AI Loss Prevention: How Existing CCTV Becomes Your Smartest Shrink Defense
Retail shrink hit $112B globally in 2023. The fix isn't more cameras or guards. It's making the cameras you already have smart enough to act in real time.
The shrink problem isn't going away
The National Retail Federation pegs global retail shrink at over $112B annually. Internal theft accounts for roughly a third, external theft another half, and the remainder is process loss and vendor fraud. Traditional loss prevention (guards, mirrors, and post-event footage review) catches a small slice of what's actually happening.
What AI vision changes
Modern computer vision identifies the patterns that precede a theft: concealment behavior, tag removal motions, repeated returns to high-value displays, coordinated group movements. Xorth detects these in real time and alerts loss prevention while the suspect is still in store, when intervention is still possible and merchandise is still recoverable.
Internal theft is harder to spot than external
Cashier-led fraud (void scams, unauthorized discounts, sweethearting) accounts for billions in annual loss. It's invisible to standard cameras. Xorth correlates transaction events with video at the register, flagging anomalous void rates or specific behaviors. The result is documentation strong enough to support termination and, where appropriate, prosecution.
Beyond theft: customer safety and intelligence
The same cameras identify slip-and-fall incidents, medical emergencies, and crowd density problems, automating response and limiting liability. They also reveal customer flow patterns: which aisles are dead zones, which displays drive dwell time, which checkout lanes back up during peak hours.
No new hardware
The biggest barrier to deploying smarter loss prevention has historically been cost. Xorth runs on existing CCTV in most stores. Your IP cameras stream to our platform, AI models do the analysis, and your LP team gets actionable alerts on their phones.
Curious what AI vision could catch in your stores? We typically run a two-week pilot in a single location before scaling. Reach out to start.