In the world of security services where companies are gripped by labour shortages, some are turning to robots. Ed Bacco, a technology executive who joined ADT’s commercial arm just over four years ago, sees androids as a way of getting around the intense battle for talent and high turnover rates that have always been a problem for the industry. “We wanted to have more consistency in our guards, and so when I came over to ADT I saw an opportunity to introduce something to the market,” said Bacco, an industry veteran who previously worked at Amazon and the US Department of Homeland Security. The Security Industry Association, the international trade body, said a shortage of workers is a long-established factor limiting growth within the sector. In the UK, there will be a shortfall of more than 60,000 security officers this year, said the country’s trade association. ADT Commercial has invested in 1X, a robotics company, and is trialling 10 of its humanoid robots both at its monitoring centre and at some customer locations. One android is stationed at ADT’s monitoring centre in Dallas, where it checks the premises for signs of disturbance or intrusion. Once an irregularity is detected, it will alert a human guard equipped with a VR headset. “One of the really big powers of our system . . . is that when something happens, we’re able to actually step into the android from a remote location,” said 1X chief executive Bernt Øivind Børnich. “That is one of the major strengths that 1X brings is to be able to operate in the avatar mode,” said Bacco. “They can be in London . . . controlling the [robot] in California.” In its latest funding round earlier this year, 1X raised $23.5mn, backed by investors including New York venture capital fund Tiger Global and OpenAI’s Startup Fund, valuing the firm at just over $200mn, according to data group PitchBook.
Full story : Security companies are turning to robots as the labour shortage bites.
