According to Genetec’s State of Physical Security report, organizations worldwide are evolving towards a hybrid cloud architecture, with AI as a core technology for physical security. Legacy systems, skill shortages, and concerns about data privacy and governance may slow down deployment.
The latest State of Physical Security report from Genetec reveals that organizations worldwide are steering their security architecture towards hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI). At the same time, daily operations continue to be characterized by legacy systems, scarce skills, and cautious adoption.
Hybrid approach
According to the report, most organizations, in their multi-year vision, opt for a hybrid deployment of physical security rather than fully on-premises or fully cloud-based. Companies want to determine the best location for each workload: bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive tasks, such as video storage, remain local; management, updates, and certain analytics move to the cloud.
Hybrid cloud is explicitly positioned as a lever for resilience. By dividing environments into security zones, critical functionality remains locally available when cloud services falter. Cloud appliances and edge devices serve as bridges between existing on-premises systems and new cloud services, allowing modernization to proceed gradually.
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Especially larger organizations with many cameras and complex infrastructure consider a full migration to pure cloud hosting unlikely in the short term. Consultants and integrators expect primarily hybrid deployments at clients in the coming years, in what the report calls a pragmatic “hybrid-first” transition.
AI becomes a top priority
AI and large language models (LLMs) are moving to the top of the investment agenda in the report. For the first time, AI is on the same priority level as traditional pillars such as video and access control in the plans for 2026. About one in five end users already apply AI or LLM technology in the security environment today, with higher adoption among large enterprises.
The main use cases are operational: investigating incidents faster, reducing alarm noise, automatically classifying and prioritizing events, automating repetitive tasks, and generating reports or transcriptions. In the next step, organizations are looking at predictive analytics and automated workflows for responses.
It is notable that there is also widespread caution. Organizations are not blind to the risks of AI. Most organizations express concerns about data privacy, the explainability of AI decisions, reliability, and the ability to audit. Therefore, suppliers and integrators must not only provide functionality but also governance, transparency, and training around AI.
Other trends
In addition to cloud and AI, the report emphasizes the shift of physical security to a strategic function, where security data is also used by IT, facility, HR, and operations. IT departments take a dominant role in decisions about architecture and cybersecurity, while a shortage of profiles with cloud, IoT, and AI expertise slows down the deployment of new technology.
The findings are based on a global survey of 7,368 security professionals (end users, channel partners, manufacturers, and consultants) spread across six continents. 21 percent of respondents are from Europe. The report inventories their current environments, planned projects, and priorities for 2026.