Retail loss prevention is facing a $94.5 billion crisis. With shrinkage now costing retailers approximately 1.44 percent of total sales, the industry is under immense pressure to protect margins against escalating organized retail crime and internal theft (Source: Businessdasher). Recording video to review after an incident is no longer enough—by the time a camera captures a theft, the loss has already occurred. Forward-thinking leaders are deploying Video Intelligence to turn dormant cameras into active data engines. By pairing existing hardware with Video AI Agents, retailers gain a force multiplier that detects threats, optimizes staffing, and standardizes operations without adding headcount.

1. People presence and heatmaps for operational efficiency

Understanding how shoppers move through a physical space separates guesswork from precision scheduling. Video AI Agents process visual data to count visitors and measure dwell time, creating a "Google Analytics" view of the physical store. This transforms video from a security expense into an operational asset.

Retailers use these insights to:

• Optimize staffing: Align employee schedules with real-time traffic patterns rather than historical averages.
• Improve merchandising: Identify dead zones and high-interest displays to maximize floor value.
• Enhance service: Trigger alerts when checkout lines exceed set thresholds, reducing cart abandonment.

• Optimize staffing: Align employee schedules with real-time traffic patterns rather than historical averages.
• Improve merchandising: Identify dead zones and high-interest displays to maximize floor value.
• Enhance service: Trigger alerts when checkout lines exceed set thresholds, reducing cart abandonment.

The impact on the bottom line is measurable. All Star Elite, a sports apparel retailer, used these insights to adjust product placement for high-demand items like jerseys. This data-driven strategy helped drive a sales increase of 5 to 15 percent by pulling traffic into underutilized areas (Source: Spot AI).

2. License plate recognition for perimeter control

Loss prevention starts at the curb, not the front door. Parking lots are often the most vulnerable areas of a retail footprint, serving as staging grounds for organized retail crime (ORC) or dumping grounds for unauthorized vehicles. License Plate Recognition (LPR) automates the monitoring of this critical perimeter.

Modern LPR acts as an automated gatekeeper, identifying vehicles of interest—such as known repeat offenders or terminated employees—the moment they enter the property. This early warning system gives store teams and security personnel vital lead time to prepare or intervene before a suspect enters the building.

Beyond security, LPR supports operational workflows by streamlining curbside pickup and securing loading docks against unauthorized logistics traffic. By controlling the perimeter, retailers reduce the risk of violence and theft entering the store environment.

3. Streamlined case management and collaboration

The speed at which an investigation moves often determines whether assets are recovered or written off. Legacy methods involving USB drives, email threads, and disjointed spreadsheets create friction that slows down law enforcement and internal teams. Centralized case management platforms solve this by unifying evidence collection.

Spot AI's built-in Cases tool allows teams to:

• Centralize evidence: Save clips, notes, and documents in a single, secure digital locker.
• Accelerate collaboration: Share time-stamped evidence with law enforcement or HR in minutes via secure links.
• Maintain chain of custody: Ensure all records are tamper-resistant and audit-ready.

This efficiency compounds across a fleet of stores. After adopting centralized case management, All Star Elite reduced their law enforcement case timelines from two to three months down to approximately one month, significantly improving their ability to prosecute repeat offenders (Source: Spot AI).

4. Rapid incident resolution with AI search

Searching through hours of video footage is a manual bottleneck that wastes valuable labor hours. Video AI Agents eliminate this "scroll and hope" method by indexing video metadata, making the physical world searchable like the web. Operators can filter footage by specific attributes—such as vehicle type, clothing color, or item presence—to locate incidents instantly.

This capability dramatically reduces the time required to resolve claims and investigations. Industry data indicates that AI-powered search can reduce investigation time by approximately 60 percent compared to manual review (Source: BizTech Magazine). Whether disproving a slip-and-fall claim or identifying a shoplifting suspect, what once took hours now takes minutes. This speed allows Loss Prevention teams to focus on strategic deterrence rather than administrative review.

5. Integrations with POS and access control

Internal theft remains a persistent challenge, accounting for 28.5 percent of retail shrinkage (Source: Businessdasher). Integrating Video Intelligence with Point-of-Sale (POS) and access control systems creates a unified view of internal operations, exposing fraud invisible to the naked eye.

By correlating transaction data with video footage, retailers can use Exception-Based Reporting (EBR) to detect:

• Sweethearting: Verifying if items passing the scanner were actually paid for.
• Refund fraud: Matching return transactions to video evidence to ensure a customer was present.
• Back door loss: Linking access control logs with video to flag unauthorized use of receiving doors.

This integration provides indisputable evidence for HR and legal teams, streamlining the resolution of internal investigations and deterring future misconduct.

Implementation and infrastructure considerations

Deploying Video Intelligence does not require a complete overhaul of existing infrastructure. Modern platforms are camera-agnostic, allowing retailers to plug existing IP cameras into an Intelligent Video Recorder (IVR) to instantly upgrade them with AI capabilities. This approach protects historical hardware investments while standardizing intelligence across locations.

When evaluating solutions, IT and Facilities leaders should prioritize systems that offer flexible bandwidth management and edge processing. By processing video data locally on the edge and sending only metadata to the cloud, retailers avoid crippling their store networks while ensuring 24/7 uptime. This hybrid architecture ensures that critical security functions remain active even during internet outages.

Take action

Retailers who treat video as active data rather than passive storage are seeing immediate returns through reduced shrink, lower guard costs, and improved store operations. The technology is a practical necessity for protecting margins in a high-risk environment.

"When we figure out the correct placement of our Kobe jersey within the store, that typically increases sales by 5 percent to 15 percent because we're able to pull traffic into other areas and get ideas on other products that pair with it."
Andrew Gonzalez, Corporate Director of Loss Prevention and Safety, All Star Elite

Ready to see how Video Intelligence can transform your retail operations? Book a demo with Spot AI to experience these capabilities firsthand.

Frequently asked questions

What is video intelligence?

Video Intelligence uses artificial intelligence to analyze video footage in real time, extracting actionable data such as people counts, vehicle attributes, and safety hazards. It turns passive cameras into proactive tools for security and operations.

Does this require replacing our current cameras?

No. Spot AI is a camera-agnostic platform. It connects to your existing IP or analog cameras, upgrading them with advanced AI capabilities without a rip-and-replace installation.

How does this help with organized retail crime (ORC)?

Video Intelligence helps combat ORC by securing the perimeter with License Plate Recognition, identifying repeat offenders instantly, and streamlining evidence collection to help law enforcement build stronger cases faster.

Is the system bandwidth-heavy?

Spot AI uses a hybrid-cloud architecture. Heavy processing occurs on the local Intelligent Video Recorder (Edge), ensuring that only lightweight metadata and requested clips are sent to the cloud. This minimizes impact on your store's network bandwidth.

About the author

Mike Polodna is Head of Customer Success at Spot AI, specializing in helping retailers and enterprises maximize value from Video Intelligence solutions. Mike has extensive experience guiding customers through implementation, onboarding, and ongoing optimization of AI-powered video platforms.