Artificial Intelligence in the Printing Industry: The Journey Begins

“We feel very strongly about our organization learning about and using AI because if we don’t, our competitors are going to pass us by.” Those are the compelling words of a printing executive who participated in Artificial Intelligence in the Printing Industry: The Journey Begins, a landmark study conducted by NAPCO Research and PRINTING United Alliance.

Among the 81printers surveyed, 38.3% are using artificial intelligence and another 23.5% expect to within the next year. So far, the focus has been on content creation. But plans are to expand usage across a range of mission-critical functions, with the biggest increases in operations (42.0% from 14.8%), customer analytics (33.3% from 11.1%), sales (39.5% from 16.0%), customer service (22.2% from 1.2%), and risk management (21.0% from 2.5%).

Our research panel spoke frankly about their AI experiences, positive and negative. For example, they’ve learned that AI can automate time-consuming, low-value tasks from estimating to invoicing, boosting productivity and profitability companywide – i.e., automation is no longer limited to operations – and that AI can advance market analysis and forecasting by extracting insight from text, audio, video, and other “unstructured” data that does not fit neatly into spreadsheets. They’ve learned the importance of integrating AI applications with ERP, MIS, CRM and other business intelligence systems. And they’ve learned the importance of preparing employees to work effectively with AI, whether by creating implementation teams, hiring outside trainers, or designating an AI champion, and of reinforcing that AI will enhance – not eliminate – their jobs.

AI Applications Current and Future

1. In which of the functions below are you currently using AI, and in which do you plan to within one year (March 2024)?

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They also shared the following recommendations:

• Start small but get started. Instead of trying to do everything at once, “find a specific thing, whether it's scheduling work and content marketing, and focus on that.” Take a small step such as “adding AI notetaking for meetings” and advance by learning from each small step – “crawl, walk, run.” And rather than wait for the great, accept the good available right now: “I think everyone's waiting for the ‘ta-da’ moment where the machine comes in and waves its magic wand and our business is that much better. But the reality is taking small steps across your organization.”
• Focus on data security. Never include proprietary customer data or company data in AI prompts. Public AI models such as ChatGPT “are fine if you're trying to get help with writing an e-mail to a client or something … but don't be putting client-specific information in there,” warns one participant in our study, who adds that his company’s AI-generated content avoids confidentiality risk by “leveraging publicly available information.”
• Don’t forget the human touch. Always evaluate AI output for accuracy and appropriateness. A representative comment: “We have a policy that we never let unedited AI information get out to the marketplace without human intervention. Because while AI is highly intelligent, it can be really stupid and not understand what the humans are trying to get it to do. So we always have the final human review.”
• Keep learning. Draw on articles, books, blogs, podcasts, seminars, webinars, events, and all other resources from outside as well as inside the printing industry to stay current on AI developments.

Artificial Intelligence in the Printing Industry: The Journey Begins also explores what makes AI revolutionary, big data and its role in the revolution, and why some printing companies are not using AI. Download the full report at https://piworld.tradepub.com/free/w_defa6989/ and attend the accompanying webinar on November 19 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Look for future NAPCO Research/PRINTING United Alliance reports covering topics such as the AI applications printers are using and updating their overall AI expectations, experiences, advances, setbacks, and lessons learned.

Questions or comments? Please contact the research team at Research@Napco.com. We’d be delighted to hear from you.