Hikvision expands Guanlan video AI

Hikvision said on Sept. 8 that it is extending its Guanlan AI system from model architecture into more specific video applications, with a focus on making surveillance footage searchable and interactive through natural-language prompts. The company said the new applications are meant to let video systems identify what is happening in a scene, retrieve relevant recorded footage and respond to user requests in ordinary language. Hikvision framed the update as the next phase of a product line it introduced more than a year ago, when it launched Guanlan as a set of large-scale vision, language and multimodal models for its AIoT portfolio. The Sept. 8 announcement centers on three claims from Hikvision: higher accuracy in video analysis, lower deployment and operating cost, and “smarter interaction” through language-based interfaces. Hikvision said those gains come from models already being used in video understanding and retrieval, rather than from a separate consumer chatbot product. The company’s examples were tied to security and video-analytics workflows, where operators need to search large volumes of stored footage and handle alarms with less manual review. (prnewswire.com) ### How is Hikvision describing the new capability? Hikvision said current video systems can now “understand” what they are viewing and what has already been recorded, and can connect that with what a user asks for in natural language. In practical terms, the company described a system in which an operator can query archived footage using ordinary phrasing instead of only fixed tags, timestamps or manually defined event filters. (prnewswire.com) The company’s earlier description of Guanlan helps explain that positioning. When Hikvision launched Guanlan in 2025, it said the platform used a three-tier structure made up of foundation models, industry models and task models, spanning large vision, language and multimodal systems. That architecture was presented as a way to adapt broad AI capabilities to narrower industry scenarios such as security and operations. (prnewswire.com) ### What changed from last year’s Guanlan launch? The 2025 launch introduced Guanlan as the underlying model family. The Sept. 8 update is more application-focused, describing what those models now do inside deployed products and workflows. Hikvision’s language shifted from model architecture and scenario-based digitalization to concrete functions such as natural-language interaction, recorded-video search and agent-style software behavior. (prnewswire.com) One new element in the Sept. 8 materials is HIKO, which Hikvision described as an AI agent arriving on the HikCentral Professional platform and the Hik-Connect app. Hikvision said that addition changes the way users interact with video systems by moving from menu-driven operation toward conversational requests. (prnewswire.com) ### Where does the “lower cost” claim come from? Hikvision did not publish a broad financial breakdown in the Sept. 8 release, but it tied lower cost to reduced manual work and more efficient handling of video data and operations. The company has also been rolling out adjacent Guanlan-branded tools aimed at infrastructure efficiency. In May, Hikvision introduced Guanlan Encoding, which it said could cut storage costs by 30% to 50% on average through AI-powered video compression. (prnewswire.com) That matters because video systems generate large storage and review burdens. Hikvision’s product framing suggests it is pairing AI analysis with compression and retrieval tools so customers can search more footage without proportionally increasing storage and labor requirements. That is an inference from Hikvision’s product releases, not an independently verified cost study. (prnewswire.com) ### What is Hikvision trying to put in customers’ hands now? Hikvision said the immediate rollout path runs through named products rather than a standalone Guanlan service. The company identified HIKO on HikCentral Professional and the Hik-Connect app as the next user-facing points for these functions, indicating that the expansion is being delivered through its existing video-management and mobile platforms. (prnewswire.com) Hikvision’s current Guanlan materials also continue to describe the system as part of its broader AIoT stack, spanning edge devices and software. That places the Sept. 8 update inside the company’s established surveillance and operations ecosystem, where cameras, recorders, analytics and management software are already sold together. Hikvision said the next step is broader use of these Guanlan-based functions through HikCentral Professional, Hik-Connect and related AIoT products, according to the Sept. 8 release. (prnewswire.com) The company did not give a separate launch date or pricing for the new natural-language features in the materials reviewed. (hikvision.com)