What is AI security camera search?

AI security camera search indexes everything your cameras record — speech, people, objects and events — so you can ask a plain-English question like 'who went behind the counter after closing on the 4th?' and get an answer that links to the exact second of video instead of scrubbing through hours of footage.

Do I need new cameras for AI video search?

No. AI Smart Retail reads the video your existing cameras and recorder already produce, over RTSP, from a folder of exported clips, or from a drive pulled out of an old NVR.

How fast is a search across months of footage?

Questions are answered against an index built during ingest, so answers come back in seconds rather than requiring a fresh pass over the video.

Guide · 2026

AI security camera search, explained

Reviewing footage has always meant scrubbing. AI security camera search replaces scrubbing with a question — and every answer points at the second of video it came from.

What it actually does

During ingest, every recording is transcribed, speakers are separated, people and objects are detected, and changes between frames are described. All of that becomes a searchable index tied to timecodes. When you ask a question, the answer is assembled from that index, with a numbered citation on each statement so you can open the moment and confirm it yourself.

Anything the model inferred rather than directly observed is labelled as inferred. That distinction matters when footage becomes evidence for an insurer, a landlord or a disciplinary conversation.

Questions people ask on day one

›Who went behind the counter after we closed last month?
›Show me every time a customer asked about a product we didn't have.
›How many people walked past the entrance and didn't come in on Saturday?
›Did the delivery on the 12th arrive with two people or one?
›Which staff member handled the refund dispute on Tuesday afternoon?

Why on-premise is the right default

Cloud video AI charges per camera per month and moves your recordings — including customers and staff — onto someone else's infrastructure. AI Smart Retail runs on one machine in your building for $1,200 once, with unlimited cameras on that machine. It pulls model weights during install; after that you can unplug the internet and search, alerts and daily summaries keep working.

What it runs on

One workstation-class machine handles over 100 cameras of continuous ingest. A single shop runs comfortably on a Mac mini M4 with 24 GB; the recommended default build is an RTX 5060 Ti with 16 GB.

Frequently asked

What is AI security camera search?: AI security camera search indexes everything your cameras record — speech, people, objects and events — so you can ask a plain-English question like 'who went behind the counter after closing on the 4th?' and get an answer that links to the exact second of video instead of scrubbing through hours of footage.
Do I need new cameras for AI video search?: No. AI Smart Retail reads the video your existing cameras and recorder already produce, over RTSP, from a folder of exported clips, or from a drive pulled out of an old NVR.
How fast is a search across months of footage?: Questions are answered against an index built during ingest, so answers come back in seconds rather than requiring a fresh pass over the video.

Keep reading

On-premise vs cloud video AI
Cost, privacy and reliability compared over five years.
AI for retail loss prevention
How shops use footage questions to cut shrink.
Works with your NVR
Hikvision, Dahua, Reolink, Ubiquiti, exported clips and old drives.