Proudly Headquartered in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter
While Formiti operates in over 120 jurisdictions, our strategic heart is located in the historic St Paul's Square, Birmingham.
As a leading voice in the West Midlands' booming tech and advanced manufacturing sectors—the UK's fastest-growing innovation hub in 2026—our headquarters serves as the central command for our global DPO-as-a-Service and AI Governance teams.
Our deep experience in the retail sector—governing complex Visual AI and Computer Vision systems for global leaders like Palexy and their clients such as Aldo and Central Retail
Global Success Story: Governing Visual AI for Palexy
Scaling Trust Across 10 Jurisdictions with Palexy
Formiti is proud to serve as the global AI Governance partner for Palexy, a world-leading retail software solutions provider. Palexy's cutting-edge Visual AI Platform transforms in-store CCTV into powerful data engines—optimizing traffic conversion, automated staff scheduling, and remote store auditing for global brands.
The Formiti Impact: Operating across 10 countries, Palexy requires a governance framework that is as agile as its technology. Formiti provides the multi-jurisdictional oversight needed to ensure Palexy's Visual AI remains compliant with varying international standards, including:
- Algorithmic Anonymisation Validation: We audited Palexy's "Traffic Counter 2.0" to verify that in-store shoppers are tracked as unique, anonymised data points, preventing the collection of identifiable biometric markers in line with complex global AI regulations.
- Cross-Border Compliance: Managing the complex data flows inherent in a global SaaS platform serving diverse markets in Asia and Europe.
- Audit-Ready Transparency: Providing the documentation and "Reasonable Steps" evidence that allows Palexy's retail clients to deploy AI with total regulatory confidence.
- Legacy Integration Compliance: Performed forensic audits on existing store CCTV hardware to ensure integration with Palexy's AI didn't introduce "Shadow AI" vulnerabilities or unauthorized secondary data usage.
"By bridging the gap between Palexy's innovation and global regulatory demands, Formiti ensures that 'Operational Excellence' never comes at the cost of 'Compliance Integrity'."
Why Choose Formiti: The Global Vanguard of Retail AI Compliance
At Formiti, we don't just "monitor" compliance; we engineer it. As retailers pivot toward Agentic Commerce and autonomous operations, the legal landscape has become a minefield of fragmenting regulations. Formiti provides a single, unified "Command Centre" for your global AI strategy.
By choosing Formiti, you are partnering with a consultancy that understands the technical nuances of Visual AI, Dynamic Pricing, and Automated Merchandising. We ensure your innovation thrives within the strict guardrails of the CMA, FTC, and the EU AI Office, turning compliance from a "cost center" into a strategic competitive advantage.
CMA-Ready Pricing Integrity:
Ensure your dynamic pricing algorithms satisfy the April 2026 Price Marking Order amendments. We audit for "Surveillance Pricing" risks, protecting your margins while ensuring total transparency for the consumer.
Agentic Commerce Guardrails:
As "Shopping Agents" begin to buy on behalf of consumers, Formiti establishes the protocols to manage these autonomous interactions, ensuring your systems are ready for a multi-agentic future.
Automated Consumer Trust:
Only 27% of shoppers currently trust AI-powered checkouts. Formiti implements the transparency labels and "Explainability" modules required to rebuild consumer confidence and drive loyalty.
EU AI Act Harmonisation:
Meet the August 2026 deadline with ease. We classify and audit your "High-Risk" retail systems—from biometric loss prevention to AI-driven recruitment—ensuring seamless entry into the EU market.
Operational Resilience & HITL:
We implement Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) governance for your automated staff schedulers and replenishment engines, preventing algorithmic bias and ensuring workforce stability.
The Global Retail AI-BOM:
Gain a machine-readable AI Bill of Materials across 120+ jurisdictions. Formiti maps every sub-component of your AI stack, providing the "Reasonable Steps" evidence needed to shield your Board from liability.
Our Core Service Pillars: Global Retail AI Governance
Formiti provides a comprehensive, end-to-end governance architecture designed to satisfy the strictest international retail standards. We ensure your AI strategy remains an engine for growth, not a source of liability.
Pillar 1: Dynamic Pricing & Fairness Audits
- The 2026 Mandate: Addressing the UK's April 2026 Price Marking Order and the FTC's "Surveillance Pricing" scrutiny.
- Our Service: We perform forensic audits on your pricing algorithms to ensure transparency, prevent discriminatory "data-driven" pricing, and ensure total compliance with the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Act (DMCCA).
