Acre Security buys REKS to overlay generative AI on access control data

YARMOUTH, Maine—Acre Security recently acquired a generative AI solution with a name, REKS, that itself was generative AI produced and whose creators, brothers Adam and Jeff Groom, are confident will change the entire landscape of access control.  

Adam Groom defines REKS as a solution to a problem that he believes has been industry wide for about two decades: How to make it very easy for an operator - whether it's an integrator or an end user – to interact with their access control system to retrieve usable data and act on it. 

“REKS happens to be a solution to that problem that we believe the industry has never seen,” Adam Groom said. “It just happens to be generative AI that we’re using to do that.”  

The Jan. 6 acquisition, which Acre called a “significant step forward” in its mission to “drive innovation and redefine the future of security technology,” will see Adam and Jeff Groom join the company as part of its new AI Development Team, with Adam as director, business development, AI, and Jeff as director of engineering, AI. 

For integrators, Adam Groom noted that what’s most important from a use-case perspective is that the configuration, implementation and servicing of the system falls within their roles and responsibilities. With REKS, that’s still the case, but with new speed and efficiency. 

“Why not use natural language instead of going through every single step to configure a panel on the access control system and every input and every output?” he explained. “You know how long that takes? If you could use natural language to configure a system, think of the operational efficiencies that are created from that.” 

While Acre’s initial focus for REKS will be on access control, the company may expand its capabilities to other segments such as intrusion detection and visitor management to enhance its ability to streamline operations across a broader range of security needs.  

“The way that Acre is pursuing generative AI is in a very thoughtful and responsible way,” Adam Groom said. “We want to make sure that REKS is usable every step of the way for the end user and integrator for every use case.”  

For Adam Groom, it’s nice to see an idea he and his brother had – they spent a lot of time building software solutions until generative AI started to “gain some momentum” –get validation from the industry.  

“We just had this idea, wow, what if you could interact with your access control database?” he said. “Or what if you could interact with your physical security infrastructure or databases within your physical security infrastructure through natural language?”