Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Nonstop Digital Production Are the Highlights of Dscoop Edge Rockies
Artificial intelligence and automation are no longer distant promises in the print industry. At the Dscoop Edge Rockies event, held from March 8 to 11 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center near Denver, Colorado, it became clear that digital printing is going through a major turning point. The gathering brought together professionals, suppliers, and industry experts to discuss exactly where digital production stands today and, more importantly, where it is headed. The answer came through loud and clear across every session.
The message that echoed through every keynote, technical session, and hallway at the event was straightforward: printing is no longer about having the best machine. It is about having the best system. Label and packaging converters are being pushed, and increasingly equipped, to completely rethink how they produce. The workflow that begins with a digital file and ends with final product delivery needs to be connected, intelligent, and as automated as possible. This is no longer theory. It is what is happening right now on production floors around the world 🌍
In this landscape, three forces are shaping the present and future of digital production:
- Automation eliminating bottlenecks and repetitive manual tasks
- Artificial intelligence making real-time decisions within production
- End-to-end integration connecting every step of the process
If you work in printing, labels, packaging, or production technology, what was presented at Dscoop Edge Rockies deserves your attention. The digital future is not on its way. It has already begun.
From Presses to Complete Production Systems
For years, the conversation in the print industry revolved around equipment. Which press delivered the best quality? Which ink technology lasted the longest? Which manufacturer had the most complete portfolio? Those questions still matter, of course, but they are no longer the center of the conversation. Dscoop Edge Rockies made that evident from day one: the competitiveness of a digital printing operation today is measured by the intelligence of the workflow, not just the power of the hardware. And that is a turning point many companies are still processing.
HP Indigo brought this shift to life in a very concrete way with the concept it calls nonstop digital printing. According to Meny Gantz, head of market development at HP Indigo, the term has moved beyond being just a marketing expression and has turned into something tangible on the production floor over the past year.
Gantz explained that the company is taking a holistic approach, covering everything from file to finishing and, in many cases, all the way to delivery. The core idea is to enable production that is continuous, predictable, and scalable. For converters, this means digital printing is no longer just a supplement to analog processes — it is becoming the backbone of an increasingly automated workflow.
The logic taking hold is simple in theory but demanding in practice. Every stage of production — from receiving the customer file to final product packaging — needs to be connected and, whenever possible, running autonomously. Automation enters the picture here not as a luxury or a differentiator for large companies, but as an operational necessity for any converter looking to maintain healthy margins in an increasingly competitive and demanding market. When repetitive tasks are removed from human hands, professionals are free to tackle problems that genuinely require judgment and creativity.
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What became clear at the event is that this transition is already underway in operations of varying sizes around the world. It is not just large corporate print shops investing in this direction. Mid-size and even small converters are finding ways to implement automation at specific stages of the process, generating real efficiency gains without necessarily needing a full-scale overnight revolution. The movement is gradual but consistent, and those still waiting to get started are building up a disadvantage that could be hard to recover from down the road.
Artificial Intelligence on the Production Line
If automation was already on the radar of most professionals at Dscoop Edge Rockies, artificial intelligence applied directly to the production line was the topic that sparked the most debate and curiosity. And the distinction here matters: we are not talking about AI as an abstract concept or a marketing tool. We are talking about algorithms that analyze data in real time during printing, identify color variations, automatically adjust parameters, and reduce waste before the operator even notices something is off spec. This is AI working inside the production process, not around it.
In practice, AI is being used on presses to replace tasks that previously depended entirely on highly experienced operators — from color matching to defect detection. Gantz was blunt in explaining that, instead of relying on someone with years of industry experience to perform that kind of verification, the machine now does it automatically, pointing to the embedded inspection and quality control capabilities.
This advancement arrives at a particularly sensitive time for the industry. Across the entire labels and packaging sector, labor challenges remain serious. Experienced operators are retiring and fewer young people are entering the field. Gantz acknowledged this difficulty, stating that finding someone, training them for months, and then retaining them is extremely hard. That is why HP Indigo is developing tools that allow new operators to get up to speed much faster while maintaining consistent results.
The practical application of this technology in digital print production solves one of the industry’s oldest and most expensive problems: inconsistency. In long runs or in productions with high substrate variability, maintaining color fidelity and consistent quality has always been a challenge. With artificial intelligence models trained to recognize patterns and act on them, that dependency drops significantly. The system learns from every job, accumulates data, and becomes more accurate over time, creating a continuous improvement curve that benefits the entire operation.
Beyond quality on the press, AI is being used to optimize production planning. Tools like the HP NEO platform were designed to analyze production data in real time, helping converters identify inefficiencies, optimize scheduling, and improve equipment utilization — tasks that previously required weeks of manual analysis. For operations handling dozens or hundreds of jobs per day, this kind of optimization can deliver a significant reduction in setup time, material consumption, and rework, directly impacting the bottom line 💡
The result is a shift toward what can be described as intelligent production, where data and automation increasingly guide decision-making on the production floor.
