After 15 years in demand generation, I’ve seen how retailers struggle to turn customer experience data into real intelligence. Many leaders still admit: “We have more data than ever - but less clarity on what to do with it.” AI-powered Video analytics may hold part of the answer, yet it remains curiously under-recognised as a strategic data partner. While digital teams analyse online behaviour and loyalty data, the behavioural insights inside stores often stay locked in security systems.
The Legacy of the Control Room
Video systems were built to monitor and protect, not to analyse or predict. Procured by security departments and integrated long before data governance became mainstream, those early conditions defined how the sector still sees itself today - as a function rooted in protection rather than prediction. However, we are starting to witness change, with an increasing appetite for capabilities and data-driven insights in recent RFPs.
Procurement frameworks are beginning to reflect this shift, as retailers look for solutions that link operational intelligence with customer experience goals. For example, at Media One Hotel in Dubai, Ipsotek’s video analytics helped rebalance staff allocation using real-time flow analysis. Modern AI systems can now interpret dwell time, directional flow and engagement hotspots - insights once impossible to quantify on a shop floor.
The Untapped Value of Visual Data
When used responsibly, video analytics reveals the “why” behind the “what.” It shows how customers move, hesitate or disengage before purchasing, turning behaviour into actionable insight. While responsible AI systems can maintain full privacy compliance, it also ensures that customer identity remains protected while behavioural analytics operate in real time.
As highlighted by the ECR Retail Loss Group, many retailers are now using video analytics not only to reduce loss but to improve merchandising and service efficiency. Yet many still struggle to embed this intelligence into existing business intelligence systems - not because the technology is immature, but because data ownership is fragmented. Until visual data sits alongside CRM and marketing intelligence, decision-making will rely on partial truths.
Why the Gap Persists
Retail and analytics teams speak in outcomes and conversion rates; video analytics providers talk in detection models and accuracy. That disconnect keeps the technology operational, not strategic. Some retailers still cite complexity or privacy concerns, while others struggle to link legacy systems with new AI capabilities. To gain a voice in retail’s data dialogue, providers must connect visual intelligence to performance and experience outcomes. The real shift is from counting events to understanding behaviour - that’s when visual data becomes business intelligence. At Ipsotek, we see this momentum building as privacy-first analytics and edge computing mature, opening data flows between systems, sensors and strategy.
Signals of Change
Across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, retailers are beginning to connect the dots. Groups such as LuLu, working with Microsoft, are building AI-enabled ecosystems that merge operational, customer and environmental data. Regional forecasts - including analyses by Mordor Intelligence and IDC - predict AI investment in the retail sector to grow by over 20 percent annually through 2027, driven by smart-mall and omnichannel projects. Elsewhere, new collaborations between integrators and analytics providers are redefining what video means - no longer a feed for surveillance, but a layer of operational context.
Becoming a Strategic Partner
For video analytics providers to be seen as data partners, they must shift mindset and language. It’s not about alerts but alignment; not just about motion detection but movement understanding. This trend echoes DTIQ’s 2024 Future of Store Intelligence report, which found that retailers integrating video analytics into their decision frameworks see sustained improvements in efficiency and experience.
Retailers report reduced queues, better staff allocation and more responsive service, an experience their own customers constantly seek. Ipsotek’s mission is to turn visual data into contextual intelligence that drives profitability, efficiency and responsible innovation.
Away from Surveillance to Strategy
By its very nature, AI-powered video analytics is a maturing discipline - finding new ways to connect visual insight with strategic decision-making. As it moves from a background safeguard to a frontline instrument of strategy, its potential to connect visual and digital intelligence is finally being recognised. As AI systems mature and regulation catches up, those who integrate these capabilities will lead the next retail transformation. The real opportunity lies in partnership: when security integrators, technology providers and retailers combine their perspectives, video analytics becomes more than observation - it becomes operational understanding.
It’s worth considering: will the next generation of retail intelligence rely not only on new sensors, but, more importantly, on using data already in front of us to understand and engage customers in ways that truly resonate with them?
The future of retail intelligence won’t be defined by who has the most cameras or the most data, but by who can translate insight into meaningful action. For retailers, that means embracing visual data as a core part of their intelligence framework. For technology providers like Ipsotek, it means continuing to push the boundaries of context-aware AI - responsibly, transparently and with measurable impact.
Originally published in a&s Middle East No.18
