From Buzzword to Business: How the Alliance Is Helping Printers Harness AI

PRINTING United Alliance hosted 75 printers for a print-focused workshop at IMAGINE AI. See what you missed and what’s next.

Roughly 75 printers attended PRINTING United Alliance’s AI Innovation for Print Leaders workshop during IMAGINE AI on Wednesday, May 28 at the beautiful Fontainebleau Las Vegas.

The four-hour workshop featured print-focused sessions covering everything from the current state of artificial intelligence (AI) in the industry to content creation, graphic design, and legal implications.

The Alliance brought a collective of thought leaders to talk about trends, experiences, learning lessons, and implementations. Some of the key takeaways from the sessions tell us AI is set to be the next big printing industry disruptor, and while that does come with some barriers, they’re surmountable, according to Nathan Safran, vice president of research for the Alliance, who shared preliminary results of the second AI-focused State of the Industry Report, which is set to release at PRINTING United Expo.

“The Alliance was pleased to develop a printing workshop specifically tailored to advance the printing community,” Mark J Subers, chief innovation officer, PRINTING United Alliance, said. “The Alliance’s North Star is to ensure the future success of the printing and packaging industry and being a catalyst to AI adoption for the industry will be extremely important.”

The Adoption of AI in the Printing Industry

According to results from the Alliance’s AI research report, most companies are in the early to mid-adoption phase and going beyond experimenting and now in the implementation phase. They’re finding use cases for a variety of business functions, including content generation, process documentation, estimating, forecasting, marketing, internal training, and more.

“AI is developing with a pace we have never seen before in other areas,” said Marc Spitzlei, key account manager at Heidelberg USA, a sponsor of the workshop. “Education on AI is crucial since it has the potential to significantly advance the print industry in multiple dimensions. Examples are process optimization and automation, smarter print production, enhanced quality control, sustainability and efficiency, individual marketing and more.”

AI Use Cases

Commercial printer ($10 million to $20 million in sales):

Sign and graphics ($20 to $40 million in sales):

Commercial printer ($10 to $20 million in sales):

Apparel decorator ($1 to $3 million in sales):

"AI is poised to impact every aspect of the print industry, from estimating, prepress, and scheduling to customer engagement and sales," said Warren Werbitt, The Print Whisper and the MC for the event. "The companies that embrace it will operate with greater speed, intelligence, and profitability."

Despite there being widespread interest and investment in AI, a surprising one-third of respondents said they’ve never actively used AI, which Safran said leaves an opportunity for early adopters to surpass their competitors.

“We believe AI is essential to our print operation, both internally and externally,” said Jennifer Pettinger, workshop attendee and CEO of Sun Print Solutions. “In a world driven by instant gratification, print as a physical manufacturing process is always working to meet rising expectations around speed and responsiveness. Any tool that helps us work faster and smarter will help keep print relevant, and more importantly, keep Sun Print Solutions at the forefront of the industry.”

And while there are barriers to AI, Safran encouraged print businesses to experiment, get employees involved, measure impact, and not be afraid to fail. And you can’t get anywhere without first investing in education.

“Education is critical to helping our industry adapt, evolve, and stay competitive,” said Chris Travis, vice president print technology at Koenig & Bauer, one of the workshop’s sponsors. “As AI becomes more integrated into print production — from intelligent scheduling and real-time defect detection to inline color control — the companies that understand and adopt these technologies will be the ones who thrive. Education builds confidence and helps print professionals at every level identify opportunities for improvement and innovation. It’s not just about technology — it’s about equipping people with the mindset and tools to lead the next generation of print.”

Key takeaway: Treat AI as any other important area of your organization and have a point person that owns the process and pushes it forward. Those who make AI a top priority will see more value added.

AI for Content and Art Creation

Now, it’s no secret that more and more companies are using AI for content generation. More specifically, printing companies have leaned on it to brainstorm creative ideas and generate artwork.

While AI can help print businesses generate ideas and initial graphics or designs, it requires the human element or a graphic designer's eye for manual refinement, style, and quality control. It’s not a silver bullet, but it can help printers make strides and save time.

