AI in The Printing Industry:
Printing with AI – A Utopia or A Dystopia?
The phone rings at the Sales Department. A human voice answers, but who truly speaks, is a computer. The Artificial Intelligence of the printing industry’s future accepts an order, gives advices to the customer and sends the result to the Production Department’s AI. The order is processed there, and is mailed to the customer with a self-driven car, of course. We don’t know if there is any human contact at least.
Let’s be honest: We don’t know, either, if this scenario will become real at Texsib one day. Ultimately, we always aim to advise our customers personally (and humanly) to achieve the best result at the end of a day. AI in the printing industry, though, is able to change a lot. In times of digitalisation and automation, AI might be the next big step.
In this blog article, we deal with AI’s influence on printing. How does that look at Texsib? And can it be interpreted as a utopia or dystopia?
AI’s Hype
Since OpenAI released its text based AI ChatGPT, the topic of artificial intelligence is never missed in media, though, it’s often not so clear what we can expect from AI.
In general, every AI works with human data, which the system uses to learn independently. This functionality is working in the background for some time already. Based on our usage data, social media algorithms suggest exactly the funny video that we are likely to like and share. The adverts are also customised to us. The difference with ChatGPT or DALL-E, however, lies in the generative AI, which can create content in a human-like way. Is this AI also exciting for the printing industry?
AI’s Opportunities for Digital Printing Companies
AI can be especially promising for sales. It is questionable, of course, if two robots will really be working together on an order in a few years’ time. However, AI can actually take over some of the more tiring routines of a salesperson. E-mails written in the same style and making appointments are just two possibilities.
AI can also be used to support programmatic print. Customer data is analysed by artificial intelligence, which is followed by customised product offers by e-mail.
Bei all dem Lob und der Möglichkeiten gibt es aber auch legitime Zweifel. Die Angst darum, dass Arbeitsplätze verloren gehen, ist eine davon. Es brauch jedoch fähige TEXpertinnen und TEXperten, die die Künstliche Intelligenz mit dem Fachwissen füttern, um qualitative Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Und natürlich sind auch Fehler und Fälschungen nicht ausgeschlossen, die stets professionelle Überprüfung erfordern.
How does ai support texsib?
We ask our IT department manager Andreas in what form AI plays a role at Texsib. He explains that AI is already being used in several areas. Multiple projects are currently being tested. For example, ChatGPT is being tested as an add-on in the company’s internal chat.
Another project investigates how AI could support our sales staff, currently when entering orders. To do this, emails and order data such as size, material and clothing are read out. Our sales staff then check the result in order to adapt the AI. Difficulties still arise in the clear allocation of material. Andreas explains: “If the customer says mesh, we have to be able to somehow decide whether they mean PVC mesh or PES mesh and in which grammage.”
AI is also used to support programming and in marketing, for example, subtitles are created for short-videos. In both cases, corrections are often necessary, but overall it saves a lot of time.
HOW TO START WITH AI IN YOUR COMPANY
In other words, AI serves as a helpful tool that can simplify routine tasks. Printing companies could start small AI-based projects together to explore the advantages and limitations of AI. A realistic approach to the topic is important in order to reduce employees’ worries about being replaced.
The FUTURE OF THE PRINTING INDUSTRY
We view AI as an opportunity, but not as a self-runner. It supports us in many ways, but would hardly be of any help without the right specialist staff behind it. The expertise of our sales staff is decisive for our quality, and we are guided by this. Nevertheless, we are open to development and want to try out what is possible with AI in the printing industry over time.
For us, the future of AI in printing companies is characterised neither by utopian nor dystopian aspects. In conclusion, we want to focus on what is realistically possible.
You are more interested in AI in the printing industry? In this episode of our Bigital Thinking Podcast, our CEO Eric talks about AI and other topics. Listen now!