Pillar 2: Agentic Commerce Oversight
- The 2026 Mandate: Governing the transition to autonomous "Shopping Agents" that negotiate and purchase on behalf of consumers.
- Our Service: We establish the legal and technical "Safety Envelopes" for autonomous commerce, ensuring your agents operate within consumer protection guardrails and don't trigger unintended anti-competitive behaviors.
Pillar 3: Visual AI & Computer Vision Ethics
- The 2026 Mandate: Satisfying the EU AI Act's August 2026 deadline for biometric and "high-risk" monitoring systems.
- Our Service: Drawing on our experience with partners like Palexy, we provide deep-dive DPIAs and bias testing for in-store AI (traffic counting, cashierless checkout, and loss prevention) to ensure privacy-by-design.
Pillar 5: AI Literacy & Senior Management Accountability
- The 2026 Mandate: Fulfilling the mandatory AI Literacy requirements under Article 4 of the EU AI Act.
- Our Service: We provide Board-level training and "Accountability Mapping," ensuring your Senior Managers can demonstrate the "Reasonable Steps" taken to govern AI outcomes, mirroring the rigor of the finance sector's SM&CR.
Pillar 6: Global Regulatory Harmonization
- The 2026 Mandate: Managing the fragmented landscape of 120+ jurisdictions.
- Our Service: Using our Privacy360 platform, we create a unified compliance dashboard that maps your retail AI stack against the UK, EU, US, and ASEAN regulations, ensuring "Compliance Once, Deploy Anywhere."
Retail AI Governance: Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How does the UK's April 2026 Price Marking Order (PMO) affect my AI dynamic pricing?
A: As of April 6, 2026, retailers must provide total transparency in pricing displays. If your AI uses dynamic pricing or loyalty-linked discounts, you are legally required to display both the standard and the discounted price clearly. Formiti's audits ensure your algorithms don't trigger CMA enforcement for "Surveillance Pricing" or "Drip Pricing" tactics.
Q: Does my in-store Visual AI need to comply with the EU AI Act?
A: Yes. If you operate in the EU or provide services to EU citizens, your Visual AI (for traffic counting or loss prevention) may be classified as "High-Risk" under the August 2026 EU AI Act deadline. Formiti drawing on experience with platforms like Palexy, helps you implement the mandatory anonymisation and human-oversight protocols required to avoid fines of up to 7% of global turnover.
Q: What is "Agentic Commerce" and why does it need governance in 2026?
A: Agentic Commerce refers to autonomous AI agents that negotiate and execute purchases on behalf of consumers. Governance is essential to prevent these agents from engaging in anti-competitive "collusive pricing" or violating consumer rights. Formiti establishes the "Safety Envelopes" that allow these agents to operate within legal and ethical boundaries.
Q: Can I use AI for automated staff scheduling under the Data Use and Access Act 2025?
A: The UK's 2025 Act allows for Automated Decision-Making (ADM) based on "Legitimate Interests," but it mandates "Meaningful Human Involvement." Formiti's framework ensures your scheduling AI isn't "solely automated," protecting your firm from bias claims and ensuring workers have a right to contest AI-driven decisions.
Q: What is a Retail AI-BOM and why do I need one?
A: An AI Bill of Materials (AI-BOM) is a machine-readable inventory of every AI model, dataset, and third-party component in your retail stack. In 2026, regulators require this for "Reasonable Steps" evidence. Formiti provides this to give your Board total visibility over your AI ecosystem, from supply chain bots to loyalty engines.
The Formiti Tri-Team Model: Your Global Retail Shield
One DPO is no longer enough for the complexity of 2026 Retail AI. Formiti's unique Tri-Team Success Model replaces the "Lone Wolf" consultant with a coordinated, three-tier infrastructure. We integrate Privacy, Legal, and Operations to ensure your AI systems—from visual analytics to dynamic pricing—are technically sound, legally defensible, and operationally seamless.
The Privacy Team (The Technical Architects)
Our Privacy Team provides the technical "boots on the ground" for your retail stack. They translate complex mandates like the EU AI Act into actionable technical workflows.
- Visual AI DPIAs: Validating anonymization for traffic counting.
- Data Mapping (RoPA): Inventorying every AI model and dataset.
The Legal Team (The Regulatory Shield)
Compliance is only as good as its legal defensibility. Our legal experts ensure your retail frameworks meet the strict requirements of 120+ international jurisdictions.
- Algorithmic Liability: Shielding Senior Managers from personal liability.
- Global Rep Service: Official Article 27 representation in the UK, EU, and Thailand.
