In the past decade, India’s security & facility management segment has come a long way. Amid a dramatic surge in the number of high-end commercial, residential and industrial spaces, there has been a tremendous spike in the demand for such operators in the world’s fifth largest economy. Such has been the scale of growth in this segment that, according to a Crisil report, the organised domestic security and facility management services sector will clock 10-12% revenue growth in the next financial year in the backdrop of rapid urbanisation, rising industrial investments and expanding commercial spaces.
With emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence transforming operations and recent policy shifts, including new labour codes and expanding international worker mobility, the industry is at an inflection point.
As one of India’s largest and most prominent security and facility management companies, SIS Group Enterprises, which operates across India and the Asia-Pacific, has been a key witness to this growth wave. Serving marquee clients with deep expertise built over four decades, the New Delhi-headquartered multi-billion dollar conglomerate is ranked among the top-10 private employers in the country.
In an interaction, Dhiraj Singh, CEO of SIS India, discusses how AI and global trends will impact compliance, skilling, worker welfare and India’s role in meeting global demand.
Yours is a sector quite heavily dependent on human labour. But, with artificial intelligence entering the workspace, a lot has changed, impacting how businesses operate now. How has this technological revolution impacted companies in the security and facility management space? More so, how disruptive do established players such as yourself find this to be?
Over the past twenty years, I have witnessed Indian industry evolve more rapidly than at any other time in our economic history. From the days when businesses first dialled into the internet to today’s hyper-connected corporate ecosystem, the one constant has been technological change. Not as an abstract concept, but as the defining force shaping the future of every corporation, large and small. As with every transformative innovation, there have been moments of disruption, uncertainty and skepticism. And now, with the advent of artificial intelligence, we are once again at such an inflection point. Just like previous technological milestones, the introduction of AI into the mainstream business landscape has generated short-term upheaval while promising enduring and generational gains.
Security and facility management, sectors that are foundational to organisational continuity, are no exception to this trend. Traditionally, these domains were dominated by manual processes, intuition-based decision-making and reactive responses. Today, they stand at the cusp of a technological renaissance.
The integration of AI into the security and facility management ecosystem is nothing short of a paradigm shift, one that will enhance our industry’s capability to deliver far greater value to enterprises across India. AI can help in augmenting human capability at scale, delivering measurable better outcomes for clients, while upskilling the workforce
This transformation is not merely technological; it is strategic. By harnessing machine learning models, advanced analytics and real-time monitoring capabilities, we are creating security frameworks that learn continuously, adapt rapidly and perform reliably under pressure.
It is worth reflecting: change is not something to be feared. If history has taught us anything, it’s that every major technological leap has propelled businesses forward in ways once thought impossible. Today, as AI takes its place at the core of security and facility management, we stand not on the brink of disruption, but at the threshold of unprecedented opportunity.
Speaking of changes, India and the European Union have recently signed a free trade deal, creating the world’s largest free trade zone. How could that impact worker mobility, skilling and staffing?
Free trade agreements like these make it easier for Indian workers to work temporarily in partner regions by putting in place clearer frameworks for business visitors, intra-corporate transferees and contractual service suppliers. This could lead to a 20-25% increase in mobility of skilled workers over the next few years. This also means workers here must be skilled to be globally ready, creating huge opportunities for staffing companies.
European markets are governed by strict labour standards, including rules on working hours, safety, data protection and employment norms. As a result, the industry will need to elevate compliance, skilling and training standards to ensure Indian workers are fully prepared and meet global expectations.
For India’s staffing ecosystem, this is a clarion call. The demand for globally certified skills will grow faster than ever before. If India’s workforce is to compete and thrive in these new international corridors, training must go beyond textbooks and classrooms to include hands-on, real-world scenarios that mirror European industry expectations.
Such agreements enable a powerful two-way flow of knowledge and best practices. As Indian professionals return with a global exposure to safety, compliance and operational excellence – it will elevate workforce quality domestically
Do you think India’s focus on digitisation and AI upskilling will finally help close the gap between workers’ skills and what industry needs?
The government has launched several major skilling initiatives to ensure the workforce stays relevant in a rapidly changing digital economy. But, industry demand for AI skills is growing faster than current supply. So, while digitisation and upskilling efforts are critical and will help reduce skill gaps over time, both the government and private sector must focus on practical training, compliance and real-world readiness to fully bridge the divide between worker capabilities and industry needs.
However, for closing the gap fully so that what workers are trained in precisely matches what industry demands requires sustained focus on practical readiness. The private sector must expand its role beyond job creation to become co-architects of curriculum and real-world training platforms. The government must continue to refine policy frameworks, encourage compliance, and support infrastructure that translates skill acquisition into economic value.
