As part of an online miniseries, Sri Sutharsan, VP of Marketing for Zenitel discusses his industry predictions for 2026.
Can you tell me a bit about yourself, your job role and how long you have been at the company?
I am the VP of Marketing for Zenitel’s Onshore business unit. I have more than 20 years of experience across R&D, product management, sales and marketing, including over 12 years in the physical security market.
During my career, I have led complex innovation projects in the transportation vertical and helped businesses scale their products and operations globally.
I joined Zenitel in 2016 and since then my main focus has been driving awareness in the physical security industry about the importance of audio as a core part of the security mix.
What are some of the key trends and predictions you think we will see in the security industry in 2026?
Trend One – Hybrid cloud adoption for better efficiency
Hybrid cloud architecture is becoming the main choice for security solutions, combining on-premises and cloud infrastructures.
This gives customers flexibility in how they manage, monitor and control devices, where they store audio and video – on site, in the cloud or both.
For safety and security-critical communication systems such as voice alarms, mass notification and emergency help points, system availability is paramount and not just a technical responsibility – it is a safety-critical obligation.
In these environments, remote monitoring, diagnostics and updates from the cloud will become more common, particularly for multi-site deployments, to improve uptime and reduce the need for on-site interventions.
As operations grow more distributed and complex, cloud-assisted managed services will move from a “nice-to-have” to a necessity in 2026.
Trend Two – A regulatory overhaul on cybersecurity
Cybercrime is often described as the “third-largest economy,” trailing behind the US and China, and is estimated to cost the global economy trillions of dollars in 2026.
Regulators have so far struggled to keep pace with the dynamic nature of cyber-threats.
Their focus is not on punishing criminals directly but on making sure that organisations have taken all reasonable precautionary measures to protect their assets.
To this end, cybersecurity-related directives and regulations such as NIS2 and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) place significant obligations and potential liabilities on organisations and manufacturers.
These include embedding security from the design phase through the product lifecycle, conducting risk assessments and managing vulnerabilities, including providing security updates.
The coming years, including 2026, are likely to be a period of intense preparation and adjustment for manufacturers and operators before key requirements become fully enforceable.
Whether these measures will significantly reduce data theft and extortion by 2026, however, remains uncertain.
Trend Three – Audio-inclusive security transformation
The physical security market is already shifting from a video-first mindset toward an audio-inclusive transformation.
Many security partners now see audio as one of their fastest-growing segments and use high-quality audio as a key differentiator to deepen engagement with existing customers.
At the same time, rapid urban growth and increased connectivity are driving a stronger need for clear, intelligible communication in public and private spaces.
As a result, in 2026, intelligent audio will become a core pillar of modern security strategies, alongside video and access control.
Trend Four – Experimentation with agentic AI
AI technologies are no longer about “do we need it?” but “how do we incorporate it to get real benefits?”
Among the different “flavours” of AI, we expect increased experimentation with agentic AI.
2026
By 2026, security operations are likely to be supported by agentic AI domain experts – specialised AI agents that each focus on a specific task and work together like a virtual investigation team.
Instead of a single, one-size-fits-all AI, multiple agents collaborate and cross-check each other’s findings.
For the security industry, this means that audio and voice events will increasingly be one of the key data streams these agents analyse – linking spoken interactions, intercom calls and voice alarms with video, access control and IT logs to build a richer, more reliable operational picture.
What is one piece of advice you would give organisations and professionals as they head into 2026?
If I had to give just one piece of advice, it would be this: treat your security and communication infrastructure as a living system, not a finished project.
Technology, regulations and threats are all moving fast. Organisations that will succeed in 2026 are those that:
- Build on open, hybrid architectures so they can integrate new capabilities without starting from scratch
- Invest in cybersecurity and cloud-assisted operations to keep systems patched, monitored and always ready
- Think beyond “cameras and doors” and include intelligible audio and two-way communication as a standard part of their security design
For professionals, that means staying curious, building cross-disciplinary skills (IT, OT, cybersecurity and operations) and being ready to continuously adapt how you design and operate security solutions.