to react in real time.

Equally, the data generated by surveillance cameras is now useful beyond the real-time view. Analysis of trends over time can deliver insights leading to operational efficiencies. This analysis often demands the processing power found in on-premises servers or the cloud.

And of course, there are the requirements – often define by regulation – around data privacy and storage that vary from country to country and region to region. These can define the difference between on-premises storage and the use of the cloud.

What’s essential is not to tie yourself to a single architecture. Remain open, and give yourself the flexibility to create the hybrid architecture best suited to your specific needs.

The emergence of cybersecurity sub-trends

The importance of cybersecurity is also highlighted through the requirement to remain compliant. For instance, the proposed European Commission’s Cyber Resilience Act will place greater demands on producers of hardware and software across all sectors to ensure the cybersecurity of their products, through fewer vulnerabilities at launch, and better cybersecurity management throughout the products’ lifecycles. The security and surveillance sector will, of course, be included.

The Act demonstrates both the importance and the complexity of cybersecurity. No longer can it be seen as one subject, but rather as several interlinked areas. Some of these are well-established, but others are emerging.

In the video surveillance sector, cybersecurity measures that ensure the authenticity and safety of data as it is captured and transferred from the camera to the cloud to the server will be essential to maintain trust in its value.

We will see a more proactive approach by technology vendors in identifying vulnerabilities, with ‘bug bounty’ programs becoming commonplace to incentivize external parties.

And customers will expect transparency regarding the cybersecurity of security solutions, with a Software Bill of Materials becoming standard in assessing software security and risk management.

Beyond security

One of the most significant trends for the security sector, and with it an equally significant opportunity, is the move beyond security.

Surveillance cameras have become powerful sensors. The quality of video information they capture, in all conditions, has increased year-on-year for decades. Today, through advanced analytics, they also create metadata – information about the video data – which adds another layer of detail and value.

This of course improves and enhances their ability to support safety and operational efficiency use cases in addition to security. The opportunity now exists to combine the data created by surveillance cameras with that from other sensors – monitoring temperature, noise, air and water quality, vibration, weather, and more – creating an advanced data-driven sensory network.

We’re already seeing some use of such networks in industrial environments through the monitoring of processes and supporting proactive maintenance. But the use cases in which this network could be applied are limited only by our imaginations, but without doubt they can help improve almost every aspect of our lives, including our safety.

Sustainability always, climate change at the forefront

Sustainability has been featured in several of our annual technology trends predictions, and we see no less of a need to maintain momentum behind sustainability initiatives in their broadest sense over the coming year. Ensuring that organizations continue to measure and improve the environmental, societal, and business governance practices of their businesses will be essential in respecting people, being a trusted business partner, innovating responsibly, and protecting our planet. All these aspects will come under increasing scrutiny from customers of security and safety solutions.

However, given the extreme conditions of the past year, we do expect a more acute focus specifically on addressing climate change in 2023. It’s clear that we are not yet doing enough to stop the acceleration of global warming, and every sector will be expected to double its efforts.

For Axis, a key step has been committing to the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) which will see us setting targets for reducing emissions, not only in our own business but through our entire value chain. And this is a key point. While organizations might make great efforts to reduce emissions from their own operations, these can be undermined if their upstream and downstream value chains are not aligned to the same targets.

For technology companies, however, scrutiny of their own business operations will be just one side of the climate change coin. They will also be expected to demonstrate how their products and services support the sustainability goals of their own customers, creating efficiencies that also help those organizations reduce emissions.

An increased regulatory focus

Inevitably, given its pervasiveness and power, the technology sector as a whole and specific technologies are coming under more regulatory and policymaker scrutiny. We still believe that the focus should always be on the regulation of the use cases for the technology, not the technology itself, and will always comply with local, regional, and international regulations. But it can be a complicated picture.

The European Commission is one of the most active in looking to regulate technology in an ongoing effort to protect the privacy and rights of citizens. Its proposed AI Act, part of the Commission’s European AI Strategy, aims to assign specific risk categories to uses of AI and would be the first legal framework on AI. Like the Commission’s AI Liability Directive, the AI Act will no doubt be the subject of much debate before it becomes law.

