Event Notes

Notes from International Security Expo 2026: the perimeter is the whole conversation

By Inferred · 30 September 2026 · 3 minute read

This week we spent a day at International Security Expo at Olympia in London, alongside International Cyber Expo. The biggest change since our last visit: AI is now built into a large share of what security suppliers sell.

The organisers expect over ten thousand visitors and more than three hundred exhibitors. We go to events like this because the people building and selling security technology see where things are heading early, and small businesses end up living with the results.

Overhead view of the International Security Expo exhibition floor at Olympia, London, with stands for access control, perimeter protection, screening and counter-drone systems, and the Global Cyber Summit banner on the upper level. — The main hall at Olympia. Physical security on the floor, the Global Cyber Summit on the level above.

What stood out

Almost every stand was about the same idea: decide where the boundary is, then watch it. Access control, barriers, screening, perimeter sensing, counter-drone systems. And with the cyber event under the same roof, it was hard to miss how little separation there now is between the two. A door reader, a camera and a fence sensor are all computers on a network.

It was not all software, either: a bomb disposal suit on display was a reminder of the physical stakes behind it.

A bomb disposal suit on display against a brick-wall set at a stand in the exhibition hall, with a CBRNe detection banner on the neighbouring stand. — A bomb disposal suit on display, with CBRNe detection on the neighbouring stand.

A yellow four-legged Boston Dynamics Spot robot carrying an arm and sensor head, with Createc branding, standing on blue exhibition carpet. — Yes, we stopped for the robot dog. A Spot in Createc branding, carrying an arm and a sensor head.

What had changed since our last visit

Compared with a previous visit, the biggest difference this time was how many suppliers had built AI into what they sell. Physical security, video, screening, cyber: many stands now had an AI layer that was not there before.

AI is arriving as a feature inside products that businesses already own and trust, rather than as a tool someone chooses to adopt. So the question for a small business is no longer only “should we use AI?” It is also “what has already arrived, and where does our data go?”

Two plain questions for any supplier: does the AI run on my premises or on your servers, and can I switch it off?

Why we go

Inferred builds AI systems that run on a business’s own premises, so keeping up with what suppliers are selling, and what our customers will be asked to approve, is part of the job. Reading about it is not the same as standing in the room.

Next up is AI & Big Data Expo Global, also at Olympia, on 3–4 February 2027. We will write that one up too.

Talk it through

If you would like to talk about how AI could fit into your business, on your terms, the fifteen-minute call is free.

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More plain-English briefings on the Inferred blog. For the question of AI features arriving inside software you already use, see Google just put another AI tool inside your business.