Sainsbury’s keeps the faith with Facewatch AI technology as customer is wrongly accused of shoplifting
Sainsbury's plans to continue with its roll-out of Facewatch facial recognition technology to approximately 200 stores during 2026, despite a customer being wrongly challenged as a shoplifter and asked to leave a store earlier this month.
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said that this resulted from human error rather than a false match by the Facewatch system and that the retailer contacted the customer to apologise for his experience. "The incident was caused by human error, not the facial recognition technology. Customers can be reassured that the Facewatch system has a 99.98% accuracy rate, and every match is reviewed by a trained manager,” they added.
A Facewatch spokesperson commented: "We can confirm that our live facial recognition technology was not at fault in this incident. A correct alert was sent to the retailer, but was subsequently subject to human error in the way it was handled and communicated by the retailer."
Matt Arnold, 46, was buying items at a Sainsbury’s store in East Dulwich when he was stopped by management at a self-service checkout. He was waiting for a staff member to approve an alcohol purchase. Having scanned his items alongside his Nectar loyalty card, he waved an attendant over, but was instead approached by management.
"They came over and said I had to leave. The staff member said I'd been identified by the AI, and the cameras had flagged me," he told BBC London. "A shoplifter does not walk around with that much shopping, they don't scan it through, they don't put their Nectar card through. But what upset me was thinking this is what the future could be - people just listen to what the machine tells them to do without thinking about the consequences."
After being escorted off the premises, Arnold said he had looked back from the entrance and saw an overhead CCTV monitor alert with a red circle surrounding his face.
The incident followed on from another person being instructed to leave a Sainsbury's store in South East London without explanation, after staff incorrectly identified him as an offender flagged by the Facewatch technology. Facewatch later told him there were "no incidents or alerts associated with [him]" on its database, and Sainsbury's apologised for the "human error".
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: "We have been in contact with the man to sincerely apologise for his experience in our Elephant and Castle store. This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in-store."
They added nobody had been wrongly identified by Facewatch technology and this was the first instance of someone being wrongly approached by a store manager.
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
AI will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
