Professional Security Magazine: Q&A with WorkWave

This article appeared in Professional Security Magazine on May 2, 2025. 

 

Here’s some questions we put to software firm WorkWave’s SVP and GM of AI (artificial intelligence) and Data Analytics, David Libesman, and his replies about AI-powered tools and analytics.

 

Readers of Professional Security Magazine will be familiar with the Timegate software for clocking on and logging of patrolling security officers and other service workers – how does what’s now possible relate to that era?

A few things are changing. First, the process for clocking in and out will become more automated, requiring less interaction from employees. Second, AI will play a big role in streamlining timekeeping tasks like clocking out, validation, and syncing with schedules. The real value of AI will be on the agent side, where multiple tasks that used to require an operator can now be handled by AI. So, instead of lots of steps, you’ll have things like an assistant to help manage clocking in and out, along with recommendations for what to do next. The process will be simpler and better connected.

Scheduling is the heart of the security industry, it’s the heart that pumps everything forward. AI will make scheduling smarter, finding the right people for the right jobs based on things like location, skills, and cost. Instead of relying on what people remember, AI will handle the details. Once the schedule is set, everything behind that will be driven from that schedule, including accurate clock-ins and clock-outs. AI will even detect things like “ghosting,” where employees get paid without working, and prevent it. All of this will lead to better operational efficiency and more satisfied customers.

 

Some readers may be shy about tech in general and AI in particular, due to not being trained or experienced in it – is that any longer an option? Put another way, who is owning this, or ought to own it?

I see why AI can be scary and daunting – so many people don’t know what happens after you put data into tools like ChatGPT and it’s suddenly out there for the world to know about it. So there needs to be more education on overcoming the fear factor of AI. There also needs to be more education around security and compliance; learning how to utilize AI while doing it in a secure, compliant fashion that protects the intellectual property of the business.

It’s important for companies to dedicate someone or a small committee of individuals that understand AI and its impact to create some kind of governance around it. Create guidelines on how to use it, when to use it, what’s the right use case for it, et cetera. When it comes to education, it’s important to go through the use cases. Start small and grow. Don’t try to boil the ocean. AI needs to be approached in small chunks. Take a small bite of the cherry and then move it forward. That’s how you can be successful with AI.

 

Security service providers and providers of services in general would love nothing more than data to show to customers the job they are doing – how detailed can it get?

Data can get extremely detailed, so you have to be careful what you wish for. How much data to reveal to your customers has always been a hot topic of discussion, but I believe the more transparent you are with your customers, the more your customers will trust you. Because at the end of the day, if a customer trusts you, they’re going to be giving you their business.

So as long as you can stand behind the data, as long as it’s accurate, and you can deliver it in a timely fashion, I think transparency of data, no matter how detailed, is ideal to offer. That’s the beauty about what we’re doing – providing a platform that will provide real time information at a very detailed level, that can be validated and vouched for. Though again, this information needs to be kept simple and easy to understand so the customer understands the impact of what they’re being shown.

 

Does data analytics offer the prospect of solving problems that security managers don’t even know they have?

People don’t know what they don’t know and showing them information they already know is useless. So showing them insights that are not easily visible is going to create a very impactful ‘Aha!’ moment. For example, just showing a customer how many hours were worked in a day is useless – they already know that. But being able to say “Hey, these five security guards had an 80 per cent impact on your margin today because they were unproductive and they only delivered 70 per cent utilization,” that’s something you may not know about those five particular workers. So that’s the difference between analytics and reporting. Analytics is showing you something that you would never think to ask about, or you’ve wanted to ask but that everyone has told you is too hard to get.

 

And what (assuming it’s possible to see at all far into the future) do you forecast for this space?

I forecast the same thing for security as I forecast every other industry – the way software is going to be used is going to be completely different to the way it’s used today. You won’t be able to hide or fake the system. It’ll be much more interactive. It’ll be much more real time. It’ll be much easier to scale. It’ll be much more modern. It’ll be much more open. It’s going to all be driven by smart agents that can actually string together a workflow process to be more productive.

And at the end of the day, it’s going to have reasoning in there. It’s going to have the ability to validate how you got to the answer so that you can trust the answer. Those are the things that it’s going to do. The way we work with software in a year’s time is going to be vastly different. It’s already changing. It’s not going to be about losing or replacing people in the workforce, but it’s going to be where a tremendous amount of the mundane labour intensive tasks are being done by AI agents that don’t cost you any, or very little, money. It’s going to deliver results and going to be the next generation of transformation in every business.