Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Stop Retail Pushout Theft News provided by Share this article Share this article SAN DIEGO, Dec. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pushouts – when thieves posing as shoppers fill carts and baskets with expensive merchandise and push them out the door without paying – cost retailers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost profits every year. According to the National Retail Federation, each pushout averages over $500 in stolen merchandise. Sadly, nearly all of these theft events are undetected, until now. Camera viewing from above store entrance showing cart detected as a probable pushout theft event. Artificial intelligence (AI) fundamentally changes how retailers can combat these hard-to-detect theft events. As AI algorithms gain sophistication, and required hardware is ever more affordable, AI is increasingly automating a range of investigative tasks and capturing theft events in real time. By teaching machines to automatically detect theft behaviors, retailers can quickly and cost effectively identify and stop these everyday crimes.