Visit any apartment building or office tower in any major U.S. city today, and it will become clear: most of the action has moved away from inside and toward outside: curb, parking lot, delivery bay, rideshare pickup lane, loading dock area, dog-walking areas or parkettes. At one time, the “edge” spaces around our buildings were often an afterthought – with cameras, lighting, and possibly security guards providing care on busy nights as the only measures taken. That era is over: over the coming decade I anticipate that our greatest security and value boost for both residential and commercial real estate won’t come from inside our buildings but rather how intelligently we manage their open spaces – using AI-driven awareness technologies which are constantly monitoring, learning from, and increasingly connected. And this has real repercussions for owners, investors, and tenants across North America. Technology is gradually transitioning away from simple “motion detected” alerts towards systems which analyze behavior in open space around buildings.
When people hear “AI security,” they often picture more cameras and more screens. In reality, the shift is subtler and more powerful. Instead of relying on staff to watch dozens of feeds and react, AI-driven awareness systems will:
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Fuse data from multiple sensors – video, audio, radar, LiDAR, license plate readers, access control, even environmental sensors.
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Understand patterns over time – who typically uses the courtyard at 7 p.m., how delivery trucks move through the loading dock, what normal foot traffic looks like on a Wednesday afternoon.
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Flag anomalies in real time – loitering in a sensitive zone, a person entering through an exit-only door, a crowd forming quickly in the wrong place, a vehicle moving against traffic.
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Trigger smart responses – from adjusting lighting and sending alerts to dispatching on-site staff or remote guards with precise context.
Simply put, our strategy goes beyond simply adding more eyes on the street – we give these eyes the ability to interpret what they see quickly and proportionally in order to help humans act quickly and proportionally. There is both a hard and soft benefit associated with security improvements: theft reduction, vandalism reduction and liability liability reduction – as well as something just as valuable: increased confidence. Residents don’t want to feel watched; they want to feel taken care of. When owners provide clear communications on how these systems work and why they exist as well as how data protection measures are administered, AI-powered awareness can become part of what draws a resident to one building over another and keeps them staying there. Over time, buildings that offer visible and effective perimeter and entrance security will find it easier to attract long-term tenants while justifying premium rents in markets where safety concerns are of primary importance.
For multifamily and mixed-use residential properties, the impact could be significant. Residents care deeply about what happens between the sidewalk and their front door:
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Entry plazas and vestibules: AI can distinguish between a resident badge used normally and someone “tailgating” behind them. Systems can log unusual patterns, like repeated attempts to piggyback entry, and notify management before it becomes a recurring issue.
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Package and delivery areas: With e-commerce now entrenched, porch piracy isn’t just a single-family home concern. AI can monitor package rooms and drop zones for unusual access, lingering behavior, or off-hours activity.
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Parking lots and garages: Instead of relying on grainy footage after the fact, AI can watch for loitering near vehicles, unsafe driving, or someone moving repeatedly between cars.
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Outdoor amenities: Courtyards, rooftop decks, and dog runs can be monitored for crowding, unauthorized use after hours, or safety incidents, while still maintaining a relaxed environment.
On the commercial side – retail plazas, offices, industrial parks, medical campuses – AI security around open spaces will be less about securing a single doorway and more about choreographing the entire site. Over time, insurance companies will likely show great interest in how AI-driven awareness reduces risk in “grey zones” surrounding buildings. Areas like parking lots where slip-and-fall incidents often take place, side entrances where break-ins happen frequently and delivery bays where accidents are likely are all places where improved data and faster response could help lower claims, improve coverage terms and generate greater net operating income for their respective organizations.
A few examples of where we’re headed:
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Retail and mixed-use developments
AI can track crowd flow through open plazas and parking lots, helping owners understand where people naturally gather, where conflicts occur, and how to reduce friction. Systems can identify escalating situations early – an argument that’s turning into a confrontation, or a crowd forming rapidly – and direct security staff with precise location and context. -
Office and corporate campuses
As hybrid work continues, many offices are rethinking how they use outdoor space for meetings, events, and informal gatherings. AI awareness can help manage visitor traffic at entrances, protect staff leaving after dark, and monitor large outdoor events without turning them into fortress environments. -
Industrial and logistics properties
These sites often have complex movement patterns: trucks backing up, forklifts crossing lanes, contractors entering and exiting. AI can monitor loading docks, yard gates, and perimeter fencing for both security and safety issues, from unauthorized entry to near misses between vehicles and pedestrians.
One of the more intriguing long-term impacts could be seen in design itself. Traditionally, physical features were employed to regulate behavior outside buildings: fences, bollards, locked side doors and restricted access zones are among them. Though still necessary in many instances, their effects can make a property seem closed off and less integrated into its surroundings community. With software-defined security becoming a dynamic layer that adapts with changing neighborhoods, tenant profiles and usage patterns – owners now have powerful levers at their disposal for adapting properties as neighborhoods shift or tenant profiles evolve.
As AI-driven awareness becomes more prevalent, designers and owners may have the confidence to:
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Open up previously closed spaces, such as creating pedestrian-friendly plazas where there used to be unused parking.
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Use landscaping, lighting, and subtle cues instead of hard barriers, knowing the system is constantly watching for unusual or unsafe activity.
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Create more flexible spaces that can handle different uses – markets, concerts, seasonal events – with AI dynamically adjusting monitoring thresholds and alerts based on the type of event and expected crowd behavior.
Over the next 5–10 years, I expect AI-enabled security around buildings to evolve in three important ways:
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From isolated systems to property-wide platforms
Instead of buying point solutions – one for cameras, another for access control, another for license plate recognition – owners will push for unified platforms that give them a single view of everything happening in and around the property. -
From property-level to district-level awareness
In dense urban areas and large master-planned communities, neighboring properties will increasingly share anonymized data on flows and incidents. Imagine a situation where a disturbance on one block triggers heightened awareness at nearby properties before the problem moves down the street. -
From purely defensive to predictive and supportive
AI won’t just look for threats; it will help optimize operations. It may suggest where to add lighting, where to place new signage, or how to adjust delivery windows to reduce congestion and conflict. In some cases, it may even inform leasing decisions – identifying underused corners of a site that could support pop-up retail, outdoor seating, or new amenities.
For both residential and commercial owners, the message is the same: this is not a niche experiment anymore. Over time, AI-driven awareness around buildings will become an expectation, much like Wi-Fi and LED lighting are today. Of course, with more intelligence comes more responsibility. In my view, the buildings that will win in this next phase are the ones that combine smart technology with smart people – trained staff, clear protocols, and a culture that prioritizes safety and respect in equal measure.
Owners will need to grapple with:
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Privacy and transparency – Residents, employees, and visitors deserve to know what is being monitored, why, and how long data is kept. Clear signage and communication will matter.
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Bias and fairness – AI systems must be trained and tested carefully to avoid unfairly “flagging” certain groups or behaviors. Vendors will need to be chosen with this in mind, and owners will be expected to ask hard questions.
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Human judgment – These tools should guide and support human decision-making, not replace it. The best systems will keep a person in the loop for sensitive actions, particularly when it comes to confrontations and enforcement.