How Smart Data Capture Builds Resilience at the Frontline

Smart data capture uses AI-powered software running on smartphones, tablets, handheld computers, fixed cameras, drones, or robots to capture rich data from tangible assets — fast, accurately, and scalably. It works by recognizing objects, scanning items labeled with visual markers (such as barcodes, QR codes, text, or identity documents), and combining data from multiple sources to make sense of the physical world.

Smart data capture enables real-time decision-making, engagement, and workflow automation at scale. Tangible assets become visible along supply chains, allowing organizations to make better, faster decisions. Previously manual data capture workflows are automated, while scanning devices and wearables become co-pilots for frontline workers, providing real-time, actionable insights.

Coming into 2024, 45% of global CEOs believed their organization would not be economically viable in 10 years without adjustments, PwC consultants found. By solving an enduring problem that has become a blind spot, business chiefs can realize untapped value lying right under their noses.

Many tangible assets at organizational frontlines are still recorded using largely manual processes. These include products on shelves, parcels in vans, or medical equipment in hospital wards. Even pen and paper still play a surprisingly large role.

This has far-reaching impacts, which often go unnoticed because this is just the way it has always been.

In retail, on-shelf availability and pricing, promotion and planogram compliance all depend on understanding the state of inventory in-store right now. These factors have a material, and significant, impact on revenue gains and minimizing lost sales.

But the truth of the matter is that most retailers don’t really know what is going on at shelf level. This is because, more often than not, shelf intelligence and conditions still depend on store associates walking the aisles and visually auditing shelves.

The disconnect between tangible assets and digital workflows can affect every element of a business — compliance, traceability, operational efficiency, new revenue streams, agility, the ability to be data-driven… It’s like a runner with weights around their ankles, but a runner who’s been racing like this for so long, she doesn’t even notice any more how slow and cumbersome it makes her.

For too long, data capture has been an overlooked capability within IT operations. But now, made smart and revitalized by artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), it’s becoming the star of the show.

Smart data capture easily and affordably digitizes tangible assets, often using no more than a simple scan on a commodity smart device. By bringing these assets into the digital fold, organizations can act more effectively — make better decisions, and act on them faster.

And with data and insights being disseminated in a continuous flow in both directions between an organization’s edge and center, businesses can pivot fast. They can respond to external shocks, open up new revenue streams, and address previously intractable business challenges.

Senior business leaders who are seeking fresh ways to build value and resilience — almost half (49%) of IT leaders expect to play such a role — have an easy win in smart data capture.

Connecting tangible assets with the digital enterprise brings long-term advantages. And it’s an appealingly simple, low-risk, low-cost investment. Its most straightforward implementations use the humble barcode and ubiquitous smartphone to deliver — but with an inherent capacity to scale and with far-reaching results.

One of the world’s largest apparel, footwear, and accessories companies, VF Corporation, uses smart data capture to achieve 100% inventory accuracy for omnichannel orders. Implementing smart data capture resulted in a revenue boost, over 50% time savings for store associates, and a reduction in technical support tickets.

… every process is now happening in real-time… store associates are going beyond agreed SLAs for receiving goods as it is faster and easier — resulting in superior stock accuracy. And… we can complete all the omnichannel processes closer to the customer.

Andrea Comi – Global Director, Digital and Technology DTC, VF Corporation

Individually, such instances of efficiency savings and value creation playing out at the frontline yield discrete advantages. Together, they punch beyond incremental improvements to deliver strategic value that hinges on the core ability of smart data capture to digitize physical assets.

Representing tangible assets as data means their processing can be automated and augmented to create a business that is intelligent, flexible, and transparent.

This agility and resilience takes center stage in times of turbulence. A business surfing external shocks can spin up new ways of verifying, processing, and distributing physical stock. Using smart data capture, it can turn on a sixpence and onboard frontline workers for new tasks with little or no training.

During the pandemic, New Zealand’s largest retail group, The Warehouse, were faced with a 600% increase in online orders over the course of just three days. By pivoting from manual, “pen and paper” order picking to a smart data capture app running on consumer smartphones, they were able to simplify the process for in-store picking and online order fulfillment teams. This allowed them to respond quickly to customer needs.

It can also be reconfigured swiftly during times of opportunity. One major US clothing and accessories retailer uses smart data capture to scale fast during peak season. By turning consumer tablets into high-performance mobile point-of-sale devices, it is able to add capacity almost instantly and process around 40 more transactions an hour.

Smart data capture generates rich data around the stockholding, movement, and other processes relating to tangible assets. This can then be analyzed and mined for better decision-making.

Accurate, complete, and timely data capture is the bedrock of data management. Unfortunately, quality data from the frontline is often an ambition rather than a reality. On average, 60% of SKUs are affected by inventory record inaccuracies.

Effective data capture provides businesses with the basis for trustworthy, accurate, and accessible data, resulting in advantages ranging from operational efficiency to strategic decision-making

– Datamation

It’s not uncommon today for there to be a wild mismatch. Supply chain or retail management systems are driven by AI — but the data that goes into the model is still captured using cumbersome manual processes. There’s only so much even the most sophisticated algorithm can do if the data fed into it is poor quality and incomplete.

A key outcome of smart data capture is delivering rich edge data through AI-powered software running on the devices used at the frontlines of a business — such as smartphones, tablets, handheld computers, or wearables.

This enables a full view across the business architecture to see assets and processes, in turn allowing more timely interventions and spotting real-time opportunities. Combined with devices that instantly deliver actionable insights to the frontline, it also means that businesses can prioritize actions in near-real-time. A store associate can be directed to restock a popular item, rather than updating a promotion that has a lower business impact.

