Find What Matters, When It Matters with Solink AI
December 9, 2024
Artificial intelligence unlocks valuable insights from the world’s most powerful sensor
No doubt, video security footage is an incredibly valuable resource, capturing real-time events and serving as a reliable form of evidence in various scenarios, from security investigations to operational audits. Recordings are often regarded as definitive proof, providing clarity and accountability in disputes or incidents. They can also be analyzed to learn how people move through spaces, and to detect things like blocked exits, to improve business operations and safety. However, the sheer volume of video generated can be overwhelming to analyze manually.
Portfolio company Solink is tackling this challenge with its cloud video security and analytics platform. Solink empowers customers across industries to pair video with data sources (such as point-of-sale terminals), and easily search for and review specific events. These events might include suspicious activities, like employees issuing refunds, or product levels falling below thresholds, like when a coffee shop runs out of baked goods.
How much data does Solink handle? These data points speak for themselves:
- Today, Solink is connected to more than 350,000 cameras, recording upwards of 250 million hours of video every single month. To compare, all YouTubers combined, worldwide, upload about 25 million hours of video per month, which means that Solink is recording ten times as much.
- Solink processes over 500 million transactions per month, and the average Solink customer location records about 11,000 hours of video.
With the launch of Solink AI at the end of October, Solink is making it easier than ever for customers to ask questions of their video and data, to gain greater operational visibility and control.
We spoke with Solink’s VP Product, Chris Sisto, and Kyle Nolan, Product Manager, AI to discuss their latest product announcement, and to get valuable insights.
Congratulations on the launch of Solink AI. What led to this product innovation?
Chris: Back in November of 2022, when AI captured global attention, we began considering not only its applications in text but also its potential in visual contexts. We reflected on how AI could amplify our capabilities as it became increasingly weaved through our physical infrastructure.
About a year ago, we introduced three key pillars for our AI vision applications: Zero Configuration, to enable scalable environments without manual camera adjustments and allowing real-time answers to past queries; Context Matters to pair video with data for enriched insights; and Continuous Training to ensure our AI continually evolves for enhanced accuracy and performance.
When we set out to build Solink AI, our goal was to separate out the signal from the noise, to uncover business intelligence that serves not only physical security and loss prevention but the entire organization. And here we are today, having successfully launched Solink AI just a few weeks ago.
What is so special about marrying AI with video data?
Kyle: Cameras are the world’s most powerful sensor. The ability for us to manage and scale that with AI really opens up an entirely different category that we call vision-enabled operations. To take footage, treat it as proof and to be able to make automated decisions over time.
Chris: It’s important to highlight that our team at Solink has incorporated AI into our products for years – to alert operators to anomalies or suspicious activities at their businesses. Now, with Solink AI, we’re raising the bar to make it easier for our customers to receive continuous real-time notifications and question this smart-security software about everything from which products are selling best to whether employees are adhering to dress codes.
Have your customers helped shape Solink AI?
Chris: Yes, most certainly. While developing Solink AI, we engaged with many different clients and various departments and users. What became very clear is that video is no longer just the domain of security or loss prevention. Many departments now recognize its value as a powerful source of business intelligence. From health and safety teams monitoring Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance to sales and marketing analyzing the impact of displays, and store operations teams studying customer journeys, video has proven to be an invaluable resource. These conversations with diverse customers have been incredibly insightful, highlighting the vast potential of video data across industries.
What is ‘Sidekick AI’?
Kyle: As our team likes to say, ‘Your cameras aren’t dumb, they’re just bored.’ With Sidekick AI, we can finally put those bored cameras to work. Our customers often have hundreds if not thousands of cameras across all their locations. How do we start to engage with those cameras and have them tell us what’s important? For that we’ve built a generative AI assistant called Sidekick. Imagine an AI that you can ask almost anything and it can look at every camera and tell you what it sees on a regular basis, it never tires and it can find problems you didn’t even know existed.
Tell us about the name ‘Sidekick’.
Chris: As the name implies, we partner with businesses to be a ‘Sidekick’ to security practitioners and operations teams. We offer a platform designed for impact, flexibility and scalability. As businesses are challenged to do more with less, our Solink Sidekick AI will multiply the benefits of security infrastructure in an efficient way.
What’s so special about Sidekick?
Chris: If you have brick-and-mortar locations, the ability to ask any question of your cameras is extremely powerful. Sidekick comes with pre-built templates that our clients can use to spot check their businesses, such as: Are the shelves fully stocked? Did the store close early or open late? Is the safe open? Is the fire extinguisher blocked? These automated spot checks enable our clients to stay informed without manual oversight.
Kyle: A common barrier to adopting AI has been its perceived complexity—people often hear the terminology and feel unsure about how to use it. What we’ve done here is that you can simply use natural language. There’s no need for programming skills. You just talk to the AI as if it’s an extension of your team. You can ask a very basic question that is then rewritten into an expertly formatted prompt.
What we’re building is AI for everyone. It doesn’t matter what industry or department you’re in. Any department can benefit from vision-enabled operations. No matter your job function, we enable our clients to interpret the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary.
What other features did you launch?
Chris: In addition to Sidekick AI, we launched People Analytics and Compliance Analytics. How are people moving through time and space and interacting with the environment around them? What is my store occupancy? How many people came in today? How does that relate back to my conversion rate? With People Analytics, our customers are able to draw a virtual line to instantly view metrics of how many people have crossed in each direction and combine that information with point-of-sale data to generate revenue statistics. You can also define zones to see how effective specific displays are, among many other things.
Compliance Analytics enable customers to be proactive in their approach to protecting their people and their patrons, such as blocked exit detection notifications. You can also do face blurring before uploading data to the cloud to ensure compliance with privacy regulations.
What differentiates Solink AI from other solutions on the market?
Kyle: Our solution stands out by eliminating the need for preconfigured lines or zones. This flexibility ensures no data points are missed if movement occurs outside predefined areas, such as down an aisle. Unlike other vendors, Solink provides full transparency. We give our customers confidence in the accuracy of data used to drive conversion rates and KPIs. The ability to extend or adjust lines retroactively allows users to capture and recalculate data seamlessly, without being restricted by rigid configurations.
Chris: We’ve taken the traditional computer vision model and completely flipped that on its head. Normally you are locked into that line, but now you are not. You can ask the question that you want to ask, when you want to ask it and wherever on the screen you want to ask it. That data is never lost.
How quickly can you get started with Solink AI?
Kyle: Our AI does not require any additional hardware. Our solutions are built with total cost of ownership in mind, meaning that no additional hardware is required. Our solutions are compatible with any camera, with limited impact on bandwidth.
What’s next?
Chris: We are rapidly innovating to weave AI into all areas of the product so that our customers can convert their cameras into a productive workforce. As we continue to expand the applications of AI in our platform, the future promises exciting opportunities for innovation and growth for our customers.
To learn more about Solink AI, visit solink.com/ai.
Wesley Clover invests in a range of technology companies, and they bring impressive innovation to markets and clients around the globe. I/O is our way of sharing some of the best insights. I trust you will enjoy them.
Terry Matthews, Chairman