This past year was a transformative one for the printing industry. In the blink of an eye, cutting-edge technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) began integrating into workflows, revamping outputs, and accelerating the pace. Is the industry prepared—and eager—to embrace these disruptive technologies?

Just before we stepped into the new year, Sign Media Canada spoke with Andy Paparozzi, chief economist of PRINTING United Alliance’s research division, Alliance Insights, to explore the forces shaping the future of digital printing. From tech and AI to sustainability efforts and workforce evolution, we delve into the ideas fueling growth.

Sign Media Canada (SMC): What has been the X factor or key trend in the printing industry in 2025, and what drove its growth?

Andy Paparozzi (AP): Uncertainty created by the Donald Trump administration’s tariff policies has been the most significant.

If you know the tariff on product X is going to be Y per cent, you adjust to Y per cent. But it is difficult to adjust to policies that border on the random. The uncertainty created by no-one-knows-what’s-next tariff policies has dampened sales, inflated operating costs, and squeezed margins across the printing industry.

The current PRINTING United Alliance State of the Industry (SOI) Survey shows how far-reaching the effects have been. Through the first three quarters of 2025, and on average, sales increased just 0.6 per cent for the 108 participants to date, growing for just 37.1 per cent. Operating cost inflation outpaced prices increases 4.4 per cent to 2.6 per cent, and real (inflation-adjusted) sales, a measure of production, decreased 2.0 per cent. Trapped between declining real sales and rising costs, pre-tax profitability increased for 24.1 per cent, was flat for 33.3 per cent, and decreased for 42.6 per cent.

Equally telling, more than half of our research panel have or may have decreased or delayed capital investment because of the uncertainty created by tariff policies, and more than four-fifths have absorbed at least part of the tariff-induced increase in operating costs to maintain market share.

SMC: Which new digital printing technologies or workflows are industry professionals embracing most, and how are these innovations changing the industry?

AP: We recently asked SOI participants which capital investments they would most like to make and why. Across printing segments and company-size categories, e-commerce solutions and artificial intelligence (AI) applications ranked high on the most desired lists. (They were first and second, respectively, for graphic and sign producers.)

The primary goal is to increase productivity not just in operations but companywide. E-commerce solutions extend automation directly to the client, eliminating steps and touches for both the company and the client. AI supports automating time-consuming, low-value tasks that could never be automated before, freeing time for activities that create the most value for clients, employees, and the company.

These technologies offer new ways to produce faster, more efficiently, and more profitably, making them essential to sustained success in the increasingly competitive printing industry.

SMC: With technology advancing rapidly, what educational opportunities have seen an uptick?

AP: All things related to AI. Sustained success in the printing industry—regardless of segment, company size, or geographic location—will require knowing how AI can most help my company, integrating AI with core systems and processes, and staying abreast of AI developments.

To that end, PRINTING United Alliance has launched PRINTING AI Consulting Services, headed by Amy Servi-Bonner; published a series of comprehensive reports, including AI Adoption in the Printing Industry: From Curiosity to Competitive Advantage, Artificial Intelligence in the Printing Industry: The Journey Begins, and State of the Industry 2024: The AI/Big Data Revolution; and launched iLEARNING+ courses such as AI and Color Management, Print Meets AI: Simple Tools for Smarter Work, and AI for Image Creators.

SMC: What are North America’s two biggest digital printing opportunities and challenges in 2026?

AP: The biggest opportunities for digital printing are where they have always been: Targeted, personalized communication. What’s new is the amount and variety of data available to support personalization.

We talk about the AI revolution, which is really the AI/big data revolution. Big data includes “structured data,” such as financials and market demographics, “unstructured” data, such as audio files, video files, clients’ web browsing history, blog posts, and tweets, and “semi-structured data” such as the data generated by Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. Conventional spreadsheets and database programs do not handle unstructured data well; AI algorithms do, creating opportunities to personalize communication that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. (The quantity and variety of big data are expanding rapidly because daily activities, from browsing a website to contacting a call centre, leave a data trail.)

Of course, building, managing, and securing these complex databases are significant challenges. All it takes is one breach. Here again, AI algorithms can help by detecting and isolating threats in real time to minimize damage and learning from each threat to better identify the next one. Every company managing client data for any reason should be familiar with these algorithms.

SMC: How is the push for sustainability reshaping the printing industry?

AP: SOI participants included sustainability on their list of next big printing industry disruptors. Currently, 22.7 per cent have a documented sustainability plan with measurable metrics, but if they do as planned, 39.5 per cent will, within one year, and 50.4 per cent will, within three years.

Many see sustainability advancing from a regulatory requirement to an opportunity to distinguish themselves by building a brand of environmental stewardship that is particularly appealing to younger clients and employees.
A representative comment: “Helping reuse and recycle our waste materials boosts employee morale, helps the environment, and is also good marketing material. It’s a win all around!”