[A] key enabler [is] more powerful edge computing devices … so that even the most basic devices and assets generate and analyze usable data at the source.

– The data-driven enterprise of 2025, McKinsey

Reusable packaging distributor to the gastronomy sector, Vytal, harnesses smart data capture data to create oversight and direction from the center of the business. Operational efficiency and environmentally-friendly practices are built up at the same time.

By having partners scan QR codes on reusable food and beverage containers, Vytal can provide just-in-time distribution. At the same time, it obtains insights into consumer behavior so it can tailor production and evolve products.

Worldwide, there is a trust deficit in society and institutions that is growing, as the Edelman Trust Barometer reports. Corporations and leaders have a duty to build and prove trust in their processes, products, and services.

Smart data capture can help shore up dwindling levels of trust by making data such as provenance, ingredients, or sustainability transparent. Or it can make document authenticity available with a simple scan.

For example, identity verification is a thorny problem for last-mile delivery companies. It costs them time and puts them at risk of legal penalties, such as having a alcohol license revoked. 45% of US adults aged 18-25 report knowing someone who has successfully used a fake ID to gain access to age-restricted products or venues.

Using smart data capture software running on a smartphone or handheld computer, a courier can scan and validate IDs in just 1 second and with 99.9% authentication accuracy. This reliable, traceable age verification process gives companies confidence to sell age-restricted goods through new channels to maximize revenue and business growth.

Another example is consumer apps, such as Yuka. This free mobile app uses smart data capture to enable consumers to scan product barcodes and obtain instant evaluations of the nutritional value of food products or the healthiness of ingredients in cosmetics. In 2023, there were 1.2 billion scans across 55 million global users.

Companies will speak with us about what they can do to improve existing products and before they launch new products. The grade on the Yuka app is an important factor in consumer purchasing decisions. We have played a crucial part in the industry’s efforts to reduce salt, sugar, and additives in food products. We’re part of the bigger picture.

– Francois Martin, CTO and co-founder of Yuka

Forward-thinking organizations are already using smart data capture to capture previously inaccessible value — often lying at the frontlines of the organization.

Because smart data capture can be readily accessed with the existing infrastructure used by retailers and logistics companies, it’s no surprise that they are its early adopters.

The barcodes these organizations use to manage their daily operations are an easy route into smart data capture. Today, rolling smart data capture out to shop floors and delivery rooms and vans is straightforward, intuitive, and speedy.

In this way, retailers are evolving their physical stores from traditional point-of-sale outlets to venues with a more engaging customer experience by pushing personalized, dynamic up-to-date information. Maxima – a retailer with operations in Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and Bulgaria — see a 50% higher basket value for its self-scanning smart data capture app, compared to other sales channels.

Smart data capture is also driving better shelf intelligence. Retail pioneers are capturing shelf data through object recognition, text recognition, and barcode scanning via smart devices or fixed cameras. AI-based retail shelf analytics then compare this to system data.

Near-real-time product and store-level insights and actionable tasks are then delivered via dashboards on employee devices.

One international retailer operating 400+ stores across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia used smart data capture to reduce legal fines for price inaccuracy by 80%. In certain countries it operates in, if there is a price discrepancy between the actual price and the price shown on shelf, then by law the customer can file a complaint. This can cost the retailer financial penalties equivalent to around $10,000 per claim.

The retailer switched from a manual, labor-intensive process to a smart data capture app running on employees’ own devices. Employees now use smartphones to scan shelf labels for automated price checks that combine both barcode scanning and text recognition. Displayed prices are instantly verified against the product catalog and actions are fed back to associates using AR overlays.

But expanding visual recognition capabilities combined with the versatility to be deployed on a variety of specialized devices means smart data capture is extending its range. Operating from drones, factory-spec wearables, and other ruggedized devices, smart data capture is also poised to bring benefits to the industrial world.

Connected smart factories have been the dream destination of manufacturers for the past 20 years. But the majority (64%) are still at the beginning of their digital transformations, says PwC.

Between 2019 and 2024 digital native Amazon invested over $700m in robotics and AI in Europe alone, and will continue to be the benchmark for smart logistics for the industrial world. But one of the big strengths of smart data capture is its low entry bar.

Companies still at the beginning of their journey can start small, with minimal infrastructure investment. Because smart data capture is software-driven and can run on any smart device, they can deploy affordable commodity smart devices or add value to existing hardware, such as the handheld computers already in the business.

With additional investment, drones and robots equipped with smart data capture and managed from the cloud can respectively observe factory belts and pick parts in the right sequence, just-in-time, to fulfill custom orders. Workers equipped with AR glasses as their co-pilot can navigate the factory floor and do jobs too complicated for robots, aided by the data overlays they can see hands-free.

Japanese car manufacturer Toyota is already using smart data capture to ensure the traceability of each part used on their production line. Smart data capture integrates QR code scanning with their work instruction employee app running on tablets, reducing the workload on-site and cutting costs.

Smart data capture is already a proven capability at the frontline, where it is delivering in hefty chunks of value.

For any company that manufactures, moves, or sells physical goods, smart data capture embeds value creation opportunities and resilience at the point of data capture and beyond. Smartphones and other digital devices become platforms to integrate advanced technology and business imperatives seamlessly with day-to-day operations.

Executives seeking to future-proof their organizations may find that solutions to some of their thorniest boardroom challenges may be deliverable today – and from the phone inside their pocket.