Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Rings, super Bowl ad showcasing AI to help find lost pets has put a new spotlight on the expanding role of artificial intelligence in home security, and it's raising fresh questions about surveillance joining US now. As Jamie Simonoff, founder and chief inventor of Ring, Jamie safe to say, these cameras have become ubiquitous. I saw in Weapons, you know, they were highlighted as a way to investigate the disappearance
of children. That was a fictional movie, but clearly, clearly law enforcement is hoping to use these cameras more and more. How do you where do you draw a line between, you know, helping people find lost pets or people and trying to limit the surveillance of US citizens.
I mean, the line for us is simple, and it always has been that you control your video and if you want to share it with law enforcement, if you want to share it with a neighbor, you can do that.
But you always control your video.
In the case of search party for dogs, we just tell you, hey, this dog looks like this dog in front of your house. Do you want to contact your neighbor? If you say no, you're one hundred percent anonymous. If you say yes, then you talk to your neighbor, just like you did when you found their dog in front of your house years ago and called the number on the tag.
I do want to just ask you, because there's this big question of surveillance and the usage of it. You had told Fortune talking about the missing case of Nancy Guthrie, basically saying that there are more cameras in the house, you might have been solved. And Jamie, you face a little bit of backlash online for those comments. So I would love to just give you the opportunity just to explain your thinking there and clear up any misunderstandings.
Sure, I mean, if you actually saw the quote, it's not that.
But what I did say and what I do is I wake up every morning, you know, with a mission and knowing that the business that we're in has been extremely impactful, and we see it. The video evidence that so far that they have in the Nancy Guthrie case, I think everyone would agree is some of the most impactful evidence in the case.
And so what I.
Did say is that if there had been just more cameras in general, I would have hoped that this would have helped us get to a resolution in the case, and that is what I believe in. I mean, this is what I do every day, and I think it's hard to watch a dateline episode or anything else not seeing where ring has had a major impact in helping solve cases. And I do believe, you know, as I think I should, that more cameras should help solve more cases and reduce more crime.
How do you work with cybersecurity within your firm, because you know, I also have a ton of cameras around my house and I would hate to have anyone else tap in to that network and use my video surveillance against me. I'm sure it's something you think about often, Jamie. So what kind of work do you do to counter that kind of cyber attack?
Yeah, I think cyber and security is a living, breathing thing. You have to just continue. I mean, you have to consue to invest in it. You have to have people always looking at it. It's always changing and evolving. I think we're best in class in it. Also, we offer I believe we're one of the only companies in the world that offers in this space and and encryption as an option. So we really do focus on security. We focus on trusts we need we call our customers neighbors.
We need our neighbors that trust us or else obviously they're not going to want to have our products, and then I can't achieve my mission of making neighborhoods safer.
And Jamie just just on this point bringing it back to AI too, because AI is advancing so rapidly. There was the story, for example, of a Chinese home vacuum robot brand that's someone used Claude to hack into and accidentally hacked all seven thousand of those robot vacuums in the world. AI is getting really advanced, but it's also
exposing some security flaws. What do you and the team need to do at RING to make sure you're keeping up with the technology, not just mistakes like that, but bad actors who are increasingly able to use AI.
I mean, there's always been security threats, and the security threats I'd say, what's good is it as AI gets better, it means that your counter security, you're you know, countering these kind of things, is also getting better. And so it's just it's just a cat and mouse game that we've always had from the beginning of the company, and you know, I believe we're vesting class at it, but it is something you have.
To stay focused on.
I mean security for every company in the world, you got to stay in your toes, but you always had to. AI is just the new thing that's happening today. And then you also help, you know, use this technology to also do the counterfeat so countermeasures.
I want to ask about manufacturing because President Trump is trying to bring manufactur sturing back to these shores, and Ring Camera obviously is a booming business that uses a lot of hardware I would imagine for the most part manufactured in Asia. How do you, when you talk to the administration or when you talk to government leaders, impress upon them the fact that you just we just can't in this country really compete in terms of price on manufacturing this kind of hardware, you know.
I mean, certainly it's a complex one.
You know, there's an ecosystem around this stuff, and that's what we're seeing.
But I am hopeful.
That you know, over the next few years, with what's happening, that we will continue to move and onshore things and be able to do more of it. So I do think it's going to take time for businesses like ours, because there are ecosystem things. You know, there's probably nine hundred to one thousand parts in every single ring camera that come from different suppliers, and so it's going to take time. But I am seeing I'd say a lot of good, you know, positive sort of direction on that.
In terms of the tariff uncertainty that businesses are dealing with, Jamie, how do you face that, you know, when you're when you're looking at tariffs that are you know, twenty percent and then all of a sudden they're eighty percent and now they're fifty. I mean, how do you deal with that as a as a CEO?
You know? I mean I'm sort of a CEO, but I'm also a founder. You know.
I started this in my garage in California fifteen years ago. I'd say tariff uncertainty compared to the things that I've lived through is, while it is serious, it's not as serious as all the other stuff that I've gone through. And I think when you're a founder and you've you know, faced bankruptcy many times and trying to raise money and things changing that are completely out of your control, I think he just fartens you a little bit. I have a pretty thick skin. We just have to keep you know,
keep our heads down. I tell the team, like we all we can do is control our inputs.
Just keep inventing great products, making neighborhoods safer, and we'll get rewarded for doing that.
And we just got to, like, you know.
Hope that the world continues to go into a positive direction, which you know so far it has.
So I'm ass thinking about the hardware that goes into it, Jamie, I'm thinking about the coding and the software and the technology within it. What does your talent pool look like? Are you still expanding when it comes to hiring engineers or are you looking at technology that's making your employees more efficient and maybe means you need less of them.
I mean, certainly we are embracing AI.
I am, you know, pushing every team member here to be AI first, think in AI.
We are seeing great efficiencies from that.
We're also growing really fast though, so it's hard to tell, you know, we are still i'd say a net grower, and so we are still growing. Our features are coming out faster though now our product cycle times are definitely been reduced by like you know, almost triple digit percentage. I mean, it's like, it's incredible how efficient we are now getting with AI and what it's doing. That said,
we're also still growing. We have lots lots of ideas and business to build, so, you know, on the on the bigger picture, I don't know where where that goes, but I do know for Ring, we're you know, we're still growing and still building.
And Jamie, can I just say it's always very cool when a founder stays with the company through this era of big growth too, so really fantantastic insight as both the head of Ring and an inventor himself. Jamie Simonov of Ring, thanks for joining us.