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How AI Is Being Used to Assist Commercial Print Clients

Evolving AI tools are changing how commercial print and many other technologies operate. After realizing the advantages, some print partners are trying AI in their current workflow. If you’ve ever wondered how AI is being used to assist commercial print clients, we’re here to explain the processes and how it has become a crucial tool for success.

How Is AI Being Used to Assist Commercial Print Clients?

AI offers commercial print specialists and their clients an easier, faster way to create messaging and various print materials. Specifically, AI is being used to assist commercial print clients by:

While some commercial printers might not use AI, others are utilizing it to speed up their processes and improve the quality of their clients’ print materials. Ultimately, AI can save printers and clients time while improving the quality and consistency of their messaging.

5 Ways Commercial Printers Are Using AI to Assist Clients

Print Estimations and Ordering

AI is a powerful tool in commercial print, especially when it’s combined with strong data. Tracking past and current client ordering habits helps printers prepare for the coming months and organize orders accordingly.

For long-term clients, high-volume print specialists can utilize historical data and order quantities alongside AI tools to determine future print estimates. In larger commercial print production companies, this is incredibly useful for both the printer and the client because it helps allocate time accordingly.

With AI-predicted print estimations and ordering capabilities, the result is faster, more accurate production based on real historical data rather than assumptions.

Prepress and Design

AI can also be used to assist commercial print clients in the prepress and design stage. Tools like Adobe and Canva use integrated AI to help generate edits, remove backgrounds and convert files into something more easily utilized.

For example, if a client wanted to create an ad for multiple restaurant locations with a picture of each location on the corresponding flyer, they might have a manager take a photo or pull it from the website. However, the photo quality may not be consistent across locations. Maybe they would need to edit and convert the file into a more manageable, print-ready file. AI helps do just that.

Another great use of AI in commercial print design is filling in blanks and correcting mistakes. Perhaps a client sent in a file in PDF and either deleted or misplaced the original, but there is a grammatical error that wasn’t caught. Running the file through an AI program could fix the mistake without having to start over from scratch.

Variable Data Printing and Personalization

Variable data printing (VDP) offers a unique way to connect with various customers and personas, even if they have differing locations and ZIP codes. While one message may work for one area, it doesn’t always have the same effect in another. VDP helps bridge the gap between locations and customer needs, and AI helps make the personalization process easier.

EO Johnson Business Technologies mentions how customer analytics, client purchase history and CRM data come together to make VDP a strong tool for businesses. Utilizing these data sets helps to create personalized messages that boost engagement, ROI and overall production speed. AI helps commercial printers and their print clients sift through this information quickly and use it for adaptive messaging.

Instead of having the same message that doesn’t necessarily apply to each individual or area, AI helps VDP become more meaningful in a fraction of the time.

Print and Digital Integration

When companies decide to integrate print and digital marketing, AI can help bridge the gap and create a seamless experience, improving the efficacy of both channels.

Commercial print materials can include scannable QR codes that pull up landing pages that use augmented reality (AR) to improve a customer’s experience. Instead of merely having a traditional landing page, AR capabilities utilize AI to incorporate:

With AI, the sky is the limit when it comes to print and digital integration. If something isn’t possible with traditional 2D prints, AI helps content come alive with AR and other digital capabilities.

Workflow Automation

Lastly, AI can help automate workflows at multiple points in the commercial printing process to speed up timing and consistency for clients. Some of the most useful ways AI can be used in print include:

With automated workflows in place, high-volume commercial printing can streamline processes to become faster and more affordable for clients.

Partner with a Commercial Print Expert

Learning how AI is being used to assist commercial print clients helps give you some insight into how the current print marketing industry is evolving. For clients, it can mean that your end result and the process to get there are improved, whether it’s based on pure quality, speed, consistency or any of the other advantages that new technology brings.

If you’re curious how AI can improve your print materials and campaigns, you can talk with our team at Signature Graphics to see how we use it in our process. We’ll show you how our team works to improve our high-volume commercial printing process and the resulting print materials. Ready to get started?

Talk to a Print Expert Today