HP Indigo Digital Portfolio: Understanding the Options
For converters evaluating investments in digital printing, HP Indigo showcased its expanding portfolio at Dscoop, reflecting the increasingly diverse range of applications and entry points for digital production. Gantz detailed three main platforms for labels and packaging:
- HP Indigo 6K+ — A narrow-web press designed for short-to-medium run label production, offering broad substrate compatibility and high productivity for conventional digital applications.
- HP Indigo V12 — A high-speed platform based on LEPX technology, aimed at medium-to-long run production. It was designed to complement flexography by absorbing a wider range of jobs with digital capabilities.
- HP Indigo 200K — A mid-web press primarily positioned for flexible packaging, but increasingly used for large-format labels and hybrid applications.
Rather than completely replacing conventional technologies, these platforms are being integrated into hybrid production environments. Gantz emphasized that the V12, for example, does not compete directly with flexography — it complements it. It allows converters to shift more jobs to digital while freeing up flexo capacity for the longest and most repetitive runs.
This hybrid approach is becoming increasingly common as converters seek to balance efficiency, flexibility, and production capacity in the face of a growing SKU mix.
Labels and Flexible Packaging Lead the Growth
While digital adoption continues to advance across various segments, labels and flexible packaging stood out at Dscoop as the primary growth drivers. Gantz stated that these two segments are growing significantly, with more and more customers adopting digital printing because of market trends — more SKUs, personalization, and faster delivery requirements.
Shorter product life cycles, greater variation in product lines, and the rise of emerging brands are all contributing to this shift. In many cases, digital printing is enabling converters to deliver high-quality, highly differentiated packaging in volumes that would be inefficient or impractical with traditional processes.
Flexible packaging, in particular, represents what Gantz described as a largely untapped opportunity. He was emphatic in saying that the market has barely scratched the surface of flexible packaging in digital. At the same time, visual and functional expectations for labels continue to rise, driven by brands seeking shelf impact and consumer engagement.
Economic Pressures Put Efficiency Front and Center
The push toward automation and AI also reflects a broader economic reality that was discussed at the event. During a keynote presentation, economist Taylor St. Germain noted that while global growth remains steady at around 3%, uncertainty — fueled by factors such as tariffs, inflation, and geopolitical tensions — continues to weigh on business investment.
For converters, cost pressures are mounting. Labor costs are expected to rise significantly in the coming years, while energy and material costs remain volatile. As a result, profitability will depend less on volume growth and more on operational efficiency.
St. Germain was direct in stating that you cannot rely on pricing alone — you need to find ways to be more efficient. That message resonated throughout the event, reinforcing the importance of automation, data-driven decision-making, and optimized workflows.
End-to-End Integration: The Link That Ties Everything Together
There is no point in having automation at some stages and artificial intelligence at others if those pieces do not communicate with each other. This was one of the most repeated points during Dscoop Edge Rockies: real efficiency only shows up when the entire workflow is integrated. From order entry to invoicing, through file preparation, approval, printing, finishing, and shipping, every step needs to feed the next one with clean, structured, and accessible data. When that happens, the system as a whole gains a collective intelligence that no standalone tool can deliver.
End-to-end integration also has a direct impact on the end customer experience. When the workflow is connected, it becomes possible to offer real-time traceability, automatic deadline confirmations, proactive alerts in case of issues, and even personalization at scale — one of the great promises of digital production that is now starting to become an operational reality. This shifts the customer conversation from a transactional relationship to one built on trust, data, and transparency, something that carries increasing value in competitive markets.
For the converters at the event, the message was clear: investing in integration is not an IT project. It is a strategic business decision. Companies that manage to connect their systems, train their teams to work with data, and adopt a mindset of continuous improvement driven by information will be in a much stronger position in the years ahead 🔧
The Digital-First Mindset
Looking ahead, the direction seems well defined. Automation will continue to expand. AI will become even more deeply embedded in production. And digital printing will play an increasingly central role in how converters operate and compete.
For Gantz, the strategic implication is straightforward. He stated that if he were running a label company today, he would take a digital-first approach. That does not mean abandoning conventional technologies, but it signals an important shift in how converters think about investment, workflow, and growth.
The labels and packaging sector, in particular, is at a moment of simultaneous pressure and opportunity. Demand for personalization, sustainability, and agility has never been higher, and meeting those expectations without compromising margins requires exactly the kind of operational intelligence that was discussed in Denver. Efficiency is no longer an administrative goal — it has become a concrete competitive advantage, visible in the numbers and felt by the end customer.
What to Expect Going Forward
Dscoop Edge Rockies was not an event about what might happen in the future. It was a snapshot of what is already happening right now, in real operations, with measurable results. The combination of artificial intelligence, automation, and systems integration is reshaping what it means to be competitive in the digital printing market, and that reshaping is happening at an accelerated pace. Companies that left the event with concrete implementation plans will have a real advantage over those still weighing whether it is worth taking the first step.
The takeaway from the event is this: the technology is available, the use cases are proven, and the tools are increasingly accessible. The transformation of digital print production no longer depends on a technological revolution still to come. It depends on decisions that can be made today, with the resources that already exist, by teams willing to rethink the way they work. At Dscoop Edge Rockies, that change stopped looking like a future possibility — and became a present-day reality 🚀
