Aims & Scope of this Research
The Report explores how AI-empowered solutions will fit alongside (or indeed to a significant extent replace) the wide range of existing security solutions & devices used already in the marketplace:
- wireless & optical
- traditional 1st, 2nd & 3rd levels of defence.
The Report aims to help all stakeholders to:
- clarify the ramifications, benefits, requirements & opportunities (& indeed threats) in relation to this highly disruptive & transformational family of technologies
- build an up-to-date road map to support the development of optimal strategies & actionable smart packaging plans.
Scope of this Research
With a worldwide scope, the Report analyses the developments and opportunities for AI empowered image recognition solutions for branded consumer goods in 5 vertical markets which are considered to have significant potential as follows:
- 1.Apparel & Footwear
- 2.Luxury Fashion Accessories (Re-sale)
- 3.Healthcare
- 4.Beverages
- 5.Beauty & Personal Care.
Within each of these vertical markets there are an array of product categories, often with their own individual characteristics, opening up many areas of potential opportunity, as shown in the Table below:
Market Vertical / Product Category
- Apparel & Footwear
- High fashion, fast fashion, sportswear, non-sports
- Luxury Fashion Accessories
- Leather goods, luggage, women’s handbags
- Healthcare
- OTC medicines, medical devices (e.g. pre-filled syringes & other medication dispensers)
- Beverages
- Alcoholic, non-alcoholic, liquid foods
- Beauty & Personal Care
- Fragrances, cosmetics & toiletries
What this Report Contains
The Report contains a detailed analysis & evaluation of:
- the worldwide market for image recognition-based Product Authentication & Brand Protection solutions in 2025 with forecasts to 2030
- the new technology & concepts that are driving rapid market evolution & development and how these technologies are working together to fuel growth
- the major potential benefits (both on-pack / on-metadata label & online cybersecurity) for stakeholders (e.g.: brand owners, retailers, law enforcement, customs & other interested parties)
- a review of AI-empowered opportunities for Brand Protection Solutions
Numerous Case Studies are used to highlight actual & potential areas of application, technologies & solutions and the range of functions that can be delivered.
Who can benefit from this Report?
The Report will provide valuable information and insights to support stakeholders:
- 1. AI-empowered image processing / recognition solution providers
- 2. packaging / labels converters (incl. smart packaging/metadata labels providers)
- 3. retailers
- 4. software developers
- 5. brand owners & retailers
- 6. end-of-life sorting solution providers.
Table of Contents
VOLUME 1
1. Introduction
- 1.1. What this Report Contains
- 1.2. Aims of this Research
- 1.3. Scope of this Research
2. Executive Summary
- 2.1. Volume 1: Key Findings
- 2.2. Volume 2: Key Findings
- 2.3. Summary of Opportunities
3. Product Related Crime - Relentless Growth
- 3.1. Supply Chains – Routes to Market
- 3.2. Variations of Product Related Crime
- 3.3. Advanced Technologies Deployed by Counterfeiters
- 3.3.1. Advanced 3D Printing
- 3.3.2. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
- 3.3.3. Deep Learning (DL), Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- 3.3.4. AI-generated Superfakes
- 3.3.5. Synthetic Biology and Biopharming
- 3.3.6. Blockchain & Cryptocurrency – An Aid to Nefarious Activities
4. Image Recognition – Overview & Market Landscape
- 4.1. Applications - Image Recognition
- 4.1.1. Image Recognition vs Image Processing
- 4.1.2. Image Recognition vs. Image Detection
- 4.1.3. Visual Search
- 4.2. Market Sizing – Image Recognition
- 4.2.1. US Image Recognition Market
- 4.2.2. Europe Image Recognition Market
- 4.2.3. Asia Pacific Image Recognition Market
5. AI-empowered Image Recognition
- 5.1. Significance of AI-empowered Image Recognition
- 5.2. Key Applications for AI-empowered Image Processing
