Commercial Real Estate Embraces AI Surveillance
The commercial real estate sector is rapidly adopting AI-driven video surveillance systems from firms like Brivo and Verkada, creating integrated security
The commercial real estate industry is accelerating its use of artificial intelligence-powered video surveillance. This expansion persists even as public sector contracts with surveillance firms face intense privacy debates.
A mature ecosystem of vendors now offers a growing menu of AI-driven security solutions. These firms are targeting large, geographically distributed property owners and operators. Steve Van Till, CEO of security provider Brivo, said most of their customers are private entities who keep their own data. "Private video surveillance is a very different geography than public sharing of video surveillance," Van Till told Bisnow.
Target Clients and Market Growth
Gyms, healthcare facilities, and fast-food restaurants are prime targets for these surveillance companies. The ideal customer is a large organization with a distributed real estate portfolio. This allows for a network where a human or AI agent can analyze activity across an entire portfolio, not only a single location.
The AI video surveillance industry reached $6.3 billion in 2025. Market research expects it to grow to nearly $27 billion by 2034.
Flock's Dual Public and Private Push
Flock Safety, a company facing scrutiny for its work with local governments, is also active in commercial spaces. The company launched in 2017 focusing on homeowners associations before expanding to municipalities. Recently, it has pushed into the private sector. Marcelo Ballve, head of research at corporate intelligence firm Sacra, said Flock now reports that 50% of its new revenue comes from enterprises and businesses.
Privacy advocacy group Deflock reports roughly 140,000 Flock license plate reader cameras are deployed nationwide. Major retail property owners are among the clients. Simon Property Group, the largest mall REIT in the country, is a customer according to Deflock's open-source data. Home Depot stated it uses Flock cameras in its parking lots as a security measure to prevent theft and protect customer safety.
Flock has faced criticism for allegedly enabling immigration officials to track individuals, a claim the company denies. It says it does not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement but acknowledges its municipal customers can opt to work with federal law enforcement.
AI Capabilities and Vendor Solutions
Vendors like Brivo, Verkada, and Cloudastructure provide custom solutions across nearly every real estate segment. Their clients include multifamily firms, industrial clients, retailers, restaurants, and hotels. Specific uses range from detecting weapons to identifying improper disposal of items during tenant move-outs.
Verkada has integrated AI widely and deployed over 100 AI-related features in the last year alone. Cloudastructure claims a 98% deterrence rate and a 10-second response rate for 90% of incidents, according to Chief Revenue Officer Nile Coates. Their systems use AI to scan for specific activities. A human verifies alerts and can then intervene via microphone or escalate to authorities.
| Company | Key Claim or Feature |
|---|---|
| Cloudastructure | 98% deterrence rate; 10-second response for 90% of incidents |
| Verkada | Deployed over 100 AI features in the last year |
Data Ownership as a Selling Point
With increased scrutiny, data ownership has become a central selling point for surveillance vendors. Companies emphasize that customer data is self-contained and not shared across networks unless explicitly permitted. Verkada stated it "does not operate a data-sharing network" and that each customer owns its own camera data. Brivo's Van Till said all client data is contained within the account owner's scope. A customer with 300 restaurants can connect all their cameras, but that data is not mixed with other clients' information.
Cloudastructure's Nile Coates said data segmentation has long been policy but only recently became a major talking point. He linked this shift to technological advances and the high-profile attention on Flock Safety. Once contracts started being pulled away from vendors around the sharing of that data... It's becoming more important, Coates said.
The interconnectivity of these systems allows tracking of individuals and vehicles across multiple cameras in real-time or over days. AI can scan hundreds of hours of footage to extract relevant data. This capability, vendors say, has made investigations significantly easier by tracking movement through multiple rooms and cameras.