But whether in relation to AI, demands around cybersecurity, data privacy, curbing the influence of ‘big tech’, or establishing tech sovereignty, it’s clear that technology companies in the security sector will increasingly need to adhere to more stringent regulations. In broad terms, this should be welcomed as ensuring business transparency and ethical practice continue to be critical.

The greatest opportunity for our sector continues to be in aligning continued commercial success with our responsibility to address the critical issues facing the planet and our population. As ever, we’re optimistic that the combination of our human inventiveness, advances in technology, and ethical business practices can be combined to make the world a better place.

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Features

HOW FSI INCUMBENTS CAN STAY RELEVANT THROUGH THE GCC’S PAYMENTS EVOLUTION

Published

4 days ago

June 28, 2024

Integrator Web-Editor

By Luka Celic, Head of Payments Architecture – MENA, Endava

Banks and payment services providers (PSPs) have been the region’s engines of economic growth for as long as anyone can remember. It is therefore jarring to imagine that this dominance is now under threat. After all, venerable banks and credit card companies have elegantly embraced the Internet, mobile banking, and the cloud to deliver self service banking to millions of customers. But consumers, especially digital natives, have never been known for congratulating an industry for a job well done. Instead, with each convenience, their expectations only grow. The siege reality of the pandemic accelerated a shift in consumer behaviour, and Middle East banks and PSPs now face challenges on three fronts.

The first is FinTechs. from Saudi Arabia’s BNPL (buy now, pay later) pioneer Tamara and Qatar’s unbanked oriented platform cwallet, to online financial services, Klarna, tech startups have been able to tap into rapidly changing consumer markets. New companies find it easier to pivot. And like speed boats racing against aircraft carriers, they weaved effortlessly to fulfil a range of desires amid high smartphone connectivity rates and a range of other favourable market conditions. By one estimate from 2022, BNPL alone accounted for US$1.5 billion (or 4%) of the Middle East and Africa’s online retail market.

The second threat is open banking, which comes in many forms, but one example is the instant-payments platforms being introduced by central banks such as those in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. To get a sense of how this could play out, we need only look to Europe, where players who once relied on payments through card schemes are now pivoting towards open banking enabled payments. Closer to home, Al Ansari Exchange recently announced its customers can now transfer money and settle bills via the recipient’s mobile number, enabled by the UAE’s Aani IPP.

And finally, comes big tech. To augment its e-wallet service, Apple has signed up to an open banking service in the UK. The open banking framework which banks enabled through their investments is being exploited by a Big Tech firm that has access to 34% of UK smartphone users. Unsurprisingly, this sparked a fierce antitrust complaint by UK’s banks. Other big names will surely follow as they continue to craft ways of offering the digital experiences that garnered them user loyalty in the first place.

THE BALANCE

Apple Wallet is aimed at blending payment methods, loyalty cards, and other services into a single experience. But such moves have raised regulators’ eyebrows regarding a lack of interoperability and the preservation of competitive markets. Hence, Apple’s open banking foray — a gesture to calm the nerves of a finance market that fears having to compete with a company armed with countless millions of user transactions from which to draw insights. The massive user bases of tech giants will give any FSI CEO goosebumps. How does a traditional bank lure an Apple user? Open banking initiatives open the door to greater competition and innovation, both of which are good for consumers. But the only way to ensure both is by building an ecosystem that balances innovation with regulatory oversight.

FROM INCUMBENT TO INNOVATOR

Yes, smaller businesses have freedom of movement that larger incumbents do not. But that does not mean that there are no paths for banks and PSPs. There are, in fact, several strategies that larger FSI companies can employ to capitalise on the open banking revolution.

The first of these is collaborating to create ecosystems that provide users with frictionless experiences. Established FSIs already have access to a wealth of information about their customers and must now consider how to integrate data sources to create highly streamlined and frictionless workflows. A customer applying for a loan could then see their details auto populated, and credit history already accounted — all without the hassle of lengthy phone calls, application forms, or submission requests. In an age when instant is everything, it’s easy to see why the former approach could foster loyalty, while the latter would only serve to drive customers towards more capable competitors.

