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How a Robot Security Dog Cost Optimizes Your Security Spend

Dennis Crowley

Dennis Crowley

15 December 2025

Tight budgets. Rising wages. High turnover. These challenges concern and frustrate today’s security directors, CSOs, and CFOs. Hiring and holding on to reliable guards is harder than ever, and labor costs keep climbing.

But forward-looking organizations are meeting the moment with conversations about security operations optimization. And increasingly, they’re starting those conversations with this question:

“How much does a robot security dog cost, and how much can it save us?”

Counting Human Security’s Obvious and Hidden Costs

shutterstock_2472843229 LargeLabor is the largest line item in most security budgets. Overtime alone can inflate labor costs by at least 40%.

Add in the never-ending cycle of recruiting, onboarding, and training, and the cost of a human security force can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, even for a single site.

Human security forces also bleed money in less visible ways:

  • Recruitment advertising, background checks, and training sessions are sunk costs that vanish the moment a guard walks away.
  • Employee churn drains institutional knowledge, and re-training cycles mean your investment in one person rarely pays off in full.
  • Insurance premiums may climb for sites with records of incidents or claims.

Then there are costs of unmeasured inefficiency: overlapping coverage, idle time, or misallocating personnel to low-value tasks. While these costs don’t always show on a balance sheet, they’re quietly eroding margins all the same.

Taken together, these inefficiencies show why optimizing security operations isn’t optional, but essential.

How Inconsistency Undermines Security Budgets

Inconsistency is also expensive.

Missed patrols, call-outs that leave you short-staffed, or fatigue-induced errors all create weak points. And each weak point increases your site’s risk.

False alarms further drain resources, because guards must put core responsibilities on hold to investigate non-events. Across weeks and months, all that wasted time adds up to significant lost productivity.

Worse, missed incidents or delayed responses can lead to outcomes that prove far more costly than what you’re paying to prevent them. The price of a single missed incident can dwarf months of payroll savings. Liability exposure can have ripple effects including higher insurance premiums and erosion of trust from customers, partners, and regulators.

Robotics Replace CapEx With OpEx for Modern Security

Clearly, the current model is too expensive and fragile to sustain.

So forward-looking organizations are shifting to security automation—specfically, security robots, such as Asylon’s DroneDog—to supplement human guards.

DroneDog operator sits at computer, an example of how robotics accomplish human security guard augmentation.Robotic security dogs act as force multipliers. They represent physical security automation at its finest, taking on the dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs people shouldn’t have to, with humans in the loop to ensure proper response from skilled operators – performing the jobs that humans should do!

Security directors and board members alike ask, “What is the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a robot dog?”

The answer? Less than you might suppose.

The reason is that robot security dog cost isn’t structured like traditional capital investment. It’s an example of Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS).

The RaaS model removes the barrier of heavy upfront capital expenditure (CapEx) and replaces it with predictable operational expenditure (OpEx). Instead of buying and maintaining an expensive asset outright, organizations pay a subscription for a managed service.

This model ensures continuous updates, support, and upgrades without additional hidden expenses. You get access to cutting-edge capabilities without tying up capital budgets.

Robot Dogs Deliver Quantifiable ROI and Board-Defensible Data

In human guarding, performance is often difficult to quantify. But robotic solutions deliver hard, board-defensible data.

Robot security dogs log their patrols automatically. They document every incident with time-stamped video. These measurable outputs translate into direct ROI and tangible security cost reduction:

  • Lower payroll and overtime costs
    Robot dogs cover routine patrols continuously, with no overtime premiums, no wage increase requests, and no breaks beyond periodic recharging.
  • Consistent coverage and reduced liability
    Robot dogs don’t call out sick or miss shifts, closing coverage gaps and reducing your risk exposure.
  • Faster incident response and optimized resources
    Robot dogs respond more quickly to and even play a role in reducing false alarms, keeping human staff available for higher-value, strategic duties.
  • Improved retention through more engaging assignments
    Robot dogs handle the monotonous tasks, freeing guards to focus on work that’s more meaningful and rewarding, and so reducing personnel churn.
  • Potential insurance savings
    Robot dogs can, over time, help positively influence insurance premiums because they contribute to reduced incidents and improved documentation.

By making automated security workflows possible, robotic security dogs help transform security from just another line item into an investment that’s readily defensible to the board and C-suite.

Asylon Takes Your Security from Cost Center to Competitive Advantage

Asylon DroneDog robot security guard stands outside Asylon headquarters, keeping property perimeter secure.Modern security isn’t just about protecting assets. It’s about budget optimization, operational efficiency, and organizational trust.

By using RaaS to shift security to a predictable OpEx model, organizations are gaining stronger coverage, quantifiable ROI, and board-ready data that demonstrates accountability.

They’re finding their robot security dog cost means reduced overtime, lower turnover, and stronger operational resilience. What was once a price too high to pay is now an investment in efficiency and competitive advantage.

Are you ready to see the impact for yourself?

Schedule a DroneDog demonstration with Asylon Robotics today. Discover how our robot security dogs can strengthen your team, streamline your costs, and future-proof your security program.

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