L-R: Mark Heaps, AI tech evangelist and former head of brand at Groq Inc.; Zach Smith, founder at Zach Smith Design; Marco van Hylckama Vlieg, generative AI consultant and engineers; and Warren Werbitt founder, Print Whisperer, discussed AI content creation. | Credit: Allee Bruce

As Marco van Hylckama Vlieg, a generative AI consultant, engineer, and designer, shared: “When creating things for print specifically, AI can create things that are a good start ... You can't just generate something that is immediately ready to go to the printer."

AI tools are just that — another tool in the box.

Speaking to what's helped him, Mark Heaps, AI tech evangelist, noted a project where AI processed 500 images in 42 minutes, cropping them and making them print-ready. This was a major time- and money-saver on a task that would normally take a junior designer one to three days.

On the content side, marketing and outreach campaigns can look a little more tailored thanks to AI.

“If you look at what's happening in outreach campaigns, there's a great software called outreach.io for marketers, where it can learn a little bit about my client, their industry, the name, etcetera, and every email that goes out, every single one is completely tailored and written,” Heaps explained. “It's not just a template with their name included and the company name. It's completely written for them.”

This allows for highly personalized outreach at scale. Where print technology typically led the way in AI, Heaps added that marketers are adopting it more and more.

L-R: Joseph Marin, senior vice president of member services; Nick Benkovich, chief product officer, ePS; Al Kennickell, president at Kennickell Group, shared how they're using AI. | Credit: Allee Bruce

Al Kennickell, president at Kennickell Group, shared how he uses a plug-in called Crystal Knows on his computer to help him understand clients via LinkedIn. The plug-in will create a personality profile based on a LinkedIn profile, and Kennickell uses that profile to ask ChatGPT how it should write a successful marketing email for that person. Not everyone communicates the same, and this tool can help printers win more jobs.

At PRINTING United Alliance, Joseph Marin, senior vice president of member services, appreciates the chatbot added to the iLEARNING+ platform.

“We've had 275 visitors interact with the chatbot. We've had 1,300 AI responses. That's 1,300 interactions with those people, and from that, we generated 78 leads, and half of those turned into dollars that hit our bottom line,” Marin shared. “It was a no brainer, and the thing is 24/7, 365 and speaks over 150 languages.”

If companies really want to move the needle, Marin encouraged them to empower their employees to use AI tools.

What Am I Liable For?

It’s the answer everyone wants to know: What am I legally allowed to use, publish, print, etc.? Unfortunately, there’s no clean-cut answer, but Sheryl Savage, general counsel and chief legal officer at Positron AI, shared her advice.

“Understand your underlying data set, and that will help you understand your risk profile,” she advised. “And as business leaders, you have to do a risk analysis.”

Sheryl Savage, general counsel and chief legal officer at Positron AI, shared her advice with printers. | Credit: Allee Bruce

She encouraged print businesses to dive into the licensing terms of any proprietary and open-source AI models they’re using so they can assess any potential copyright and infringement risks. One thing to note: Current laws are still catching up to generative AI technologies, and existing laws are currently being reinterpreted for AI cases and legal interpretations can easily evolve, which is why it's important to have a point-person responsible for assessing and managing that risk, Savage added.

Because of what feels like a legal gray area, Heaps shared what he tells his employees: To operate under the assumption they will get sued for anything they create.

“Are you willing to risk your job on the decision you just made?” he posed. “We still use a lot of it [AI] to influence the decisions we're making, but then still go through the traditional process of how we design, so where we get our time savings is rapid iteration, rapid ideation, rapid exploration, and then from there, what asset do we want to make?”

As the legal side of AI continues to evolve as usage booms, print businesses need to ensure they're staying up on the potential risks.

No matter the use case, “It will get you out of the weeds,” Marin added. “It will get you out of the whirlwind, and it'll allow you to think more strategically, more creatively.”

As the Alliance prioritizes AI education for printers, one thing is clear: Printers who act now will shape the future of the industry.

“No truer words were spoken than 'Knowledge is power,' and we are seeing a continually increasing demand for education around AI within the industry,” said Nick Benkovich, chief product officer, ePS, a sponsor of the AI workshop. “We continue to commit significant resources not only to our own learning and use of AI within our business but within the products we deliver to our customers. Educating the industry on why, when and how is a big part of how we continue to contribute to the industry through our own efforts and by partnering with organizations like the Alliance.”