Card companies and issuer banks could also work with acquirers to smooth out the rough landscape that has arisen from the advent of digital payments. Acquirers traditionally acted on behalf of the merchants that accepted payment methods to recoup funds from the PSP through the issuing bank. This system has served the industry well, but with more payment methods emerging, acquirers have branched out into mobile wallets, QR codes, and gateway services. Gradually the relevance of established players has dwindled as their lack of representation at the critical checkpoint has diminished their significance. Incumbents must work to turn back the tide by recognising that acceptance and acceptance ownership are becoming increasingly important for maintaining market relevance.

Another strategy is diversification. Veteran FSIs may feel like they’ve lost ground to nimble start-ups and Neo Banks, but history shows value in patience — established FSI players now benefit from the investments of early innovators, and double down on payments innovations which have already shown the most promise. Moreover, if they diversify their portfolios through acquisitions, innovations, and partnerships, they can secure their future. Mastercard presents an excellent example with their US$200m investment into MTM payments. This single move has given the company access to MTM’s 290 million strong subscriber base, allowing these customers to become familiar with Mastercard products before getting entrenched with mobile wallet alternatives.

WHO’S ON TOP?

If we look at the rise of BNPL services, we see an origin story with — at least — major supporting roles for large card providers. But open banking has sidelined them in just a few years. BlackBerry was a stock market darling just five years before it sought a buyer. Traditional FSI players must innovate; they must collaborate with emerging disruptors; they must diversify. They can survive and thrive if they do these things — after all, they already have much of the infrastructure, and experience required for success. Middle East banks and PSPs have the existing user bases, so they have the scale to get out in front in the era of open banking. All they lack is the kind of compelling use cases that will entice the banking public. PSPs and their issuers could offer embedded payments, for example. The right services at the right time will be warmly received by consumers, no matter the scale of the offering institution, so there is every reason to believe that incumbents will come out on top against FinTech and Big Tech.

Features

SEC paves way to approve spot ethereum ETFs

Published

5 days ago

June 27, 2024

Integrator Web-Editor

By Simon Peters, Crypto Analyst at eToro

Ethereum spot ETFs took a significant step forward to being available to US investors last week with approval of the 19b-4 applications, allowing US exchanges (namely Cboe BZX, NYSE Arca and Nasdaq) to list and trade ethereum spot ETFs.

On the back of this, ethereum has been one of the best performing cryptoassets this week, gaining 19%.

According to a recent survey by eToro with retail investors in the UAE, over 74% respondents agreed that the prospect of an ethereum ETF will significantly influence their decision to increase, decrease or maintain their current ethereum allocation.
Focus now turns to the S-1 registration statements from the ETF issuers, as these still need to be approved by the SEC before the ethereum spot ETFs can actually launch and investors can buy them.

As to when the S-1s will be approved we have to wait and see. It could be weeks or months unfortunately.

Nevertheless, with the 19b-4s out of the way, it could be an opportunity now for savvy crypto investors to buy ethereum in anticipation of the S-1s being approved, frontrunning the ETFs going live and the billions of dollars potentially flowing into these.

We’ve seen what happened when the bitcoin spot ETFs went live, with the bitcoin price going to a new all-time high in the months after. Could the same happen with ethereum? The all-time high for ethereum is $4870, set back in 2021. We’re currently at $3650, about 35% away.

We’re also going into a macroeconomic climate with potentially looser financial conditions, i.e. interest rate cuts and a slowdown of quantitative tightening, conditions where risk assets such as crypto tend to perform well price-wise.

Features

Harnessing AI and big data to transform Middle East’s retail industry landscape

Published

1 week ago

June 25, 2024

Integrator Web-Editor

By Saeed Alajou, Senior Sales Director, Enterprise Business

With the increasing dominance of technological advancements in the current era, the global retail industry is witnessing a massive shift in its operations. As the industry embraces a varied range of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics, it is redefining customer expectations and the conventional concepts of business operations. According to recent studies, The global artificial intelligence (AI) in retail market size is projected to grow from $9.36 billion in 2024 to $85.07 billion by 2032, at a CAGR of 31.8% from 2024 to 2032. This transformative wave is compelling companies to harness the potential of these cutting-edge technologies to maintain their competitive edge.

