Four Indications of the Growth of AI in Wide-Format

There’s been a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence (AI), especially in the printing industry. While some print service providers (PSPs) have been hesitant to add AI technology into their operations for a variety of reasons, the benefits AI can offer to wide-format PSPs in particular provide can't miss opportunities.
And those in the wide-format segment — from OEMs and software providers to PSPs — are picking up on this. If you’re still skeptical about the significant role AI is set to play, here are four key indicators that this is one trend to stay on top of.

1 AI Has Been — And Will Be — Around for a Long Time

While a lot of attention AI currently garners focuses on generative models such as the text-based ChatGPT and image generator DALL-E, these aren’t the only types of AI out there — and they certainly aren’t the only ones that affect wide-format PSPs.

“In many cases, I think of AI as actionable insights,” Nick Benkovich, chief product officer at eProductivity Software, said during PRINTING United Alliance’s “Artificial Intelligence in the Print Industry: The Journey Begins” webinar. “Think of it as the friend that taps you on the shoulder and says, ‘Hey, did you know? You should be aware of this.’”

Going back to the basics, heuristics is a type of AI based on practical rules and guidelines. As opposed to analyzing data to come to a specific conclusion, heuristics use general knowledge and experience to operate. According to Benkovich, the concept of heuristics has been used by humans for thousands of years. “In fact, it’s how we learn and it’s how we make decisions,” he said.

Following heuristics is non-generative AI, which Benkovich said has been on the market for decades. This form of AI doesn’t create new content or data; rather, it assists in classification, prediction, and decision-making tasks based on predefined models and rules.

“There’s a lot of noise out there [around generative AI], but understand that heuristics, non-generative AI, still has a part to play in your business,” Benkovich said. “And in many cases, you’ve been using these heuristics in applications that you used for many, many years; your customers rely on [them]; you rely on [them] in your business today.”

2 PSPs Are Jumping at AI Opportunities

The numbers don’t lie: Print providers are adopting AI as part of their operations more and more often. According to PRINTING United Alliance’s “State of the Industry Report 2024: The AI/Big Data Revolution,” conducted in March 2024, 40% of PSPs reported using AI in some capacity, whether embedded as a feature in their equipment or software, or as a standalone application.

PSPs are using AI for a variety of tasks across their organizations. | Credit: PRINTING United Alliance’s “State of the Industry Report 2024: The AI/Big Data Revolution”

This is a significant jump from the “State of the Industry” update from the second quarter of 2023, released in September of that year, when only 23.4% of PSPs said the same. Interest in — and use of — AI has grown and isn’t slowing down.

The percentage of “State of the Industry” respondents who had no intention of adding AI to their toolkit also dropped accordingly, from 48.4% in September 2023 to 32.8% in March 2024.

“Interest in AI is clearly growing,” Andy Paparozzi, chief economist at PRINTING United Alliance, said during the AI webinar, “there’s also a degree of urgency about it — that if we’re not understanding it, thinking about it, exploring it, we may fall behind competitors who are.”

In fact, one respondent from the March 2024 “State of the Industry Report” noted that “AI will play a large part in shaping our industry, allowing those who can embrace it to operate more efficiently than their competition and create new opportunities for growth.”

3 Equipment and Software Incorporate AI

PSPs aren’t the only companies excited about the possibilities of AI. OEMs and software providers in the wide-format sector are getting in on the action as well, and many solutions with built-in AI are already on the market.

Bobby Grauf, head of business development for EMEA at Antigro Designer, says the company’s software leverages AI across its product line, ranging from customer-facing options for customization, to image enhancement and other tools for print providers.

Antigro Designer offers several types of AI solutions, including customer-facing and production tools. | Credit: Antigro Designer

For example, Antigro’s intelligent background remover can automatically detect and remove the background of an image, which can be used for applications like uniquely shaped decals.

“We try to do as much as possible with AI to automate a seamless handshake between the design elements and the front-end e-commerce environment, to the production back end,” Grauf notes, “meaning that we want to make sure that the products that we design are then passed on to production in the best possible way. That means integrating with a variety of output devices — RIPs and so forth.”

According to Grauf, Antigro continues to invest in AI, with some major product unveilings set for 2025. He anticipates AI to play a huge part in advancing the wide-format sector.

