No Security Guards Needed, Just AI
Jakarta, VIVA – Thousands of supermarkets in France are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect theft, analysing customer movements in real time to flag suspicious behaviour.
The technology has reportedly reduced losses for many supermarkets, but has also raised questions about privacy and transparency. The software works by analysing real-time footage from in-store cameras.
When the algorithm detects suspicious movements or behaviour — such as placing items into a bag or repeatedly touching products without scanning them — the software sends short video clips to store staff.
“So we get an alert. It might be a simple gesture, it might also be an ambiguous gesture, you know, like a hand going into a bag. Everyone is on alert, everyone is watching the cameras,” said Nelson Lopes, a supermarket manager in Montreuil, Paris, as quoted by Euronews on Friday, 20 February 2026.
Supermarket owner Arul Judson said he suffered losses of nearly 60,000 euros (Rp1.2 billion) in his first year without AI, but now says his losses have fallen by roughly half, to around Rp600 million.
Meanwhile, Parisian pharmacist Latifa Gharbi pays 200 euros (Rp4 million) per month to upgrade her surveillance cameras with AI, saving 4,000 euros (Rp79.6 million) per year and avoiding the cost of hiring security guards.
However, AI currently sits in a legal grey area. France has no specific legislation either permitting AI behavioural surveillance in commercial spaces or requiring shops to inform customers when the technology is in use.
France’s data protection authority, CNIL (the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty), stated clearly that “these cameras analyse personal data on a large scale, and their commercial use is prohibited without specific legislation.”
Despite this institutional warning, French software startup Veesion has equipped “2,000 to 3,000 shops” across France. The company maintains that its technology complies with European GDPR data regulations and does not perform biometric analysis.
Nevertheless, many shop owners argue that AI software is merely a support tool to protect their livelihoods in the face of rising theft amid an increasingly severe cost-of-living crisis.