- 5.2.1. AI-empowered Counterfeit Detection
- 5.2.2. AI in Retail
- 5.3. Drivers & Trends
- 5.4. Benefits of AI-empowered Image Processing Solutions
- 5.4.1. Efficiency
- 5.4.2. Customer Experience
- 5.4.3. Cost Savings
- 5.4.4. Continuous Learning & Improvement is Key
- 5.5. Challenges & Restraints – AI-empowered Image Recognition
- 5.5.1. Data silos
- 5.5.2. High Investment & Implementation Costs
- 5.5.3. Skills gap
- 5.5.4. Bias and Fairness – Training Data
- 5.5.5. Privacy Issues
- 5.5.6. Technical Challenges
- 5.6. Gathering Training Data for AI-image-based Product Authentication & Brand Protection
- 5.6.1. Consumer Engagement – Key to Gathering Data
- 5.6.2. Consumer Engagement Models
- 5.6.3. Motivating Consumers to Engage More – A Priority
- 5.6.4. Towards Crowdsourcing
6. Product Authentication & Brand Protection Solutions
- 6.1. Product Authentication
- 6.1.1. Smartphone Authentication
- 6.2. Brand Protection
- 6.3. Families of Product Authentication & Brand Protection Solutions
- 6.4. AI in Product Authentication & Brand Protection
- 6.5. Multiple Security Feature / Device Approach
- 6.5.1. Developing a Strategic Approach to Brand Protection with AI
- 6.6. Market Sizing – Product Authentication & Brand Protection
- 6.7. Future Trends AI-empowered Product Authentication & Brand Protection
- 6.7.1. AI-empowered Solutions & Blockchain
7. Healthcare – Pharmaceuticals Market
- 7.1. Pharmaceuticals & Packaging
- 7.2. Global Healthcare / Pharmaceutical Packaging Markets
- 7.2.1. Vaccines
- 7.2.2. Medical Specialty (incl. Blood) Bags
- AI-empowered image recognition and computer vision – Blood Bags
- 7.2.3. Pre-filled Syringes
- AI-empowered image recognition and computer vision – Pre-filled Syringes
- 7.2.4. Rapid Medical & Self Testing Diagnostic Kits
- AI-empowered image recognition and computer vision – Rapid Medical & Self Testing Diagnostic Kits
- 7.2.5. Veterinary Medicines
- AI-empowered image recognition and computer vision – Veterinary medicine
- 7.2.6. Contract Packing – Healthcare / Pharmaceutical Packaging
- 7.2.7. Trends, Drivers & Challenges - Healthcare / Pharmaceutical Packaging
- Telemedicine – The Shift from Hospitals to Home Care
- Risk of Non-Compliance Patient Treatment & Clinical Trials
- Sustainable Packaging - Healthcare / Pharmaceutical Packaging
- 7.2.8. Distribution / eCommerce / Omnichannel - Healthcare
- Institutional & Retail Pharmacies
- Online Pharmacy - ePharmacy
- ePharmacies – Broadening Services Offered
- 7.3. AI-empowered Image Recognition Application in Healthcare / Pharma
- Automated Quality Control & Inspection
- Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Development
- Pill Identification and Safety
- Galaxi.ai
- PharmaLens
- PillID
- 7.4. Product Authentication & Brand Protection – Healthcare / Pharma
- 7.5. Case Study - Healthcare / Pharma - Edgyn AdfirmiaTM
- 7.6. Case Study - Clinical Trial Management using Smart Blisters - Janssen
- 7.7. Opportunities - Healthcare – Pharmaceuticals
8. Luxury Fashion Accessories Market
- 8.1. Market Size & Growth Forecasts - Luxury Fashion Accessories
- 8.1.1. Market Drivers & Trends
- 8.2. Market Size & Growth Forecasts -Luxury Re-sale
- 8.2.1. Market Drivers & Trends – Luxury Re-sale
- 8.3.2. AI-empowered system in the re-sale Luxury Market
- 8.3.3. AI – Luxury
- 8.3.4. Key Applications of AI-empowered Image Recognition in Luxury
- 8.3. Case Study – Luxury Re-Sale – NanoMatriX
- 8.4. Case Study - Furla Handbags and Accessories
- 8.5. Case Study - Breitling Blockchain Dentsu
- 8.6. Case Study – LMVH Patou
- 8.7. Case Study - Christian Dior - An Early AI Adopter
- 8.8. Other Luxury Brands using AI
- 8.9.1. Other Examples - Re-sale Platforms
- 8.9. Opportunities - Luxury Fashion Accessories
9. Apparel & Footwear Market
- 9.1. Market Sizing & Growth Forecasts – Apparel & Footwear
- 9.2. Market Sizing - eCommerce Apparel Market
- 9.3. Case Studies – AI-empowered Product Authentication & Brand Protection
- 9.4. Case Study - Burberry - Pioneering Virtual Experiences and Authenticity Checks
