Founder Interview: How AI Is Reinventing Surveillance and Compliance

In this in-depth conversation, Rick Bentley, CEO of Cloudastructure, shares how a simple yet frustrating office theft sparked a mission to revolutionize the outdated world of video surveillance. In this episode, Rick walks us through his journey from early startups and a SoftBank-backed exit to taking Cloudastructure public on NASDAQ.

We explore how Cloudastructure is using AI surveillance to shift video monitoring from passive forensic footage to real-time crime prevention. Rick explains how cloud-native infrastructure, paired with GPU-driven AI, allows their system to identify objects, recognize faces, and detect license plates at scale—capabilities traditional on-site surveillance systems can’t match.

Rick also sheds light on the role of remote guarding, where AI flags suspicious activity and escalates to live human agents who intervene via network speakers. This human-in-the-loop model not only deters crime in the moment but radically improves the effectiveness and ROI of surveillance for multifamily property managers.

He also dives into the real-world challenges of scaling in high-compliance environments, the importance of cost-effective infrastructure, and how Cloudastructure found product-market fit in the multifamily sector after exploring less viable verticals like retail and office spaces.

Whether you’re a proptech enthusiast, multifamily operator, or AI systems integrator, this is a must-listen interview on how AI is transforming surveillance from a reactive tool into a proactive layer of intelligent infrastructure.