Let’s talk about a problem so pervasive, it’s likely sitting in your online shopping cart right now. It’s not a shipping delay or a sizing issue. It’s the specter of a counterfeit, a near-perfect fake that undermines everything you’ve worked for as a brand and betrays the trust of the person who chose you.
For decades, the fight against counterfeits has felt like a high-stakes game of whack-a-mole. Expensive holograms are copied. Complex supply chains are infiltrated. Consumers are left guessing, and brands are left scrambling, losing revenue and reputation with every knockoff that hits the market.
But what if the most powerful tool in this fight wasn’t a secret ink or a blockchain ledger, but something already in everyone’s pocket? What if you could spot a fake with nothing but a smartphone camera and a single glance?
That “what if” is now a reality.
We’re Cypheme, and we’re here to change the narrative. Today, we’re thrilled to share that our AI-powered anti-counterfeit technology, Vrai AI, is now available to brands worldwide. This isn’t just another layer of complexity; it’s a groundbreaking technological leap that turns the existing visual identity of your product into its own unique, unforgeable shield.
And the best part? It’s already proving its mettle alongside a global icon: Lacoste.
Before we dive into the solution, let’s look the problem squarely in the eye. Hugo Garcia-Cotte, our CEO here at Cypheme, often frames it with a sobering statistic: “Today, according to the OECD, counterfeiting represents 2.5% of the world’s trade, or$461 billion.”
Let that number sink in. That’s nearly half a trillion dollars lost to shadow economies. But this isn’t just a line item on a balance sheet. This is about :
The traditional solutions? They often feel like building a taller fence while giving counterfeiters a longer ladder. They add cost, complexity to manufacturing, and can still be reverse-engineered. They treat the symptom, not the root cause.
We asked a different question: What if the authenticity check was effortless, immediate, and based on something already impossible to perfectly replicate?
Imagine a master artisan examining a revered painting. They don’t scan a barcode.They lean in. They look at the brushstrokes, the crackle of the varnish, the subtle textures that decades have woven into the canvas. Their trained eye sees the story of authenticity in the microscopic details.
This is the genius of human expertise. And this is precisely what we’ve taught our AI to do.
Vrai AI operates on a beautifully simple principle: Pure Visual Analysis. It requires no modification of your product. No special label to apply. No hidden marker to embed.
Here’s how it works for a brand:
During our pilot with Lacoste, this approach achieved a near-perfect level of accuracy. It empowered their teams to easily identify fake products and remove them from the market with unprecedented speed and confidence. The iconic crocodile, once a target for forgers, became its own guardian.
The partnership with Lacoste isn’t just a client case study; it’s a landmark moment. It signals a shift from defensive, add-on anti-counterfeiting to intelligent, innate product protection. This has profound implications for nearly every vertical you can think of:
The implementation is deliberately simple. In a world of complex tech integrations, we’ve focused on ease. If your team can use a smartphone, they can deploy Vrai AI. It’s about empowering your people, not overburdening them.
While Vrai AI’s ability to work with existing product features is revolutionary, we understand some scenarios demand a dedicated physical layer. For certain products, we also offer our proprietary Noise Print Label.
Think of this as a high-tech, self-destructing fingerprint for your product. It’s not just a pretty sticker. It’s a label powered by the same core AI technology, designed to be mathematically impossible to copy. When scanned, it doesn’t just return a"yes/no" on authenticity. Its unique pattern can also help trace the origin points of fake products, providing invaluable intelligence to disrupt counterfeit networks at their source.
Whether you use the innate power of Vrai AI, the dedicated sentinel of the Noise PrintLabel, or a combination of both, you’re adopting a system that thinks like a human expert, scales like modern software, and acts with the speed of light.
When we talk to brands about anti-counterfeiting, the conversation starts with revenue recovery and brand protection, and rightly so. Implementing a technology like Vrai AI directly combat piracy, secures operations, and enhances revenue.
But the conversation never ends there.
Every fake product removed from the market is more than a sale recovered. It’s a customer protected. It’s a relationship safeguarded. It’s a signal to your community that you value their trust and their safety above all else. In an age where consumer loyalty is built on transparency and integrity, offering a simple tool to verify authenticity is a powerful statement.
As Hugo puts it, these technologies "have a much larger impact, helping shape safer societies overall." By making counterfeiting an unattractive, high-risk activity, we can collectively drain the swamp. We can redirect that staggering $461 billion shadow economy back into legitimate businesses, innovation, and communities.
The fight against counterfeits has long been a costly, reactive battle fought in the shadows of the global economy. With Vrai AI, we’re stepping into the light.
We’re moving from a paradigm of adding security features to one of revealing the inherent security that already exists in your product’s unique visual identity. We’re turning every smartphone into a bastion of brand integrity.
Lacoste has taken the first, pioneering step with us. They’ve shown that even the most copied logos in the world can be made invincible. Now, this capability is in the hands of brands everywhere, from the storied heritage houses to the innovative disruptors.
The question is no longer if you can stop the fakers, but how quickly and elegantly you want to do it.