One of the most evident trends in this era is the convergence of eCommerce, AI and data analytics, which is driving the evolution of the retail landscape worldwide. In the current omnichannel retail landscape, consumers expect consistency and continuity across various touchpoints, pushing industry players to integrate conversational AI. This integration ensures a seamless experience; for example, customers can begin a conversation with a chatbot while browsing online and effortlessly continue it via a mobile app when they visit a physical store.

However, the potential of the omnichannel approach and conversational AI platforms is not limited to supporting customers. They also provide retailers with valuable insights into customer behaviour across different channels. Conversational AI platforms can generate a vast amount of data from customer interactions, offering retailers valuable insights into consumer preferences, trends, and pain points. By analysing this data, retailers can uncover patterns, identify emerging trends, and optimise their product offerings and marketing strategies accordingly.

Furthermore, AI-driven analytics enable retailers to gauge customer sentiment, allowing them to address issues and enhance satisfaction proactively. These data-driven insights empower retailers to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the curve. Reflecting the vast potential of AI, the retail sector in the Middle East is rapidly adopting this technology, becoming a leading industry in AI investment. Reports indicate that AI spending in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) reached USD 3 billion and is expected to grow to USD 6.4 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.7 per cent.

The innovation of chatbots and virtual assistants has accelerated the integration of AI technologies in retail, revolutionising customer interactions by adding a human-like touch to digital engagements. These tools enhance the purchasing journey, making it more intuitive and responsive, providing customised and real-time recommendations based on consumer sentiment. However, retailers need to manage expectations of scalability and ensure AI complements rather than replaces human interactions.

Furthermore, integrating big data into retail operations helps understand customer behaviour and preferences. Retailers can leverage vast amounts of data to gain insights into customer needs and tailor their offerings accordingly. By analysing customer-generated data, businesses can conduct predictive analysis to anticipate trends and make informed decisions, keeping them ahead of the curve in offering products and services that resonate with their target audience.

When it comes to the impact of AI integration in the retail sector, one key segment where it is significantly visible is the supply chain. By integrating big data analytics, retailers are achieving more efficiency in their supply chain operations. Predictive analytics powered by AI aids in forecasting demand, optimising inventory levels, reducing waste, and ensuring products are available when and where customers need them. This enhances operational efficiency and customer satisfaction by minimising stockouts and delays.

AI integration supports a customer-centric approach in retail, and it positions technology as a key facilitator in meeting customer demand. Advanced technologies can identify and replicate demographic needs and pinpoint where investment is required to add value. The integration of various AI tools including price-matching technologies, pay-per-click advertising optimisation, and predictive analytics, aids the retailers in focusing on perfecting the customer journey, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable experience from the start to finish.

Although AI is widely embraced across the industry regardless of company size, delivering the best customer service requires empowering employees with the right tools and knowledge. When employees are equipped with AI-driven insights, they can provide more personalised and efficient service, enhancing the overall customer experience. This empowerment also promotes a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the organization.

Additionally, data integration and integrity are crucial for the effectiveness of AI and big data. Retailers must implement systems that can integrate data from various sources, ensuring that all information is accurate, consistent, and up to date. This collaborative approach allows retailers to offer a unified brand experience across all channels while maintaining data boundaries and complying with privacy regulations.

This widespread adoption of AI technologies in the industry underscores the importance of establishing a robust and adaptable regulatory framework. Given the growing concerns about data privacy and ethical use, retailers must ensure responsible and secure handling of customer data. Stagnant regulations can lead to compliance issues and erode customer trust, and this necessitates current and customer-aligned regulations to maintain a trustworthy data environment.

Another challenge in AI integration is utilising AI and big data to experiment with new ideas and strategies. In retail, embracing calculated risks is crucial for innovation and growth, viewing risks as learning opportunities. Being responsive to evolving customer needs allows retailers to navigate uncertainties and capitalise on opportunities for success.

With AI projected to contribute up to USD 320 billion to the Middle East’s economy by 2030, the region is increasing its investment in technology. This emphasises the need for a holistic approach in retail, integrating AI, big data, and a customer-centric mindset to thrive in the market. The industry players can maintain their competitive edge by focusing on efficiency in supply chain operations, understanding consumer behaviour, and empowering employees.