Others speak frankly about the costs and challenges of sustainability: “There are no economic benefits. Only added costs.” Interruptions of current workflows are cited most frequent, followed by the cost of eco-friendly materials and processes, not knowing how to get started, a lack of technical knowledge and training, and concern about the performance of sustainable inks and materials.

All, however, recognize that social pressures and environmental policies such as extended producer responsibility “will continue to put pressure on our industry.”

SMC: How significant is AI in the printing industry, and what impact is it having?

AP: AI is transformative. AI is not change on the margin—it is structural change that redefines what’s possible and how what’s possible gets done.

How significant is it? We put it this way in the recent SOI Report: “No company in our industry—no matter how successful or established—will excel without cultivating the skills and culture required by the age of AI and big data, understanding the unprecedented nature and capabilities of the analytic tools the age is creating, knowing the power, limitations, and risks of those tools, and knowing how to apply them companywide.”

AI applications can enhance every mission-critical function from prospecting to quality control to cybersecurity, and as mentioned, increase productivity companywide by automating time-consuming, low-value tasks we could never automate before.

So far, SOI participants are using AI primarily for content creation. But they plan to expand usage significantly over the next year, with the biggest increases in operations, customer analytics, sales, customer service, risk management, and cybersecurity.

AI is complex, so it is essential to conduct thorough due diligence and follow essential steps such as defining clear and measurable objectives; evaluating AI applications in terms of training and support, integration with current business intelligence systems, and data requirements; explaining to employees why AI, why now, and how it will help them be more productive; and evaluating the employee experience with AI: Is it helping them work more effectively? If not, why not?

More printing company owners and executives are recognizing the significance of AI, with comments such as these increasingly common in our state of the industry research: “You can’t sit on the sidelines with regard to AI because it is going to fundamentally change our business, so make sure you are learning about it. It isn’t going away,” and “The big winners in our industry will master AI at all levels of the company.”

SMC: What’s the one thing you’re most excited about as you look forward to a new year in printing?

AP: I am excited by the number of SOI participants embracing a critical lesson from the turmoil of 2025: Moving forward during extreme uncertainty is risky, but sitting still and waiting for clarity is even riskier.

Most are moving forward with their business plans and priorities, capital investment supporting productivity, automation, production speed, product expansion, and promotional campaigns.

They are not rushing into anything. They know the gamut of opportunity in the printing industry is expanding, but the margin for error is shrinking. They conduct thorough due diligence, rigorously evaluate opportunities, and manage risk. They are considering not just the cost of investing but also the cost of not investing. And they are asking what they will do better in 2026 than they did in 2025 because in the increasingly competitive printing industry, you are either moving ahead or falling behind—there is no longer a third option.

SMC: What’s one futuristic printing idea you’d love to see realized in the next five years—even if it sounds far-fetched?

AP: AI-driven smart robotics. Advances in AI, the IoT, wireless networks, and computing power are driving advances in robotics that will transform manufacturing. Where robots once performed a single routine task, smart robots can automate processes from quality control to fulfillment, perform an expanding range of complex activities, move independently through production environments, and communicate with humans through voice, text, and gestures—all the while learning as they do.

Humanoid smart robots such as collaborative robots (cobots), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and machine vision robots will work alongside humans in shared work environments, moving freely, navigating obstacles, and defining their paths in real time in even complex environments without human intervention, increasing productivity and easing the printing industry’s chronic labour shortages.

SMC: Flashback to 10 years ago: What was the most significant disruption then, and how much has it changed how we print today?

AP: Diversification was the biggest disruptor. It took two forms.

First, printers began adding non-print services such as mailing, fulfillment, database management, web page design, and 1:1 customized marketing programs that combined print and electronic communication. They got involved in their clients’ work earlier, stayed involved longer, and satisfied a broader range of their communications needs, expanding their goal from reproducing an image on a substrate to helping clients communicate more effectively with their clients, in print or otherwise.

Second, printers began to expand beyond their primary printing segment. PRINTING United Alliance calls this “convergence.” Boundaries between who does what, how, and for whom broke down as everyone got into everyone else’s business, increasing opportunity but also increasing competition.

Nearly 70 per cent of SOI participants have diversified beyond their primary market. Among the commercial printers, 67.0 per cent have diversified into graphic and sign (wide-format) production, and 25.2 per cent into promotional product imprinting. Among graphic and sign printers, 43.0 per cent have diversified into commercial printing, and 21.0 per cent into promotional product imprinting. Among apparel decorators, 53.8 per cent have moved into promotional product imprinting and 32.3 per cent into graphic and sign production.