Today, Martin Gren is the Vice Chairman of the Board at Axis AB, and he travels extensively to visit the different security exhibitions and Axis-offices all around the world.

For those of us on the outside, it seems like you have quite a flexible role within the company. What does your day-to-day work look like?

“I see myself as the company’s cultural ambassador. In this role, I handle onboarding for new employees, explaining the company culture and why it is the way it is. I also enjoy testing our latest products, visiting our subsidiaries, and, not least, meeting customers to see how much they benefit from using our products. Additionally, I’m a speaker at various trade shows and industry events.”

What general technology trends do you see in the physical security market?

“One trend is based on geopolitics, where the industry has been divided into China and non-China. Then we have cloud and AI as consistent elements. Regarding the cloud, I’d like to remind you that Axis was the first to launch a cloud video system. It was called STS at the time and was launched back in 2005.”

And Axis’s relationship with AI?

“A large portion of our research and development is focused on AI and AI-related chip development.”

Why is that important?

“Partly because it allows for much better video analytics and the creation of metadata streams rather than just video data, which is, for example, important in cloud contexts. But we also use AI to improve image analysis and camera settings, where AI can assist in certain situations. Ultimately, this leads to better image quality, bandwidth savings, and easier use.”

AI in five years, how will it impact security technology?

“Five years is a short time, and there’s a lot of uncertainty to take into account, not least concerning the effects of new legislation. We’ve been actively working with AI for a long time and see its potential, but we also see significant challenges, such as issues related to privacy, data, quality assurance, and ethical considerations. So, giving any definite answers would be unwise.”

But surely, you can say something?

“In the short term, much of it is about balancing high expectations for AI with exploring what the technology can and should do.”

“For example, there’s the eternal dream of integrated access control, which isn’t going to happen in the next five years. Then there are large language models, where you can ask questions in plain text to video material, but another problem arises – knowing how the data is trained. This, in turn, requires an understanding of all the privacy legislation.”

At the recent security exhibition show Skydd, you held a presentation about the Internet of Security Things. What is that?

“For us at Axis, it’s about IoT-connected security devices. We were the first with network cameras. After that, we developed a horn speaker, which is also an IoT device. We also offer network-connected intercoms, where the Czech company 2N was the first. But since we acquired them, we can now claim that we were the first to launch the first network-connected intercom.”

“We also have radar and body cameras, which are also IoT-connected security products.”

How do you view the market for access control?

“It’s a fragmented market, marked by slow movement, which is quite natural since you don’t change access control systems very often. Then we have all the hackers, which is another threat dimension related to access control.”

Speaking of cyber security, more and more laws and regulations are being introduced to strengthen society’s resilience against cyber threats. This places ever-greater demands on technology providers. How is the security market affected?

“I believe it will become harder to be a small company. You must be big enough to have the resources for all these aspects. It’s going to create a major barrier between large and small companies.”

Finally, do you think that laws and regulations aimed at strengthening cyber security can contribute to more open security systems? “It should drive that forward. Especially in access control, where progress has been slow with open systems, even though there have long been good examples at the device level. At the system level, it doesn’t exist.”