3 loss prevention innovation trends to watch in 2025

The use of innovative technologies to drive better safety and loss prevention (LP) outcomes for retailers is critical in today’s reality of escalating in-store violence.

According to a recent study, a staggering 84% of retail associates are concerned about the lack of technology used by their organizations to spot safety threats or criminal activity. The same number are also concerned about their personal safety due to rising theft and crime in stores.

There is no better time for technology backed by responsible data-driven initiatives to pave the way for a better, safer future for retail customers and frontline teams. Based on the above study, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are currently viewed as the most impactful for LP.

Auror SVP Strategic Partnerships Terry Sullivan spoke with former VP of Asset Protection at Kroger, Walmart, and The Home Depot Mike Lamb on The Intel Podcast about what LP innovations are on their radars for 2025, based on their combined decades of experience and real-time observations.

1. The next gen of collaboration

One of the first steps towards better LP and store safety outcomes is to enable better collaboration within retail teams, and between retailers and police. Technology helps to take this to the next level, by continuing to improve efficiencies and the ways platform users can work together.

An example of this is one of Auror’s latest product releases, Collaborate. This feature helps retailers identify opportunities to work with other retailers on the platform in cases where they are impacted by the same Person of Interest (POI). This means they can combine events of the same POI, which helps strengthen the case for prosecution and preventing reoffending.

Retailers using the Collaborate feature can:

• Consent to connect with another retailer on a suggested POI
• Securely share contact information on the Auror platform
• Work together with police more effectively

The next gen of collaboration is also more secure. Previously, investigators relied on tools like Whatsapp or text messages if they wanted to share information about a common POI with someone outside their organization. On top of the security risks and potential data breaches, this was a cumbersome way to work.

With Collaborate, retailers can work together on a secure platform where consent has been given to exchange information. 

2. Building out the ecosystem

There are also going to be more developments in the connected ecosystem, meaning more technology solutions coming together to further support retailers in a unified and powerful approach to safety and security.

Increasingly, retailers are showing more interest in integrating body-worn cameras into their security measures, citing reasons such as concerns over worker safety and de-escalating in-store violence. According to research from Axon on whether body-worn cameras “work” in a retail setting, the vast majority of survey participants reported feeling safer while wearing body-worn cameras. On top of the safety aspect, Axon’s research showed body-worn cameras helped retailers gather better evidence, which is useful for successful prosecutions. 

Auror’s platform already includes integrations with Global body-worn technology company Reveal, US-based safety and security technology company Axon and several others.

‍Whether it’s body-worn cameras or something else, the point is that there isn’t one solution that will do the trick.

“When you can bring these solutions together in one package for a retailer, then you're really gaining significant ground on intelligence, on evidence gathering, on law enforcement partnerships because it takes a village.”
-Mike Lamb, former VP of Asset Protection at Kroger, Walmart, and The Home Depot

“No one solution as a standalone…is going to be the answer in the future. It's going to be: how do these solutions interface and work in harmony together.”

3. Increased use and sophistication of AI and automation

Artificial intelligence and automation play an important role in making it easier to report crimes, identify the people causing the most harm, and to keep store teams safe. While only 38% of retailers in this study currently use AI-based prescriptive analytics for loss prevention, 50% say they plan to use it in the next one to three years.

“Labor productivity in the stores is a big, big deal, right? Everybody's trying to put as many people on the floor of the store to serve the customer, as is possible,” Mike says. “And if I'm sitting in a back room trying to write something out versus I'm spending much less time doing it in an automated way. It becomes a no-brainer.”

A few of the ways Auror already uses AI and automation include:

• Voice Event Reporting, where users can speak into the app to describe an incident and AI populates an event report based on the voice report
• Suggested Merges of persons of interest and vehicles where AI is used to compare images that likely match‍
• Suggested Investigations, which uses AI to identify and suggest potential cases for investigation

The future of LP

With each step away from case management and outdated reporting systems, LP teams move closer to a future where innovation and data help them do their jobs faster, more accurately, and more collaboratively than ever before. This not only helps profit protection, but contributes, crucially, to the safety of retail teams and customers.

To learn more about these innovations, listen to the LP Innovation in 2025 with Mike Lamb podcast episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or visit our website for information on Auror’s Retail Crime Intelligence platform.