How AI is solving the self-checkout shoplifting epidemic

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Smile, you’re on Candid Camera. That was once the catchphrase of a popular TV show. And it might need to be dusted down by supermarkets to dampen customer anger over their use of cameras to film them as they shop and scan their groceries.

It’s understandable that supermarkets are monitoring shopper behaviour. While the rollout of self-checkout machines (SCOMs) has saved retailers money (and been welcomed by most shoppers), they’ve created a shoplifter’s paradise, with more shoppers than ever using the lax security to help themselves: 37% of shoppers admitted they failed to scan at least one item when using them, according to exclusive research for The Grocer earlier this year.

So cameras are a useful deterrent. One that retailers should not be afraid of using given ONS figures released this week show shop theft offences soared 20.2% in 2024, topping over half a million incidences in a year for the first time. And that’s just cases that get reported to the police.

But the strengthened surveillance strategy is sparking growing unrest among civil liberties groups. This week privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch complained about Asda’s trial of facial recognition technology that identifies shoplifters on an internal watchlist and flags their presence to store staff. And Big Brother is watching even in oh-so-polite Waitrose. So, with civil liberties groups sure to widen their sights further, retailers need to be careful about how they use the ‘intelligence’ they have.

AI has other solutions. Our ‘buyer’s guide’ to how artificial intelligence is changing stores charts how AI in store has moved from Just Walk Out as a shopper benefit to Don’t Walk Out Without Paying as a theft prevention solution.

But it needs the human touch too. ‘If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve nothing to fear’ is a tricky position to defend to a public increasingly put off by supermarket security measures – just witness the outrage over Tesco’s trolley weighing trial last month. And one option being trialled by Tesco’s autonomous store tech partner Trigo is AI cameras that see what a shopper has picked from shelves and politely reminds them if they ‘forget’ to scan it at a self-checkout. So much better than ‘Stop thief!’. Home Bargains is testing a similar solution that detects when items pass a SCOM without beeping.

Technology can be used to see customer actions beyond the sights of any security guard. But supermarkets can’t let themselves become seen as retail Robocops.

Retailers will also have to find other solutions to those who bypass self-checkout machines altogether. As we saw in a criminal case earlier this month, organised gangs are travelling potentially hundreds of miles and then brazenly walking out unchallenged with trolleys laden with groceries.

That requires a response to information not just in one store or even one chain. It requires rivals to co-operate and communicate and share, while also working within the parameters of privacy laws. It’s not always easy. Iceland’s Richard Walker has even shown a willingness to break the law if necessary. But there are ways and means. And again it comes down to human interaction. Man and machine working together.