RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesAsylon Robotics has deployed 50 robots across about 25 customers to support security operations. Asylon Robotics
The security guard industry faces a higher turnover rate than the broader private sector.
Some companies are turning to autonomous drones and robots to fill in the labor gaps.
Asylon Robotics offers drones and robot services for $120,000 to $170,000 a year,
Asylon Robotics, a robotics security company, deploys autonomous drones and robot dogs to patrol the perimeters of large properties. Think stadiums, manufacturing plants, and warehouses.
The robots make scheduled rounds, stream video to a remote operations center, and investigate alarms. If they detect unusual activity, a human checks the alert and decides whether to notify on-site guards.
Damon Henry, Asylon's CEO and cofounder, told Business Insider that his company charges about $120,000 to $170,000 a year, depending on patrol frequency. This "white glove security service" includes the robots, maintenance, software, and remote operators, he said.
"You compare that against the national average for a fully-loaded 24/7 guard shift is about a quarter million right now," he said. "So you get good ROI."
Asylon Robotics CEO Damon Henry said the company is building an agnostic platform to deploy different kinds of security robots. Asylon Robotics
The financial return may propose an obvious case for replacing existing human labor. However, the security-guard workforce is also experiencing high turnover, creating openings that must be filled just to replace departing workers.
A retention crisis
About 1.3 million Americans work as security guards . Employment is projected to remain roughly flat through 2034. Yet the industry expects to produce more than 160,000 openings each year, almost entirely to replace departing workers, a July report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center said.
"I think it's a retention crisis," Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Labor Center's Low-Wage Work program and coauthor of the report, told Business Insider.
The report found that annual turnover in the investigation and security services industry, where security guards make up about nearly three-quarters of workers, reached nearly 89% in 2024, compared with 66% across the entire private sector. Turnover peaked near 99% in 2022.
The problem isn't necessarily a lack of people in the US who could become guards — Lopezlira said employers are struggling to retain workers for a low-paying job with inadequate training and higher safety risks.
The median security guard earns $18.70 an hour, and nearly 43% lack employer-sponsored or union-sponsored health coverage, the study said.
Robots take over the third shift
Henry, the Asylon CEO, said customers want to stay ahead of the curve by implementing automation and physical AI into their infrastructure.
The other problem Asylon's customers face is reducing what's called a "blackout period" — gaps in coverage that employers can't staff or keep staffed.
"Training them and staffing them is super inconsistent, and it's a big burden on the business," Henry said.
Asylon has roughly 25 customers with about 50 robot deployments across the country. Henry said that some have deployed Asylon's robots so they could leave an otherwise vacant guard post unfilled.
The bots handle some of the more repetitive tasks: circling a property's perimeter, maintaining a visible security presence, and determining whether an alarm warrants a human response. One human Asylon employee at a remote operations center supervises six to eight robots across multiple sites, Henry said.
Asylon has deployed a robot at Bayer Corporation's Hawaii facility. Asylon Robotics
At Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, one Asylon robot dog — a retrofitted quadruped from Boston Dynamics affectionately named Benzie — helps patrol the exterior areas of the 2 million-square-foot sporting venue. The impetus for bringing the robot was safety, Henry said.
"On third shift, they had security guards that were essentially walking the streets of downtown Atlanta," he said. With Benzie, guards can remain indoors until a physical response is needed.
Henry said theft and vandalism at the site went down to zero within the first couple of months of deployment and has remained that way since, he said.
A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz Stadium did not respond to a request for comment.
Part of the appeal of the robots is to shift the risk. Security guards die on the job at more than twice the rate of workers overall, the Berkeley report found. Nearly two-thirds of the fatal injuries result from assaults and other violent acts.
"Technology and robots can shift the risk, not just the tasks," Lopezlira said, adding that removing a person from an isolated overnight patrol could reduce their exposure to violence.
Robots still need people
The robots are not yet outright replacing human guards. Sometimes they can't finish the patrol without human help.
Henry estimated that Asylon's robots can autonomously navigate about 90% of a typical patrol. Remote human operators may still need to step in when the machines encounter crosswalks, doorways, or other complex areas. In addition, every threat is still verified by a person.
"It's like self-driving cars," Henry said. "They're getting pretty good, but they're not quite there."
Some security bots can run into more fundamental problems. In 2024, San Antonio International Airport experimented with Knightscope's 420-pound roving security robot, designed to respond to door alarms and inspect workers' badges.
Knightscope's K5 security robot has been deployed across the public and private sectors, including at San Antonio International Airport. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The airport employees found that the robot struggled to navigate crowds, focus its camera on badges, and provide reliable audio and video feeds, San Antonio Express-News reported in May. The airport ended the trial run in ...
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