Why the retail industry needs to accelerate AI rollouts

Marketing @ SAI Group -

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer confined to the realms of lab research projects. Over the past several decades, AI has matured into a key technology solution that provides significant productivity and financial gains for industries across the globe. This transformation is driven by remarkable advancements in computing power, algorithmic improvements, and the availability of vast amounts of data.

As AI continues to evolve, it presents unprecedented opportunities for various sectors, including retail. One of the most promising applications of AI in retail is the deployment of Visual AI to address the pressing issue of shoplifting.

The evolution of AI: A journey of unprecedented growth

The journey of AI's evolution can be traced back to the early days of computing. From the mainframe era, where computing cycles were limited to a mere 1 million, we have witnessed a quantum leap in computing power.

  • Training dataset size: For key AI models, the size has seen a staggering 260% jump between 1950 and 2025.
  • Training compute: 360% increase in FLOP between 1950 and 2025.
  • Better algorithms: These advancements have been fuelled by significant compute gains from better algorithms, which saw a 200% annual growth over nine years between 2014 and 2023.
  • Performance gains: AI systems have been equally impressive in terms of performance:
    • 150% annual growth in performance between 2019 and 2025.
    • AI has surpassed human levels of accuracy and realism based on benchmarks such as the MMLU Benchmark Test in 2024.
  • Number of AI developers: A sixfold increase over the past seven years in the number of AI developers is further accelerating the pace of innovation and adoption.

AI-Driven evolution of information access

In 1998, Google set out to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Nearly three decades later, after some of the fastest changes humankind has seen, a lot of information is indeed digitized, accessible, and useful. The AI-driven evolution of how we access and move information is happening much faster. AI acts as a compounder on internet infrastructure, allowing for the rapid adoption of easy-to-use, broad-interest services.

  • Number of AI users: Grown eightfold between October 2022 and April 2025
  • Number of powerful AI models: A 167% annual growth between 2017 and 2024.
  • Faster and cheaper: AI user adoption is faster and cheaper compared to foundational technology products or internet products.
  • Widespread adoption: Currently, 75% of enterprises are exploring AI, and education and government sectors are increasingly announcing AI integrations.
  • AI in the medical domain: For instance, AI has had a significant impact in the medical field, where it has led to a 30-80% reduction in R&D timelines.

Note: All the above data points are based on the Trends - Artificial Intelligence report published by Bond Cap

Why the retail industry badly needs Visual AI

Despite the advancements in technology, traditional security measures in retail chains are increasingly becoming ineffective in preventing sophisticated theft trends. Conventional methods such as security cameras and human surveillance are often unable to keep up with the evolving tactics of shoplifters.

Conventional security approaches are largely reactive rather than proactive and relies on the store personnel to identify and respond to suspicious activities, making the process prone to human errors and oversight. As a result, retail chains are facing significant losses due to shoplifting, which is costing the industry billions of pounds.

Of late, retail chains in the UK have started evaluating Visual AI solutions to identify and stop shoplifting. Visual AI leverages advanced computer vision algorithms to monitor store environments in real-time, detect suspicious activities, and prevent theft. The technology can analyse video feeds from security cameras, identify potential shoplifters, and alert store personnel to take immediate action.

The benefits of deploying Visual AI in retail are manifold. It enhances security by providing real-time monitoring and reducing the reliance on human surveillance. It also improves operational efficiency by automating the detection of suspicious activities, allowing store personnel to focus on other critical tasks.

SAI Group's Visual AI Platform for retail chains

SAI Group’s visual AI platform currently assists store networks of 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 detection of aisle theft: Instantly detect when customers conceal items in their clothing or bags.
  • Seamless Self-Checkout (SCO) integration: Compatible with a range of self-checkout systems for straightforward multi-vendor integration.
  • Subtle but powerful: Delivers real-time prompts to the SCO monitor, enabling customers to correct errors on their own, without the involvement of the store staff.
  • Instant non-payment detection: Instantly identify when customers avoid payments at the SCO.
  • Empowered store staff: Keeps the store staff informed by sending notifications on the store’s hand-held terminals.
  • Violence detection: Utilizes AI to detect incidents of violence within the store and sends alerts directly to the security operations centre so that resources can be mobilized appropriately.
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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.