The Operations Team (The Implementation Engine)
The best strategy is useless if it isn't implemented. Our Operations Team manages the "how," ensuring compliance integrates into your daily retail rhythm and policies are revbiewed and validated.
- Staff AI Training: Delivering mandatory AI literacy to your workforce.
- Project Lifecycle: Delivering audit-ready results on time and on budget.
Why the Tri-Team Model Wins in Retail:
- Eliminates Single Points of Failure: If a data breach or algorithmic drift occurs at 2 AM, you don't call a contractor; you activate an entire department that already knows your systems.
- 30-50% Cost Efficiency: Gain a full multidisciplinary department for less than the cost of one senior in-house hire, without the recruitment overhead or retention risk.
- Scalable Across 120 Jurisdictions: Whether you are expanding a boutique brand into the EU or scaling a global marketplace into Asia, our teams provide localized authority with a global perspective.
Is the Formiti Retail AI Framework Right for You?
In 2026, retail success is defined by how fast you can innovate without breaking the law. Traditional compliance models are often too slow for the "Agentic Commerce" era. If you answer YES to any of the following, your organization requires the specialized oversight of the Formiti Global Retail Framework:
[] You deploy In-Store Visual AI: Are you using computer vision for traffic counting, cashierless checkout, or loss prevention? We ensure your systems satisfy the EU AI Act's August 2026 "High-Risk" mandates.
[] You use Dynamic Pricing: Is your AI adjusting prices in real-time? We provide the forensic audits required to satisfy the UK's April 2026 Price Marking Order and prevent CMA enforcement for "Surveillance Pricing."
[] You operate across 3+ Jurisdictions: Are you balancing the UK Data Use & Access Act 2025 with EU GDPR and US State Laws? Formiti provides a single "Point of Truth" for global data flows.
[] You are moving toward Agentic Commerce: Are you preparing for AI agents that buy and negotiate on behalf of consumers? We establish the legal "Safety Envelopes" to govern autonomous retail interactions.
[] You lack an AI-BOM: Do you have a machine-readable AI Bill of Materials for your supply chain and loyalty models? Our framework automates this documentation for Board-level liability protection.
Roadmap to Retail AI Accountability
A 4-Step Framework for Global Compliance in 2026
1: The Global AI Discovery Audit
Identify & Catalog Your Algorithmic Inventory Before you can govern, you must discover. We conduct a deep-dive audit of your entire retail stack—from "Shadow AI" marketing tools to Visual AI traffic counters.
Key Outcome: A machine-readable AI Bill of Materials (AI-BOM).
Regulatory Goal: Meeting the inventory requirements of the EU AI Act and the UK's Data Use and Access Act 2025.
2: Classification & DPIA
Forensic Analysis of High-Stakes Retail Systems Not all AI is created equal. We classify your systems into risk tiers, performing complex DPIAs on "High-Risk" applications like biometric loss prevention and automated staff scheduling.
Key Outcome: A defensible Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment (FRIA).
Regulatory Goal: Satisfying the August 2026 EU AI Act deadline for high-risk categorization.
3: Algorithmic Stress-Testing
Validating Transparency in the Age of Dynamic Pricing We stress-test your dynamic pricing and loyalty algorithms to ensure they don't trigger "Surveillance Pricing" alerts. We verify that every "Invitation to Purchase" is transparent and fair.
Key Outcome: An Algorithmic Explainability Report for the Board.
Regulatory Goal: Compliance with the CMA's April 2026 Price Marking Order and the FTC's consumer protection mandates.
04. Continuous Governance (HITL)
Implementing Human-in-the-Loop Safeguards Accountability is a continuous function, not a one-time event. We embed Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) checkpoints into your automated workflows, ensuring a senior manager remains accountable for every AI outcome.
Key Outcome: Real-time compliance monitoring via the Privacy360 Dashboard.
Regulatory Goal: Demonstrating "Reasonable Steps" to shield Senior Management from personal liability.
Onboarding
Q: How long does it take to become "Audit-Ready" with Formiti?
A: We understand that in the retail sector, innovation waits for no one. Our onboarding process is designed to be seamless, typically taking 30 to 120 days depending on the complexity of your AI ecosystem.
For high-priority projects—such as ensuring compliance for a new Visual AI rollout or meeting a CMA pricing deadline—we can deploy an "Express Onboarding" phase within 14 business days. This provides your firm with immediate Article 27 representation and a preliminary AI-BOM, allowing you to maintain operational momentum while we finalize your long-term governance architecture.
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