AI Loss Prevention vs Security Guards vs EAS Gates: What Each Costs and What It Catches

Retailers are not short of ways to fight theft, and they are spending heavily on them. According to the British Retail Consortium, UK retailers spent £1.8 billion on crime prevention in 2023/24, on measures such as CCTV, more security personnel, anti-theft devices and body-worn cameras, up from £1.2 billion the year before. Customer theft still cost them a record £2.2 billion that year.

In the US, the National Retail Federation’s 2023 National Retail Security Survey put shrink at $112.1 billion in 2022, an average of 1.6% of sales, with external and internal theft accounting for about two-thirds of it. The NRF has since stopped publishing an industry-wide shrink rate, so that is the latest figure in the series.

This article compares three common answers, security guards, EAS gates and tags, and AI loss prevention on existing cameras, on two questions: what each costs, and what each actually catches. Where a published figure exists, we cite it. Where one does not, we say so.

Option 1: Security guards

What a guard costs

UK. The legal floor for a security officer’s pay is the National Living Wage, which rose to £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over in April 2026. What a retailer pays a guarding contractor is higher, because the charge rate also has to cover employer costs such as National Insurance and holiday pay, plus management and margin. The International Professional Security Association’s guidance on minimum guarding costs, reported by Professional Security Magazine in March 2025, put the minimum charge rate at £17.54 an hour for an officer paid the National Minimum Wage, and £18.09 for one paid the Real Living Wage. Those figures pre-date the April 2026 wage rise, so treat them as a floor rather than a quote.

US. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median hourly wage for security guards at $18.28 in May 2025 (mean $20.42; median annual wage $38,020). That is the guard’s wage. A contract security invoice adds the employer’s costs and the agency’s margin on top.

An illustrative model: one officer, every trading hour

To make those rates concrete, assume one officer on the door for a 12-hour trading day, seven days a week, all year: 12 × 7 × 52 = 4,368 hours. This is an illustrative model, not a quote. Real contracts vary with hours, location and cover for breaks.

Covering a second entrance, or adding an officer at peak times, scales the figure accordingly.

What guards catch, and what they miss

A visible, trained officer deters opportunists at the door, can intervene, and reassures colleagues. For some high-risk stores that presence is hard to replace. But one person cannot watch every aisle, every till and every self-checkout at once. Till-side losses such as sweethearting, refund fraud and void-receipt fraud happen at the counter, usually out of a door officer’s view. And the cost grows with every hour of cover. Our look at whether CCTV and security guards reduce UK shoplifting covers the evidence on deterrence.

Option 2: EAS gates and tags

Electronic article surveillance (EAS) uses antennas at the exit and tags or labels on merchandise. If an item leaves with an active tag, the gate alarms.

What EAS costs

We could not find an authoritative published figure for the installed cost of EAS gates, and wholesale hardware listings are a poor guide to what a retailer actually pays. Installed quotes depend on the number and width of entrances, the technology (radio-frequency or acousto-magnetic), the deactivators and detachers needed at the tills, and installation and ongoing service, so ask for several quotes that include all of these.

The running cost is the tags. Soft labels are single-use: one European supplier, Cablematic, lists a roll of 1,000 adhesive 8.2 MHz RF labels at €39.53 including VAT (list price checked October 2026), or about four euro cents a label. That is small per item, but it is paid on every item you protect, along with the staff time to apply each tag and to remove or deactivate it at the till.

What EAS catches, and what it misses

EAS answers one question: did an active tag cross the doorway? That makes it a useful deterrent on the lines you tag. But it says nothing about untagged items, and tags can be removed or shielded: Loss Prevention Magazine has described foil-lined "booster bags" disrupting EAS tags, and notes that using one is a felony in many US states. EAS also sees nothing that happens at the till, so sweethearting, refund fraud and void-receipt fraud pass it by. And an alarm still needs a colleague to respond to it.

Option 3: AI loss prevention on your existing cameras

AI loss prevention adds a layer of analysis to the CCTV a shop already has. With De Flow AI, that means:

• No new hardware. It connects through the browser to existing CCTV and IP cameras, including Hikvision, Dahua, AXIS, Milestone XProtect and RTSP-compatible cameras, with no technician visit. It also works with Shopify POS.
• Live in about 24 hours. See how to add AI theft detection to the cameras you already have and the camera connection guide.
• Shop floor and till coverage. It looks for shoplifting and theft patterns, self-checkout scan-avoidance, sweethearting, and refund and void-receipt fraud.
• Evidence with every alert. Alerts go to the dashboard, mobile push, SMS, email or WhatsApp, each with a timestamp, a video clip and a confidence score.
• No facial recognition. It detects behaviour and events, not identities.

What it costs

De Flow AI does not publish a price list. Pricing is quoted per store, so book a demo for a figure for your estate. Because it uses the cameras you already own, there is no hardware line in the budget.

What it misses

AI can only analyse what your cameras see, so blind spots stay blind until a camera is moved. It does not physically stop anyone, and an alert still needs a person to act on it. It works best alongside clear staff procedures and, in high-risk stores, a physical presence. See De Flow AI Loss Prevention and real-time alerts for the detail.

Side by side

Which should you choose?

These options are not mutually exclusive, and the right mix depends on where your losses happen:

• Losses at the door, such as grab-and-go theft and organised gangs: a physical presence and tagging of the most-stolen lines still earn their place.
• Losses at the till and the self-checkouts: guards and gates see little of this, and camera-based AI that watches the tills is the better fit.
• Losses you cannot locate: start by putting AI on the cameras you already have. Its alerts show where and when loss is happening before you commit to paying for hours of cover.

If you are weighing up the options for your own shops, book a demo to see De Flow AI in action.

Frequently asked questions

Is AI loss prevention cheaper than a security guard?

It depends on how many hours of cover you need and how many stores you run. As an illustrative model, one UK officer covering a 12-hour trading day, seven days a week, comes to about £76,600 a year at the £17.54 hourly minimum charge rate in IPSA’s 2025 guidance. De Flow AI is priced per store and uses the cameras you already have, so there is no hardware cost. Book a demo for a quote.

Do EAS gates stop shoplifting?

They alarm when an item with an active tag passes the exit, which deters theft of the lines you tag. They do not detect untagged items, tags that have been removed or shielded, or fraud at the till such as sweethearting and refund fraud.

Can AI replace security guards?

Not entirely. AI loss prevention watches your connected cameras and sends real-time alerts to staff, but it does not physically intervene. One way to use it is to find where and when losses happen, so physical cover goes where it is needed.

Do I need new cameras for AI loss prevention?

Not with De Flow AI. It connects to existing CCTV and IP cameras, including Hikvision, Dahua, AXIS, Milestone XProtect and RTSP-compatible cameras, with no new hardware, and is live in about 24 hours.

Does De Flow AI use facial recognition?

No. It detects behaviour and events, such as scan-avoidance at a self-checkout, not who someone is.