How supermarkets are using AI to watch you in the aisles

Analysis: Shops have always used retail surveillance, but AI has supercharged it in so many ways, including some you might not even notice

AI is creeping into every corner of our lives, and shopping is no exception. Walk into almost any shop today and you are being watched, whether you notice it or not. Cameras track your route around the aisles, smart shelves note what you pick up and put back, hidden sensors map exactly where you linger, and increasingly, facial recognition spots your arrival before you have even grabbed a basket.

Yet none of this is brand new. Shops have used CCTV (security camera systems) and security guards for decades to stop theft and keep everyone safe. What has changed is the scale, speed, and predictive power AI brings to it. There are also surveillance systems you would never spot: 3D-sensors quietly mapping your movements, thermal imaging, even mannequins fitted with hidden cameras.

Sensor-camera systems, like the tech behind Amazon Go stores, can track what you take off a shelf and bill you on your way out, no till required. Predictive AI can track how long you linger in a zone, or read your body language, and flag you as a “risk” before anything even happens. Meanwhile, your loyalty app quietly builds a profile of who you are and what you will buy next, drawing on your in-store visits, online browsing, and social media activity.

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

From RTÉ’s Behind the Story podcast, how supermarkets learn about your shopping habits

Surveillance is best understood not as one system, but as an assemblage: a shifting mix of technology, people and space, working together without any single company fully in control. AI did not invent retail surveillance, but it has supercharged it, changing how you experience and respond to it in ways you might not even notice. Here is how you have ended up part of the retail surveillance system yourself.

You police your own behaviour

The first is changing your own behaviour. When you know, or even just suspect, you are being watched, you adjust how you act. This is not new: it was the logic behind Jeremy Bentham’s 18th century prison design, built so inmates could never be sure if they were being observed, so they behaved as if they always were.

My research with retail customers found a similar mix of feelings: cameras can feel intrusive, even “creepy,” yet also reassuring, especially when shopping alone late at night. That is the trade-off most of us have quietly accepted: surveillance is constraining, but it also feels protective. AI-powered facial recognition takes this further. If a system can recognise you the second you walk in, greet you by name, or flag you as a “loyal customer” worth a discount, your identity is known, tracked, and quietly graded before you have picked up a single item.

From RTÉ Radio 1’s Oliver Callan, shopping expert Kel Galavan from Mrs Smart Money on how to get the best out f the multitude of supermarket loyalty cards, vouchers and clubs

You end up watching everyone else too

The second phenomenon flips the usual surveillance story on its head. You are not just watched, you watch back. During the pandemic, this played out in supermarkets everywhere, with customers policing other shoppers over mask-wearing and social distancing, and even keeping an eye on staff over hygiene rules. Some staff found themselves fielding complaints from customers demanding they enforce rules they had no power to enforce.

Beyond the pandemic, this habit continues through apps that let you scan products, check prices, or call out bad service online. Bodycams worn by staff, meant to protect workers and customers alike, add another layer, and customers increasingly film alleged bad behaviour and post it online. You have become, in effect, a part-time surveillance agent, whether you signed up for the job or not.

You’re seduced into handing it over

The third phenomenon is probably the one you will recognise instantly: seduction. You are not just monitored, you’re coaxed into handing over your data for rewards, discounts, free Wi-Fi, or a faster checkout. Most customers happily answer a barrage of questions from a cashier just to save a few euros – a small, immediate perk that outweighs the personal information given up.

From RTÉ Brainstorm, are you being ripped off by the ‘loyalty penalty’?

Therefore, you are no longer disciplined into compliance through fear, you are seduced into playing along because it feels good and it is convenient. Biometric payment and facial recognition checkouts are the newest version of this old trade: hand over your face, your fingerprint, or your habits, and shopping gets a little cheaper and smoother.

Your data builds a “digital you”

Finally, all this adds up to building a digital version of you based on your purchase history, loyalty activity, app use, and in-store movements – information that retailers later use to sort and target you. AI supercharges this, cross-referencing in-store visits, online shopping, social media and location data into a digital identity that can follow you from browsing on your phone to a targeted ad on your social media, to a personalised offer on the shop floor.

Some people manage this actively, deleting loyalty accounts once they stop using a shop. Others shrug it off as the price of convenience, comparing it to social media; you don’t pay for Facebook because your data is the cost of using it, and your loyalty card works exactly the same way.

From RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Claire Byrne, just how worthwhile are loyalty cards?

Retail surveillance was never just a camera in the corner. It is a shifting web of technology, people, and space, and AI has made that web bigger, faster, and a lot harder to see the edges of. So next time you tap your loyalty card, smile for a “personalised” discount, or wonder if that camera is really watching, remember, you are not just being watched. You might be watching too.

Follow RTÉ Brainstorm on WhatsApp and Instagram for more stories and updates

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

Tags: