Visual AI at the self-checkout to combat retail theft

Brazen shoplifting is on the rise, with thieves becoming increasingly emboldened as very few are apprehended. To complicate matters further, self-checkout (SCO) counters, which were introduced to provide customers with frictionless shopping and checkout experience, appear to have exacerbated the situation for retail chains – they are witnessing a sharp increase in shoplifting.

Visual AI is now an essential upgrade for retail chains

Retail chains have acknowledged this unexpected fallout from SCO, and they have started investing in technological upgrades to stop losses occurring at the SCO. Recently, Sainsbury's in the UK, took significant steps to curb retail theft by introducing visual AI at their SCO counters.

How visual AI prevents checkout fraud

When a customer scans items at the visual AI-powered SCO, it detects anomalies quickly and sends a nudge over the SCO display. The customer can review the footage on the video display of the SCO and take corrective actions without any intervention from the store staff.

The move is proving to be effective as the video replay has helped reduce genuine mistakes made by customers during self-checkout. Additionally, the technology can also detect shoplifting incidents that involve customers:

• Switching price tags to pay less for expensive items
• Engaging in partial payment and product stacking as they scan the item placed at the top of the stack
• Pushing out carts full of goods, scanning only a few of them
• Bypassing weighing scale-based solutions, which cannot detect the scanning of cheaper items that are equal in weight when compared with the actual item being stolen.

SAI Group's visual AI platform

SAI Group’s visual AI platform currently powers thousands of stores across 3 of the top 5 retail chains in the UK. Here are some of the key benefits offered by SAI Group’s visual AI platform:

• Instant non-payment detection: Utilizes AI to instantly identify when customers avoid payments.
• Subtle but powerful: Delivers real-time prompts to the SCO monitor, allowing customers to self-correct without direct staff involvement.
• Empowered store staff: Keeps the store staff informed by sending notifications on the store’s hand-held terminals.
• Seamless SCO integration: Compatible with a range of self-checkout systems for straightforward multi-vendor integration.

About SAI

As a leader in computer vision technology, SAI Group delivers cutting-edge, multi-modal AI solutions into retail environments. Using a unique platform approach, its technology uses existing camera systems to target losses, increase store safety, and underpin operational efficiencies.

All solutions are built from the ground up to ensure the highest levels of security and data protection, respecting the privacy expectations of the public and operating to stringent ethical standards while delivering substantial value to our clients. Globally, SAI monitors millions of transactions per day, protecting the revenues from tens of millions of product sales and hundreds of millions of customer interactions. Its models also accurately identify anti-social behaviour, aggression and violence, helping to de-escalate situations with real-time interfaces to security officers and operations centres.