Percepta - Experts & Thought Leaders

ADT Commercial, a premier provider of commercial security, fire, life safety and risk consulting services in the U.S., announced recently that Philippe Sawaya has been selected as its first-ever Director of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In his new role, Sawaya is leading company efforts in the development and deployment of AI with exceptional analytical capabilities to support the specialised needs of commercial customers across industries. Sawaya leads newly formed Artificial Intelligence team to help mobilise ADT Commercial’s purposeful innovation efforts by building the tools necessary to automate and streamline commercial customers’ security programmes to encourage adoption of future technologies. Extensive industry experience He first joined the organisation when ADT Commercial acquired Percepta, a technology company that he co-founded with the mission to develop ethical computer vision-based analytics by utilising anonymised data—addressing the issue of inherent biases prevalent in many of today’s analytics. “It is precisely this kind of ingenuity and forward-thinking that we know will be key to our success as innovators in the commercial security space and we’re thrilled to have him as a leader as we look to disrupt and revolutionise the industry,” said Ed Bacco, Vice President, Emerging Technologies for ADT Commercial. Prior to founding Percepta, Philippe studied Robotics and Computer Vision at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he was selected to join the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) laboratory. His work at GRASP focused on implementing video pose estimation models and training convolutional neural networks.

ADT Inc. announced that, via its commercial channel (“ADT Commercial”), it is investing in Percepta Labs, an artificial-intelligence technology startup out of Philadelphia. ADT Commercial is a premier provider of commercial security, fire, life safety, and risk consulting services in the U.S., and through its investment will fund the commercialisation and application of the startup’s cutting-edge AI technology to help detect and deter shoplifting. ADT Commercial will work directly with Percepta to further test and develop the application of Percepta’s proprietary, socially responsible AI technology in commercial environments and facilitate the launch when the solution is market-ready. Response to facial recognition challenges Founded by Philippe Sawaya, Neil Gramopadhye, and Jonathan Mak while pursuing their undergraduate degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, Percepta’s proprietary "ethical AI" technology responds to emerging concerns surrounding the use of facial recognition technologies and is designed to anonymise individuals’ demographic features—including race, gender, and age—by analysing existing security camera feeds to detect shoplifting incidents in real-time. Using advanced action recognition techniques, Percepta’s AI technology tracks individuals’ movements, scanning for probable shoplifting or precursory shoplifting behavior and assesses theft probability. Loss prevention accuracy “We’re so proud to place our support in forward-thinking organisations like Percepta, who are aiming to truly revolutionise the industry,” said Dan Bresingham, Executive Vice President for ADT. “We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of change in our industry. We believe Percepta could signal a tidal shift in how we approach AI, facial recognition, and data collection, and we look forward to seeing how their technology continues to develop.” In addition to taking a socially responsible approach to AI, Percepta’s technology shows tremendous promise when it comes to loss prevention accuracy. Early tests by Percepta indicate the technology could be more than two times more accurate than human loss prevention personnel in detecting shoplifting behaviours, translating into improved margins, decreased shrink, and a better experience for customers, while eliminating biases based on race, gender, and age. Ethical AI technology “AI’s presence in our lives has skyrocketed, yet it poses ethical concerns that have not been sufficiently addressed. We’ve made these concerns a key priority and are proud to have developed an ethical AI technology that counteracts these biases in the world of retail and beyond,” said Sawaya, CEO of Percepta. “We look forward to seeing how ADT Commercial’s vast experience and commercial network will accelerate Percepta’s growth. We’re excited to partner with them in our shared mission to support socially responsible AI security solutions.”