Become a FESPA Member
to Continue Reading

Become a Member Find Out More

Keypoint Intelligence, the global market data leader for the digital imaging industry, showed the growing application of artificial intelligence to all facets of printing at the SmartHub Conference at the Personalisation Experience 2025, co-located at the FESPA Global Print Expo earlier this month.

What is the true benefit of AI? Put simply, according to Keypoint Intelligence: it enables faster decisions. It saves time, it minimises waste, and it elevates the entire customer experience. Printers who adopt AI will be more agile and probably more profitable. And as AI moves from a reactive to a proactive role in workflows, it is a question of: can you afford not to invest?

Specialising in every segment of print, from wide format to commercial textiles, packaging and labels, Keypoint Intelligence offers the most comprehensive independent data, research and thought leadership in the industry and is uniquely positioned to analyse the most disruptive force in the market at present: AI.

AI is the answer to perennial print industry problems: skilled labour shortages, cost pressures, inconsistent quality and the new burden of mandated sustainability metrics

At the SmartHub conference at the Personalisation Experience, co-located at the FESPA Global Print Expo held in Berlin in May, Lisa Brown and Johnny Shell, principal analysts at Keypoint, described how AI was already being integrated in key areas along the value chain: from design and pre-press to customer service and delivery. AI is also the answer to perennial print industry problems: skilled labour shortages, cost pressures, inconsistent quality and the new burden of mandated sustainability metrics.

Lisa and Johnny pointed out that some, if not all, of a printer’s providers and vendors are already leveraging AI. Today, AI is streamlining the design stage, allowing users to automatically sharpen and update images for improved quality. At the pre-press stage, AI-powered prediction tools are helping forecast issues in advance before they occur and configuring job and resource planning. In the production phase, optimisation tools are driving efficiencies within the production scheduling and job planning. In post-production, inspection and quality control are leveraging machine learning to help detect defects early. Finally, in the customer service and delivery point in the value chain, AI-driven personalisation is key in targeting personalised outputs and a better customer experience.

So AI is already widely adopted in the sector and is being tested and integrated particularly in areas such as file preparation and colour management. But…

...