The AI Reality Check
Athena Security built around AI from day one
Lisa Falzone is president and co-founder of Athena Security, a company that uses AI to improve physical security. The business was started in 2018, and the difference, she says, is that it was built around AI from the beginning rather than bolted on later.
The most useful use of AI so far is research and preparation, not replacing human work. For Athena Security, the customer still cares most about whether the problem is solved better, not whether AI is visible in the product.
What’s the quick origin story of your business, and what makes what you do genuinely different from the other options your customers are looking at?
We started Athena Security in 2018 because we thought there was a huge opportunity to use AI to make physical security better. I think what makes us different is that we aren’t a traditional security company trying to add AI after the fact. We built around AI from the beginning and spend a lot of time actually understanding how security teams work day to day.
Where does most of your new business come from today, and where do you wish it came from?
Honestly, a lot comes from word of mouth, existing customers, conferences and our sales team. Healthcare is very relationship driven, so one hospital seeing something work well at another hospital is incredibly valuable.
What’s one thing you’ve actually handed over to AI in the last year, and one thing you tried it on and went back to doing the human way?
Research, 100%. I use AI constantly now to research markets, companies, people I’m meeting with, competitors, etc. I also use it to organize my thoughts and get through things much faster.
I don’t think it’s very good at replacing the human part of work though. Important conversations with customers, employees or investors still need to be human. It can help you prepare, but I wouldn’t outsource the actual relationship to AI.
Have you noticed a change in how customers find you or what they already know before they reach out? Is anyone arriving through AI assistants like ChatGPT yet?
Yes. People definitely come into conversations knowing more than they used to. I think ChatGPT and other AI tools are becoming part of how people research companies in the same way Google has been.
If you were advising someone in your industry on all of this for the next 12 months, what would you tell them to actually do, and what would you tell them to ignore?
Just start using it. Don’t spend six months coming up with an AI strategy. Have people actually use the tools and figure out what saves them time. There are probably dozens of small things people in every company are doing manually right now that they won’t be doing manually a year or two from now.
I’d ignore a lot of the hype around needing AI in every single product. Customers don’t care that much about the technology itself. They care if you can solve their problem better. AI is a tool, not the reason someone should buy from you.
Thank you to Lisa Falzone and the team at Athena Security for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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