How technology, threats, and people are reshaping real-world security decisions
Most organizations are no longer questioning the need for changes in physical security. Instead, they are focused on keeping pace with evolving demands. They are asking about our return on investment, whether we are mitigating threats and vulnerabilities, and, most importantly, which data we use that can be shared across business operations.
Security teams are utilizing more technologies and collecting more data than ever before, often with fewer people. However, technology is not cheap, and leadership expects results, faster response time, and fewer incidents. The pressure isn’t coming from one direction. It’s coming from everywhere.
That reality is why, last January, we looked ahead at physical security trends based on direct feedback from our LinkedIn audience. At the time, technology clearly stood out as the primary driver of change. This year, we followed up with a more focused poll asking what will matter most in 2026, and the response was even better and much clearer.
What Security Leaders Are Actually Saying
The poll results showed AI technologies leading by a wide margin, with cloud-based security solutions following behind. Other options received little to no attention.
Our 2026 findings align with current industry trends. AI is no longer viewed as a future concept; it is being integrated into security solutions to help security teams process alarms, analyse behavior patterns, prioritize responses, and, in some cases, automatically deploy threat mitigation resources.
For example, clients are embracing drone technology to investigate threats to our country's critical infrastructure. Drones can be deployed quickly and cover a wider territory than deploying patrol vehicles and personnel.
While cloud-based security platforms help simplify how organizations manage multiple locations, deploy software updates, and stay in touch, regardless of team location. For many organizations, using the cloud is less about innovation and more about ease of management and maintenance.
The Threat Landscape Keeps Shifting
While technology leads the conversation, threats continue to evolve in less predictable ways. Risks today aren’t limited to perimeter breaches or hardware failures. They include operational disruptions, internal activity, and situations that develop quickly and without warning.
Because of this, security leaders are moving away from disparate systems toward integrated, unified solutions. When video, access control, and intrusion systems share data, teams gain context rather than just alerts, enabling better decision-making.
People are Still Important
Another factor shaping physical security in 2026 is the workforce; technology can help ease that pressure, but only when it’s designed around how people actually use it.
Cluttered tools that cause confusion and add extra steps do not improve security. It is clean process design, intelligent automation, and long-term maintenance that work. That human reality is often overlooked, and it’s where strategy matters most.
Cyber and Physical Are No Longer Separate
One interesting takeaway from this year’s poll was the low emphasis on cyber-physical convergence. Rather than suggesting it has become less important, it likely reflects something else: for many organizations, convergence is already assumed.
In practice, physical security systems now depend on networks, cloud platforms, and shared data to function effectively.
Where This Leaves Us
As a security professional, AI and cloud technologies are likely at the top of your trend list, but their effectiveness will depend on how they are implemented and used. At SAGE Integration, we focus on designing security solutions that work in real-world conditions.
By treating physical security as an evolving operational function rather than a one-time deployment, organizations are better positioned to adapt—today and in the years ahead.
Copyright 2025
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