The AI background removal tool can help with the creation of products such as uniquely shaped decals. | Credit: Antigro Designer

“I come from the wide-format world, more on the equipment or the back-end production side,” Grauf says. “I think AI has got a big role to play in further automating a segment, which has made huge strides in automation. I think of AI, specifically on the equipment side, as machine learning and the improvement of uptime, as well as usage and improvement of the actual manufacturing process.”

4 AI Is Being Used Across Operations

Not only are OEMs and software providers building AI into their products for print production, but PSPs are using AI for tasks outside of production. According to the March 2024 “State of the Industry Report,” the largest proportion of PSPs (28.6%) are currently using AI to create content like audio, social media, and text for emails and promotional materials. Other common tasks include marketing (16.8%) and sales (16%) functions.

As PSPs are learning more about the world of possibilities AI unlocks, these use cases are set to evolve. In the report, significant proportions of PSPs indicated they plan to start using AI within one year for the following tasks:

• Operations (37.8%)
• Sales (26.9%)
• Customer analytics (26.9%)
• Performance evaluation (25.2%)
• Customer service (25.2%)
• Market analytics (24.4%)
• Marketing (23.5%)
• Cybersecurity (23.5%)
• Hiring (23.5%)
• Content creation (21%)
• Risk management (20.2%)
• Employee development/evaluation (19.3%)

“If the members of our ‘State of the Industry’ panel do as they planned, the percentage using AI in mission-critical functions … will increase dramatically over the next year, as more and more companies recognize that AI can enhance not just production and operations, but every mission-critical function from invoicing to estimating,” Paparozzi said.

In Grauf’s eyes, this will be the key to unlocking innovation in the future. “[AI] will have its place for the right companies and the right businesses to free up workforce, resources, and time to create new exciting things going forward — and new ideas,” he says. “So, [it will] let a system perform the boring stuff [so you can] concentrate on what you can do well.”

Pointers for Implementation

Now that you have an idea of how integral AI is becoming in the wide-format sector, here’s some guidance on how to add this technology to your business.

› Assign Responsibility

When taking the leap into AI, it is essential to assign responsibility in its implementation. “That can be anything from creating internal teams to designating an AI champion or leader — someone to drive that effort,” said Lisa Cross, principal analyst at NAPCO Research. Cross said it may be worth it to hire an outside consultant who has more knowledge about AI and can provide insight through an unbiased lens.

The percentage of PSPs using AI increased significantly between September 2023 and March 2024. | Credit: PRINTING United Alliance’s “State of the Industry Report 2024: The AI/Big Data Revolution”

› Identify Priorities

According to Cross, the “State of the Industry” respondents had three key pieces of advice for getting into AI, tying into a need to determine priorities.

• Don’t try everything at once. “Find a specific thing, whether it’s scheduling work or content marketing, and just focus on that,” she said.
• Start small. While AI might seem like a huge effort, Cross said you can start implementing it in little ways, such as using an AI notetaker for meetings.
• Don’t wait for a perfect solution. “Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis or waiting around for this ‘ta-da’ moment, or for there to be a magic wand with no glitches,” Cross emphasized. “Just looking at our data, the time to start is now.”

› Focus on Continuous Learning

One key thing to remember is that AI isn’t a “set it and forget it” type of tool. Thus, it’s critical to stay up to date on the latest innovations. “AI is complex,” Paparozzi said. “It carries great benefits and great opportunities, but it does carry costs and risks. We’ve got to get it right; its capabilities are advancing rapidly.” He recommended looking at books, articles, and blogs, as well as attending industry and non-industry seminars and webinars focused on AI to stay in the loop.

› Don’t Forget the Human Touch

While AI can be hugely helpful in boosting efficiency, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that it is still a tool that requires human oversight. “Now, we’ve all heard the stories of the early days of GPS, where people drove off cliffs and drove into lakes,” Benkovich said. “… AI is the same. If it makes a mistake, the human is the thing that needs to catch it.”

› Make Security a Priority

One of the most prominent concerns about AI is the security of the information being fed into it. Because of this, it is crucial to train your entire staff on how to use AI in a way that does not put your or your clients’ data at risk.

“We must be sure that employees are not exposing confidential company data or confidential client data in AI prompts,” Paparozzi said. “We must be sure we’re not violating copyright or trademarks or patents. Put simply: We must be vigilant.”