How the print industry can unlock the AI opportunity
April 3, 2024
Article, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Future of work, Trends
As AI transforms the way organisations work, customer expectations are rising, and print vendors have a significant opportunity to differentiate by developing AI-powered solutions. However, the pace and potentially disruptive impact of AI are also prompting concerns within the workforce about the risk of job displacement. Quocirca’s report, ‘AI Opportunities in the Print Industry’, reveals distinct variations across sectors, business sizes, and job roles in how benefits and barriers to AI in the print environment are viewed. To capitalise on the opportunity, vendors need to shape solutions and messaging to fit expectations and address concerns.
User expectations around print AI benefits
Based on a choice of nine AI use cases, study participants believe AI could be beneficially applied in the print environment to automate workflows (34%), predict and prevent maintenance issues (32%), and improve print quality (30%). These use cases require vendors to offer both on-device AI capabilities to facilitate predictive and preventive maintenance and software-based AI features to power intelligent workflows and content-based decision-making.
Overall, study participants are less likely to see benefits around digitisation management and security, such as preventing printing or document flows of certain types of content. Furthermore, only 18% believe AI will be of benefit in securing print jobs. This perhaps indicates lower levels of familiarity among users around intelligent document processing and content-based security management than with use cases such as predictive maintenance and rules-based workflow automation, which have been in place for some time.
Concerns reflect the role differences between ITDMs and KWs
One-quarter of all participants state that AI would be useful in removing humans from the processes around printing, but a distinct difference in responses is shown between IT decision-makers (ITDMs) and knowledge workers (KWs). Overall, 20% of ITDMs see removing humans from print processes as a top benefit – perhaps because could eliminate ‘user error’. However, only 21% of KWs think it would benefit printing, perhaps because of their general concern about AI replacing human functions. However, KWs outweigh ITDMs in their view of the value of AI for predicting and preventing maintenance issues, with 34% believing this is a benefit, compared to only 30% of ITDMs. Real-world experience is likely to be driving this, with KWs seeing the day-to-day productivity impact of out-of-service devices.
Size and sectors matter in AI messaging
The study finds that smaller organisations (with 250–499 employees) are more likely to see the benefits of AI in preventing the flow of certain types of information, securing print jobs, and automating print workflow processes than their larger counterparts. This reflects the more digital-native, agile nature of smaller organisations. In contrast, larger organisations are more interested in the power of AI to optimise toner and ink usage.
Variations are also apparent between vertical sectors. Respondents working in business and professional services are by far the most interested in using AI for content-based security decision-making, with 41% seeing this as a key benefit, compared to an overall average of 28%. It is not hard to think of use cases for such solutions in highly sensitive areas such as law, accounting, and consultancy, and vendors can build messaging to target this market.
The retail sector is the most likely to see benefit in automating printing workflows (38%), while the public sector is least likely (28%), being more concerned about predictive maintenance and print-quality improvements.
Interestingly, with the exception of business and professional services, the verticals surveyed place little focus on the use cases that align with digitisation and security, such as content-based security decision-making and workflow monitoring. This indicates that understanding of AI’s potential in these areas is less mature.
Overall, the study shows that messages around AI capabilities must be tailored to meet the pain points and possible prejudices of each audience targeted.
Enhancing current use cases and exploring future opportunities
Although customers currently have greater understanding of more familiar use cases, this does not mean vendors should limit their ambition to incorporate AI-led solutions across a wider range of areas.
MFPs already have a range of settings designed to help users reduce costs and improve efficiency, such as duplex and eco-mode, but these are not always used effectively. By enhancing basic rules-based management with AI that determines optimum ink use, paper size, and output resolution, and even decides on a content basis whether a document should be printed at all, vendors can add a level of sophistication and security that will appeal to organisations.
AI can also be used to build more intelligent automated workflows that interrogate print and scan jobs to launch processes within the organisation. These workflows can remove steps that require human intervention and reduce employees’ administrative burdens.
Future use cases are limited only by imagination. Possibilities include the facility to print an AI-generated precis of a document rather than the whole file, plagiarism and copyright violation prevention, conversational AI integration, and more.
Lay secure, ethical AI foundations for future growth
AI is both exciting and overwhelming in its potential. Its deployment must be both innovative and responsible, in order to generate trust among users and overcome their concerns. By building secure, transparent, and reliable AI integrations into products and software, vendors can prepare the ground for future expansion into innovative use cases through which they can differentiate products and services. This will help them move beyond hardware commoditisation to make devices and software an integral part of an AI-empowered document ecosystem.
Learn more about the AI opportunity in the print industry in Quocirca’s .AI Opportunities in the Print Industry Study
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