- 9.5. Case Study - Zara AI Adoption & Supply Chain Management
- 9.6. Case Study - Burberry / The RealReal Partnership - Supporting Sustainability Goals
- 9.7. Opportunities – Apparel & Footwear
10. Beverages Market
- 10.1. Market Sizing & Growth Forecasts
- 10.2. Market Evolution - Alcoholic Drinks Packaging
- 10.2.1. Structural Packaging Formats – Alcoholic Drinks
- 11.3. Trends, Drivers & Challenges - Alcoholic Drinks
- 11.3.1. Premiumisation of Packaging for Premium Alcoholic Drinks
- 11.4. Applications for AI Image Recognition in Beverages
- 11.5. Case Study - Eyrene's AI Image Recognition for Beverage Merchandising
- 11.6. Case Study - Corsearch Draft Top – Brand Protection
- 11.7. Case Study - Authentic Vision - Dreissigacker Fine Wine Authentication
- 11.8. Case Study - NanoMatrix - Premium Wines in the Chinese Market
- 11.9. Opportunities - Beverages
12. Beauty & Personal Care Market
- 12.1. Market Size & Growth Forecasts
- 12.2. Market Characteristics - Beauty & Personal Care
- 12.2.1. Premium vs Mass Market
- 12.3. Market Evolution -Beauty & Personal Care Packaging
- 12.4. Market Drivers, Trends & Challenges
- 12.4.1. Digital Consumer Engagement
- 12.4.2. Personalisation
- 12.4.3. Phygital Experiences – Wider Metaverse Movement
- 12.4.4. Traditional vs Organic Products - Beauty & Personal Care
- 12.4.5. Counterfeit Beauty & Personal Care Products
- 12.4.6. Stock Control & Theft
- 12.4.7. Wellness
- 12.4.8. The Influence of Gen Z
- 12.4.9. Economies of Scale - Beauty & Personal Care
- 12.4.10. Sustainability - Beauty & Personal Care
- 12.4.11. Regulatory Matters
- 12.5. Applications for AI Image Recognition in Beauty & Personal Care
- 12.5.1. Case Study - DynamicElement Fuji Seal’ Group & Dr Recella
- 12.5.2. Case Study - Ennoventure –US FMCG Health & Beauty Brand
- 12.5.3. Case Study – Ennoventure Leading FMCG Spice Brand
- 12.5.4. Other Non- Brand Protection Applications
- 12.6. Opportunities - Beauty & Personal Care
APPENDIX 1 - Planogram Compliance
APPENDIX 2 - Putian – China’s Capital of Counterfeit Footwear
APPENDIX 3 - Shein - A Leading Chinese Fast Fashion Brand
- About Vandagraf International
- The Vandagraf Approach & Method
- Vandagraf Consultancy Projects & Multi-Client Reports
- Vandagraf multi-client Reports
- Author Profiles
VOLUME 2
- 1.1. Product Authentication & Brand Protection & Solutions
- 1.2. AI-based Product Authentication & Brand Protection Solutions
- 2.1. Smart Phone
- 2.2. Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- 2.3. Surface Feature Authentication
- 2.3.1. Artificial Random Feature Generation
- 2.4. Augmented Reality (AR)
- 2.4.1. Authentique - Verify
- 2.4.2. Entrupy
- 2.5. Secure QR Codes and AI
- 2.5.1. Some Key Players – AI Secure QR Codes
- 2.6. Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)
- 2.6.1. Authentication using Cryptographically Protected NFC
- 2.6.2. AI and RFID
- 2.7. Blockchain and Web 3.0 Authentication
- 2.7.1. Tokenisation and Digital Twins
- 2.7.2. Some Key Players – Web 3.0 Players
- 3.1. AI-empowered Image Search – aka ‘Visual Search’
- 3.2. Key Technical Trends & Challenges
- 3.2.1. Unique Manufacturing Fingerprints
- 3.2.2. Deep Learning (DL) in Texture Recognition
- 3.2.3. 3D Scanning and Modelling
- 3.2.4. Micro-Laser Engraving Detection
- 3.2.5. Surface Reflectance Profiling
- 3.2.6. Textual and Serial Number Verification
- 3.2.7. Predictive Counterfeit Modelling
- 3.2.8. Time-Series Wear Analysis
- 3.3. Some Key Players - Image Recognition & Search
- 3.3.1. Eyrene
- 3.3.2. Google Vision API
- 3.3.3. Getty Images
- 3.3.4. Malong Technologies - ProductAI™
- 3.3.5. TinEye - WineEngine
- 3.4. AI Image Recognition for Pill Identification
- 3.5. AI Verification & Document Processing
- 3.5.1. Some Key Players - AI Document Processing
- 4.1. Brand Protection Agencies
- 4.2. Some Key Players – AI-based ‘Digital Brand Protection’
- 4.2.1. Alibaba
- 4.2.2. Amazon Rekognition / Brand Registry / Project Zero
- 4.2.3. AuthenticatePro
- 4.2.4. Authentix Inc - BrandTrax™
- 4.2.5. Corsearch
- 4.2.6. Crane Authentication
- 4.2.7. Forgestop - CHAISE
