Conversations with Cameras

Conversations with Cameras – How Generative AI is Transforming Video Surveillance for Security and Operations.

Conversations with Cameras – For decades, video surveillance has been about recording events — not interpreting them. Security professionals sifted through endless footage, searching for critical moments. Even with the rise of digital and IP video systems, finding specific incidents often felt like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Today, we’re entering a new era. Generative AI is changing the conversation — quite literally. Beyond security, this technology is redefining how organisations think about their operations, customer experiences, and risk management. Video systems are no longer passive witnesses. They are becoming intelligent collaborators, helping businesses operate smarter, safer, and more efficiently.

We can now ‘talk’ to our cameras and command centres. Instead of spending hours reviewing video, we can ask simple questions like, ‘Show me unattended cash on the desk.’ Seconds later, results appear. This is the promise of generative AI in video surveillance: faster investigations, smarter insights, and a complete shift in how we work with video. Let’s explore what’s happening — and what’s coming next.

Generative AI: Beyond the Buzzwords

First, it’s important to understand what sets generative AI apart. Unlike traditional AI, which focuses on recognising patterns, generative AI can create content, respond intelligently to queries, and “fill in the blanks” based on limited information. When applied to video surveillance, this means:

• Natural language search through vast video archives
• Contextual understanding of incidents (“people loitering near the back door for more than 10 minutes”)
• Intelligent summarisation of footage.

Operators, managers, and even non-technical staff can now simply ask questions like:

• “Show me instances of the fire exit being blocked this week.”
• “Identify times when cash registers were left unattended.”

Within seconds, the system retrieves relevant snapshots from vast video archives. This natural interaction slashes investigation times from hours to minutes — giving security teams the power to focus on action, not searching.

Importantly, this technology removes the barrier of technical expertise. Anyone in the organisation can engage with the system, leading to faster decision-making across departments. In other words, generative AI turns static video data into living intelligence — and makes it accessible to non-technical users.

Moving Beyond Traditional Video Analytics

Traditional video analytics focused heavily on object recognition — identifying features like clothing colours, vehicle types, or object sizes. While valuable, these analytics required pre-configuration and a precise idea of what to look for.

Generative AI-powered search eliminates these limitations, offering organisations the ability to ask much broader and more meaningful questions about real-world activity — without needing pre-configured analytics or complex filters.

It shifts the model from structured, metadata-driven search to unstructured, query-driven discovery. Instead of filtering based on rigid tags, users can think naturally — asking about behaviours, anomalies, or conditions without needing to define parameters upfront.

This flexibility allows organisations to:

• Find incidents they didn’t predict or tag in advance
• Maximise the value of existing camera infrastructure, without needing costly hardware upgrades
• Empower teams to ask broader, smarter questions that deliver richer insights.

It’s a fundamental leap: from passive systems responding to pre-set rules, to active systems capable of dynamic understanding.

Business Intelligence: More Than Security

The applications for generative AI in video extend far beyond security teams. When video intelligence is combined with business metrics, organisations unlock powerful new capabilities:

• Loss prevention: rapidly detect thefts, unauthorised entries, or suspicious behaviours
• Health and safety: instantly identify hazards like wet floors, blocked exits, or unsafe practices
• Operations management: verify merchandising compliance, stock availability, and customer service standards
• Customer experience: monitor queue lengths, service times, and customer flow bottlenecks
• Brand compliance: confirm adherence to visual merchandising and staff uniform policies across locations.

Generative AI empowers teams to analyse not just what happened, but why — and what to do next. The ability to interrogate video data with natural questions empowers broader teams — from marketing departments assessing in-store traffic patterns, to facilities teams monitoring compliance with safety protocols.

In a data-driven world, intelligent video becomes another essential business tool, driving informed action across every layer of an organisation. With conversational AI, video surveillance becomes a daily tool for managers, auditors, health and safety officers, and executives — not just security personnel.

Smart Search in Action: Practical Use Cases for Key Industries

Across industries, generative AI and smart search are already reshaping daily operations — making video surveillance more intelligent, responsive, and valuable. For example, in a competitive retail environment, store managers and loss prevention teams can use conversational search to:

• Instantly review incidents of customer disputes at tills
• Detect when high-value merchandise areas are left unattended
• Identify crowding at entrances during peak shopping hours to adjust staffing.

This immediate visibility helps retailers protect inventory, improve customer service, and maintain brand standards — all without overwhelming their teams.

For financial institutions, protecting customers, assets, and reputation is essential. Generative AI enables branch managers and fraud teams to:

• Investigate ATM tampering or loitering outside of typical transaction patterns
• Detect unusual access attempts to secure vault areas
• Quickly review if promotional signage is compliant

These capabilities help banks and building societies resolve issues faster, support compliance efforts, and create safer environments for both customers and employees.

