Artificial intelligence innovation: Leading innovators in AI-assisted surveillance for the retail industry

The retail industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by supply chain optimisation, technology, and risk mitigation, and the growing importance of technologies such as robotic inventory management and smart checkout. In the last three years alone, there have been over 133,000 patents filed and granted in the retail industry, according to GlobalData's report on Artificial Intelligence: AI-assisted surveillance. However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity. Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.