The adoption of new technologies has never been so decisive for the survival of a business as it is right now.
And in the printing industry, this reality has hit full force: 85% of print service providers already consider artificial intelligence essential to remain competitive in the market. Another 83% see the technology as a source of new business opportunities.
This is no exaggeration.
These are the findings from the report AI Adoption in the Printing Industry: From Curiosity to Competitive Advantage, published in 2025 by Alliance Insights, the research arm of PRINTING United Alliance.
For a long time, automation and AI were treated as that distant-future conversation — something interesting to keep an eye on, but not quite ready for prime time.
That time is over. 🚀
The printing industry is experiencing a clear divide between those who invested in these tools and those who kept waiting for the right moment to act.
And the gap between the two groups is already showing up directly in profit margins, delivery speed, and the ability to serve clients with more personalization and less rework.
As one participant in Alliance Insights’ State of the Industry Report 2026 put it: companies investing in automation, AI-enabled workflows, and differentiated experiences are improving efficiency and protecting their margins. Meanwhile, those competing solely on price, without operational scale or specialization, will continue facing margin compression.
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But how is this transformation actually playing out in practice? Where is artificial intelligence really being used inside print shops? And why does a portion of the industry still stall when it comes to implementing these solutions?
That is exactly what you are about to find out. 👇
What the report reveals about AI adoption in the printing industry
Automation has been part of the printing and packaging industry for several years, in one form or another. Today, print service providers use software to automate workflows ranging from order entry to finishing. On the equipment side, manufacturers have already embedded automation directly into their machines. All of this in the name of one thing: saving time and boosting efficiency.
Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, emerged more recently than automation, but its capabilities have grown at a remarkable pace — and adoption has kept up. Just like with automation, this growth has been driven by the need to save time and supercharge productivity.
You could say the same about any technological advancement in printing. After all, a machine that produces sheets faster makes a print shop more efficient. But what makes automation — and especially AI — different is that they touch everything, not just the equipment on the production floor or the front office. This has proven especially useful for correcting efficiency imbalances at the operational level.
One report participant summed up the situation well in an interview: the production side has become incredibly efficient, but the front end has not kept up. AI and automation are finally arriving to level the playing field. 📊
Where AI and automation are being applied in printing
One of the major revelations in the report is the diversity of practical applications that artificial intelligence already has within printing operations. And the interesting part is that tasks outside of production are among the most frequently cited areas for AI use.
The numbers speak for themselves:
- 57% of respondents use AI for design and copy generation;
- 38% apply the technology to marketing personalization;
- 26% use AI for customer service through chatbots and virtual assistants.
AI and automation are increasingly intertwined, with artificial intelligence frequently being embedded in software applications to help automate processes. In fact, 16% of report participants say their AI use is tied to production automation, while another 23% cite sales-related tasks — such as automating administrative activities — among the ways they apply the technology.
The direct impact of all this is a reduction in rework and an increase in job approval speed. AI tools can review files, identify errors and inconsistencies in seconds, freeing up professionals to focus on what truly requires a human eye and accumulated experience.
Personalization at scale as a major opportunity
Personalization at scale — one of the biggest challenges in digital printing — is also being supercharged by AI. Systems based on language models and content generation can create variations of printed pieces automatically, adapting text, images, and layouts for different audiences within the same campaign.
This opens a huge window for print shops looking to offer personalized print-on-demand services with much greater agility, without passing on the cost of studio labor hours to the client.
The AI use cases that actually move the needle
Using AI to save time is great, but it is not necessarily the most impactful application. As Amy Servi-Bonner, vice president of PRINTING AI, often says, an AI implementation that does not affect the bottom line is just entertainment. And she is right.
According to the Alliance’s State of the Industry report, AI holds enormous potential in two key areas in particular: trend analysis and forecasting. When it comes to predictive analytics, artificial intelligence can process massive volumes of unstructured data. In other words, print shops can extract insights far more easily from audio files, text, video, and images to make better decisions.
On the forecasting front, AI helps create more accurate projections about customer needs and supply chain conditions. This allows service providers to reduce financial risk in a tangible way.
The rise of AI agents
Looking ahead, AI agents are becoming one of the biggest opportunities for the printing and packaging industry. Greg Tucker, CEO and president of Bay Cities Packaging, sees these agents as a way to support order entry.
According to Tucker, we will soon see agents handling scheduling, and customers’ own agents will be able to see a print shop’s available capacity and place work orders directly into production facilities. It is automation talking to automation, with minimal human friction in between.
Why part of the industry still stalls when it comes to implementation
Even with so many documented benefits, the report also identifies a significant group of companies that have not yet moved forward with adopting these technologies. And the reasons are more common than you might think.
Study participants pointed to a series of challenges that hinder AI implementation. The top ones were:
- 57% cite a lack of internal expertise or training;
- 56% have difficulty identifying where AI can be best utilized;
- 42% simply do not know where to start;
- 22% mention concerns about privacy, security, or compliance;
- 20% point to an unclear or negative return on investment;
- 19% cite inflated expectations around the technology;
- 15% report resistance from employees or leadership itself.
Team resistance to AI is widely reported across all industries, and printing is no exception. It stems from the fear of being replaced and a certain skepticism about the tools’ real effectiveness. But the respondents — ranging from commercial printers to apparel decorators — shared how they overcame that hesitation: by reassuring their teams and showing them firsthand how the technology takes the weight off repetitive and tedious tasks.
One participant described the process well. According to them, the initial resistance came from employees who feared AI would take their jobs or who simply did not understand how to use the tools. Leadership then repositioned AI as a resource to make people faster and better — not something that would make them redundant.
That is exactly the right approach. As AI and automation become an integral part of the printing and packaging industry, the professionals who know the business inside and out will gain more time to apply their expertise, driving a bigger impact on the bottom line. It is that knowledge that keeps print shops running.
Efficiency as a result, not a promise
What the PRINTING United Alliance reports make clear, above all, is that the efficiency delivered by AI and automation in the printing industry is no longer a future promise. It is already being delivered, measured, and reinvested by companies that made the decision to act. Reduced material waste, lower rework rates, faster delivery times, and improved operating margins are concrete results from those already on this journey.
As Amy Servi-Bonner summed up in a webinar earlier this year, AI is a pattern recognition system that is very fast, very literal, and only as good as the information you feed into it. Artificial intelligence does not know your print shop — but you do. And it is precisely in the combination of your knowledge and AI’s speed that all the value lies.
Beyond that, the adoption of artificial intelligence is changing the profile of what print shops can offer. Services that were previously unfeasible because they demanded too much time or specialized labor are now possible with intelligent automation. This expands the portfolio, attracts new types of clients, and opens the door to healthier margins in higher-value segments.
The printing industry is at a moment of redefinition, and the data clearly shows which path the most competitive companies are taking. Artificial intelligence is no longer a differentiator exclusive to large operations — it is accessible, it is working, and it is delivering real results for those who decided to incorporate it into their workflow. The time for just watching from the sidelines is behind us. 📊
