Robots ‘Will Not Replace Bodyguards,’ Dubai Security CEO Says

Robots will not replace bodyguards, says Radovan Opitz, founder and chief executive of Dubai-based private security firm Falcon Shield. In an interview on AI in private security, Opitz argued that artificial intelligence can supplement close-protection work but cannot substitute for the officer’s judgment in a live situation. He places human physical presence at the center of what a bodyguard does that machines cannot.

His pushback lands as the Gulf’s private security market charts strong growth into the next decade. Falcon Shield, which opened its Dubai office in April 2025, is recruiting more personnel and targeting a launch into Saudi Arabia by the end of the first quarter of next year. The pitch Opitz runs in Dubai echoes close-protection work he handled for principals in New York and London earlier in his career. The firm is licensed in the emirate and offers bodyguard, close-protection, hospitality, and event security services.

Why Robots Cannot Replace a Bodyguard

The core of Opitz’s argument is the bodyguard’s physical presence. A close-protection officer’s value comes from watching a crowd in real time, reading which person is a threat, and acting on that decision in seconds. CCTV and AI facial recognition systems can sort faces in a database, Opitz says, but they cannot interpret intent in motion. A patrol robot can roll through a venue, but it cannot physically interpose itself between a principal and an aggressor. The judgments bodyguards make, in Opitz’s framing, are too tightly bound to a human being on the ground.

He frames the job as a sequence rather than a single task. Observation comes first, then prediction of what someone will do, then resolution of the situation on the ground. The first and last steps are where he says AI in private security runs out of room.

Opitz draws a sharp line between watching and reacting. Cameras and AI tools, in his reading, do not get the bodyguard role itself.

…the observation skills, prediction and just going from seeing something to actually resolving it is not going to be possible outside the physical presence of humans.

Radovan Opitz made the remark in an interview with The National. The phrasing distills his wider claim that AI in private security augments a bodyguard without replacing one. The split shows up in the rest of his answers on how the firm operates.

The Work AI Tools Already Cover

Cameras and AI tools stay in his operation. He names CCTV and AI facial recognition as core to his team’s workflow, with feeds going to officers who act on them, and credits improved communication technology with letting officers reach the office faster than the older radio-and-clipboard setup. The tone he strikes about his own industry’s technology gap is sharper than his line on any humanoid patrol robot. ‘We are very surprised how even fully established companies are still running their operations through Excel sheets and through other forms,’ he says.

The dividing line Opitz draws is between operations that need only eyes and operations that need a body. AI covers a growing share of the first category. The work he treats as irreducibly human is the moment after a threat is identified, the call about whether to engage, isolate, or withdraw. His London example, where a US politician’s three-night stay was tested by a protest that the team ‘isolated,’ captures the kind of decision he wants to keep in human hands. The rest of the security stack, in his reading, can be as automated as the technology allows.

Falcon Shield’s Setup, From London to Dubai

Falcon Shield is a Dubai-licensed private security firm offering bodyguard services, close protection, hospitality security, and event security. It was set up by Radovan Opitz, who is from Slovakia and worked in the industry in New York and London before opening the firm’s Dubai office in April 2025. According to Falcon Shield’s own website, the company is SIRA certified.

Opitz runs the firm with Agni Magar, the senior director of operations. The plan is to add between 75 and 150 personnel by the end of this year and to expand into other UAE emirates by October or November. That hiring push is Falcon Shield’s main operational move in the Gulf this financial year. The firm’s pitch to regional clients leans on the same discretion it sold to principals in London. Its own materials describe the service style as meticulous, reliable, and discreet.

Client rosters in close protection stay confidential by design, but Opitz described the typical mix. He named actors, singers, politicians, and members of royal families as among those he has worked with. His description of the job runs to ‘where they are, who they are, where they travel’ for each principal the firm takes on.

The operational standard he cites is ‘very private, very discreet.’ The deliverable, in Opitz’s words, is the feeling of being safe, on top of the legal protection an officer provides. Officers are paid for that feeling as much as for their physical skills, he says.

His most concrete illustration comes from his time in London. The team was hired to handle three nights of security for a US politician attending an event in the UK capital, and protesters arrived during the stay. ‘We had to make sure that everybody was happy and everybody was safe, but the team was great on the ground, we isolated the whole incident … and everything was fine,’ Opitz told The National. The principal was ‘very thankful’ for the team’s work, he said.

The Gulf Security Market’s Growth Curve

The market Opitz is sizing up is one of the fastest-growing in the Middle East. Industry researcher IMARC’s GCC security forecast through 2034 spans Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. The growth outlook it lays out, and Falcon Shield’s near-term targets, frame Opitz’s hiring push.

IMARC’s summary names three demand drivers behind the projected growth. The researchers cite the wider adoption of advanced security systems to protect assets and reduce risk, increased hiring in transportation to safeguard passengers, and a rising volume of cybercrimes and data breaches. Each of those pressures maps onto a buyer’s priority list in the Gulf, which is where Opitz sees his pipeline deepening. The same drivers are pushing buyers toward providers who can pair physical protection with data and analytics, by his account.

Residential security, concierge services, and front-desk coverage are the categories Opitz expects to grow alongside the regional construction boom. His reading matches IMARC’s growth framing on the macro level. Where he parts company with the automated-future narrative is on the staffing side.

• $3.4 billion — GCC security market size in 2025 (IMARC).
• $6.9 billion — IMARC’s projected GCC security market size by 2034.
• 8.27% — IMARC’s projected compound annual growth rate for 2026-2034.

Maritime Security After the Strait Closure

Another growth lane Opitz names is maritime security. The Strait of Hormuz blockade during the recent war highlighted the issue for commercial shipping, he says. The closure reopened a question that private shipping companies had largely set aside: who guards the merchant ships when state navies are busy elsewhere. Opitz argues that private firms are now stepping into the space that navies alone cannot cover.

‘Private security companies will be entering, or they have already entered that part where they support ministries of defence,’ he says. Their role is to fly drones, monitor patrolling areas, and operate the technology side, Opitz said. The teams are contracted to support government operations in the field.

Once the strait is fully reopened and traffic resumes, private shipping companies are likely to add armed or unarmed security teams to their operations. That is the next step of participation for private security companies in the Gulf. The opportunity is not abstract, tied to a specific body of water and a category of cargo. Falcon Shield’s Dubai office is the staging ground for the firm’s move into the broader regional security market.

The Iran war disrupted Gulf trade; the recovery is now opening the door for private security firms in the maritime lane. Opitz says regional demand will keep growing through the rest of the decade.

Where Falcon Shield Goes Next

Falcon Shield’s near-term map stays inside the region. The Dubai office anchors the operation; the through-line from there is into other UAE emirates this year and into Saudi Arabia in the first quarter of next year. Opitz frames both moves as part of a regional growth opportunity, not a market he is trying to break into.

The firm wants to be active in other UAE emirates by October or November. The Saudi move was not on the books when Falcon Shield opened its Dubai office in April 2025, but the timeline has come forward as the post-conflict Gulf recovery has opened new demand. Opitz reads the moment in market terms: a growing industry in a growing region, with construction booms creating new pools of clients. The regional spread also serves as a hedge against any single-market shock in the UAE alone. The remaining pulse of the plan runs through the end of this year.

His closing word on the topic is blunt. ‘It’s up to us to make sure that the quality we offer is the best for the suitable rates that will be accepted by the clients,’ he said.

I believe that we are in the right industry and we are in the right place at the right time, where … demand for security services will only grow.