Meanwhile, speed, safety, and service define success in Quick-Service Restaurants (QSR) sector. Regional managers and franchise owners are using smart search to:

• Monitor drive-thru performance by identifying vehicle queue build-ups
• Detect after-hours backdoor access
• Locate slip-and-fall hazards like wet floors in customer areas to proactively manage safety claims.

By empowering QSR teams with intelligent video insights, businesses can protect staff and customers, speed up operations, and reduce risk — all with minimal disruption to daily service.

Transforming a 70-Location Retail Chain

A leading quick-service restaurant (QSR) franchise operating over 70 locations faced mounting pressure to protect assets and ensure operational compliance across its network. Manual video review was impractical at scale. Regional managers couldn’t spend hours reviewing footage from every store.

By implementing a generative AI-enabled video system, managers gained the ability to ask simple questions such as: “Show me instances of the emergency exit being propped open this month.”

Implementing smart search and intelligent video results in:

• Investigation times being reduced by up to 90 per cent
• Losses related to theft and safety claims going down
• Regional oversight improvements without adding headcount.

Instead of drowning in data, managers can act on insights — improving both security and operational performance. These same efficiencies are being explored by Australian retailers and QSR brands to monitor remote locations and multi-site compliance.

Accessibility and Scalability: No Barriers to Entry

One of the most powerful advantages of generative AI is accessibility. Unlike traditional video analytics solutions, which often require expensive hardware upgrades, generative AI can work with existing video systems — including legacy cameras connected via IP encoders.

This means businesses don’t need to overhaul their hardware to access intelligent video insights. Even legacy analogue cameras, once thought limited to basic recording, can now be part of a broader AI-driven surveillance strategy — delivering smarter investigations and better operational intelligence with minimal infrastructure investment.

Cloud-based processing ensures that the heavy lifting happens offsite, minimising strain on local infrastructure and simplifying deployment. This means businesses of all sizes — from single-site SMEs to global enterprises — can harness intelligent video without major capital investment. Scalability becomes seamless, making next-generation intelligence available to all.

Another key advantage is ease of training. Because the system responds to everyday language, staff can start using it with minimal instruction — removing technical barriers and accelerating adoption. Whether in a single location or across hundreds of sites, organisations can scale their intelligent video capabilities quickly without overwhelming frontline teams.

By working with intelligently captured snapshots instead of relying solely on continuous video streams, AI-powered search delivers rapid results without burdening network bandwidth or storage. This efficient approach ensures that video investigations remain fast and cost-effective, even as surveillance systems grow in scale and complexity.

Cybersecurity and Privacy: Building Trust into Intelligent Video

With great technological power comes greater responsibility. In Australia, compliance with privacy laws and guidelines is essential. AI-enhanced video systems must be designed with privacy by default. This means:

• Data minimisation: only collecting video and metadata necessary for the task
• Retention policies: automatically deleting footage after a set period
• Consent and transparency: informing employees and visitors about surveillance
• Access controls: ensuring only authorised users can search or view footage.

Cybersecurity is just as critical. Generative AI systems introduce new attack surfaces, including:

• Model manipulation: AI models could be tricked if not properly secured
• Data breaches: sensitive footage and AI insights must be encrypted and protected
• Integrity threats: adversaries could attempt to alter data to mislead investigations.

Following Australian cybersecurity best practices for securing AI and video platforms is essential. Building trust isn’t just about compliance — it’s a competitive advantage in today’s market.

The Future of Surveillance is Conversational

Looking forward, conversational AI will become the standard. Personnel across every part of the business — from store managers to safety officers — will interact with surveillance systems naturally. They’ll be able to ask intelligent questions, get immediate answers, and drive improvements without complex training.

Tomorrow’s intelligent video platforms will integrate multiple data streams — video, transaction logs, sensor inputs, automated reporting — creating a complete operational picture that learns and adapts over time.

The convergence of these technologies will enable businesses to move from reactive investigation to predictive action — identifying risks, inefficiencies, or opportunities before they impact operations. Surveillance will no longer just watch — it will understand, learn, and advise.

Adopting generative AI in surveillance requires:

• Training: helping teams learn how to interact with systems in natural language
• Change management: shifting from reactive workflows to proactive, intelligence-driven approaches
• Governance: setting clear policies for how AI decisions are reviewed and validated.

AI is a tool — a powerful one — but human judgement remains irreplaceable. Technology must empower professionals, not replace them.

Unlocking the Full Potential of Visual Intelligence

Generative AI is not the future of video surveillance. It’s already here. Organisations willing to embrace conversational video today will:

• Solve investigations faster
• Improve operations
• Strengthen security
• Build deeper trust with customers and communities.

As we open new conversations with our cameras, we also open new possibilities — for safer businesses, smarter operations, and a better experience for everyone. The conversation has begun.

You can learn more about March Networks here or read more SEN news here.

“Conversations with Cameras: How Generative AI is Transforming Video Surveillance for Security and Operations.”