- 4.2.8. Meta - Brand Rights Protection
- 4.2.9. Marqvision (Aka MarkVision)
- 4.2.10. Opsec – Visual AI
- 4.2.11. Red Points
- 4.2.12. Tracer
- 4.2.13. Xian Yu
- 4.2.14. Zhiduoshao
- 5.1. On-Line Digital Authentication
- 5.2. Some Key Players – ‘Physical’ Product Authenticators
- 5.2.1. Authentifier
- 5.2.2. Bababebi
- 5.2.3. Dewu
- 5.2.4. Entrupy
- 5.2.5. LegitGrails
- 5.2.6. Luxury Promise
- 5.2.7. Official Authentication
- 5.2.8. NabCore
- 5.2.9. Real Authentication
- 5.2.10. The RealReal - Luxury Re-sale – AI Authentication
- 5.2.11. Vestiaire Collective
- 5.3. Some Key Players – Non-Additive Surface Features
- 5.3.1. Alitheon- Feature Print(R)
- 5.3.2. AlpVision - FingerprintTM
- 5.3.3. Bosch Secure Authentication - Origify
- 5.3.4. Certilogo (part of eBay)
- 5.3.5. DynamicElement
- 5.3.6. Edgyn - Digital Fingerprint
- 5.3.7. Inexto
- 5.3.8. Veracity Protocol
- 5.3.9. Visua
- 5.4. Key Players –Additive Features
- 5.4.1. AlpVision - Cryptoglyph(R)
- 5.4.3. Crane Authentication - InsightPulse™
- 5.4.4. Cypheme - Noise Print
- 5.4.5. Ennoventure
- 5.4.6. GSSC (Graphic Security Systems Corporation)
- 6.1. Selected Players – AI-Data Analytics
- 6.1.1. 3M Company
- 6.1.2. Atlantic Zeiser
- 6.1.3. Avery Dennison Corporation
- 6.1.4. Brady Corporation
- 6.1.5. CCL Industries
- 6.1.6. HID Global Corp.
- 6.1.7. J Patton
- 6.1.8. Schreiner Protech
- 6.1.9. SICPA SA
- 6.1.10. Scribos -
- 6.1.11. SML Group
- 6.1.12. Sun Chemical (DIC Corp.)
- 7.1. Digital Brand Protection / Product Authentication (On-Line)
- 7.2. Physical Product Authentication
- 7.2.1. Non-Additive Overt Natural Feature
- 7.2.2. Non-Additive Covert Feature with a Secure Code
- 7.2.3. Additive Covert Feature
- 7.2.4. Additive Covert Feature with Secure Code
- 7.2.5. Blockchain Tokenised Solutions
- 8.1. Trend #1 Growing Importance of Brand Protection in a Digital World
- 8.2. Trend #2 AI-empowered Blockchain & Web 3.0 Solutions
- 8.3. Trend #3 Digital Tokens
- 8.1. Trend #4 Adoption of Generative AI (GenAI)
- 8.2. Trend #5 Disruptive Power of Visual-AI
- 8.3. Trend #6 Predictive AI
- 8.4. Trend #7 Quantum Computing and the Future of Cybersecurity
APPENDIX 1 Key Definitions
APPENDIX 2 The Fundamentals of AI Technology
- Machine Learning (ML) Models
- Deep Learning (DL) Methods
- Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)
- Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs or ConvNets)
- Deep Learning (DL) versus ANNs – Differences
- Back Propagation Algorithms
- Supervised, Un-supervised, Self-supervised Learning
- Metadata labelling / Annotation
- Structured versus Unstructured Data Labelling
- Metadata Labelling Methods
- Training Data & Data Metadata labelling
- Types of Training Data
- Using Training Data for ML
- Data Dependent Vulnerabilities - AI-powered Systems
- Cloud-Based AI Systems
- Core Technology Stack
APPENDIX 3 Types of AI
- Narrow AI
- Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
- Artificial Super-Intelligence (ASI)
- Functionality-Based Types of Artificial Intelligence
- Reactive Machine AI
- Limited Memory AI
- Theory of Mind AI
- Self-aware AI
- Autonomous AI (Agentic AI)
- Physical AI
APPENDIX 4 Optical Character Recognition
- What is OCR?
- The Advantage of OCR
- How OCR works
- Pattern Recognition
- Feature Detection (aka feature extraction or intelligent character recognition (ICR) )
- How handwriting recognition works
- Making it easy
- What does OCR involve in practice?
APPENDIX 5 Augmented Reality (AR)
- AR Applications
- AR - ‘Always-On’ Approach
- Trigger Technologies & Augmented Reality
- Case Study – Omnichannel Call to Action – AR
- Case Study- Bombay Sapphire – AR
- Towards the Metaverse with AR
- Immersive Experiences with AR
- Creating Immersive Experiences
- Luxury brands that have stepped up their game with AR
- Final thoughts – AR
- In Summary - AR
APPENDIX 6 Image Recognition Technology
- Top Models and Algorithms in Image Recognition
- Popular AI Image Recognition Algorithms
- Tools for Image Recognition
- How to Apply AI Image Recognition Models
- Training a Custom Model