New research from Omdia puts the global video surveillance market at $27 billion in 2025, representing 4.3% growth year on year. The research also points to a market being reshaped by artificial intelligence, changing regulation and the growing demands being placed on video infrastructure.
For security professionals, the shift is not simply about installing more cameras. Increasingly, it is about what those cameras can understand, how the resulting data can be used and how video surveillance fits into a wider security environment.
Traditional CCTV has largely been about capturing and recording what happens.
The growing use of AI-powered video analytics is changing that model.
Modern systems can analyse footage to identify particular types of activity, helping operators distinguish potentially significant events from background movement. This can reduce the amount of footage that security teams need to monitor manually and allow attention to be focused where it is most needed.
Omdia says the market is undergoing a significant transformation as demand from AI data centres and evolving regulatory frameworks influence deployment strategies, storage requirements and business models.
That means the conversation around video surveillance is increasingly moving from “How many cameras do we need?” to “What can our video system actually do?”
One of the most significant developments is the move towards systems that can work together.
A camera no longer necessarily operates as an isolated security device. Video surveillance can be connected with access control, alarms, intercoms, ANPR and other technologies to give security teams a broader picture of what is happening across a site or area.
A recent project in Harlow provides a UK example of this approach.
Harlow Council is investing almost £500,000 in a new CCTV network designed to replace traditional standalone systems with a centrally managed network. The council says the platform will integrate CCTV, access control, alarms and intercoms, alongside AI-powered monitoring, ANPR, facial recognition, advanced video search and intelligent mapping.
The aim is to allow operators to access information from different systems through one network and respond more quickly when incidents occur.
It is an example of how video surveillance is becoming part of a much wider connected security environment.
However, smarter surveillance also creates new challenges.
Higher-definition cameras and increasingly sophisticated analytics can generate significant amounts of data, putting greater demands on storage, networks and processing infrastructure.
There are also questions around how organisations manage the information being generated and how technologies such as facial recognition and AI-powered analytics should be deployed.
For security teams, this means technology decisions cannot be made in isolation.
A camera upgrade may affect storage requirements. New analytics may require additional processing capability. Integrating video with access control can change how information moves between systems.
The wider security infrastructure therefore becomes just as important as the individual devices.
Omdia expects the market to continue growing, with AI playing an increasingly important role in how video surveillance is deployed and used.
But the direction of travel is not simply towards more cameras.
Instead, the industry is moving towards more intelligent, connected and integrated security systems, where video can become one source of information within a wider security operation.
For organisations considering their next generation of CCTV or video surveillance, that raises a broader question: how well will the technology work with everything else?
As interoperability becomes increasingly important, the ability to connect video surveillance with access control, identity systems, alarms and other security technologies could become just as important as the capabilities of the camera itself.
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