DM1803

TECHNOLOGY: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Dm
"AS WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF ANY NEW TECHNOLOGY INTO A BUSINESS, IT TAKES TIME TO TRULY ASSESS
WHAT MAKES THE MOST SENSE FOR YOUR BUSINESS. YOU MAY CHOOSE, FOR EXAMPLE, TO IMPLEMENT AI TO
AUTOMATE TASKS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY BOTTLENECKS IN THE PRINTING PROCESS - INCREASING THE
BUSINESS' DAILY OUTPUT. ALTERNATIVELY, YOU MIGHT DECIDE TO OFFLOAD SOME OF THE MORE ROUTINE
WORK TO A MACHINE IN ORDER TO ENABLE YOUR TEAM TO FOCUS ON MORE STRATEGIC WORK."
machine can only react to current
scenarios, with no ability to use
experience to inform decisions.
Limited memory - The machine can
make observations about its
environment to inform a decision
i.e. the technology behind selfdriving
cars.
Theory of mind - At this point, AI
becomes more futuristic. To fall into
this category, AI must have the
ability to understand thoughts and
emotions, and use this to react to
the world around it.
Self-aware AI - The most advanced
type of AI and requires the machine
to have its own consciousness,
something that does not exist… yet.
There may be a lot of hype and
speculation around the latter two
categories, but in reality it's the AI
which falls into the 'reactive machines'
and 'limited memory' categories which
the print industry should care about.
This AI has the potential to open up
lucrative new revenue streams for print
businesses by improving the
effectiveness of the end-to-end printing
process, from print job creation through
to continuous production and machine
service optimisations.
WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO
START?
In theory, AI can improve any and every
aspect of the print process, limited only
by the amount of resource (financial,
technological, employee) available to
make this change. As with the
introduction of any new technology
into a business, it takes time to truly
assess what makes the most sense for
your business.
You may choose, for example, to
implement AI to automate tasks that
were previously bottlenecks in the
printing process - increasing the
business' daily output. Alternatively, you
might decide to offload some of the
more routine work to a machine in
order to enable your team to focus on
more strategic work.
There are multiple examples of this in
practice. For example, many printers
have transformed their print process by
utilising software with smart algorithms
that can decipher different document
layouts, such as optimising imposition,
in order to minimise printed waste. This
drives cost savings and is
environmentally beneficial too.
Similarly, those in the business of
printing direct mail and catalogues are
taking advantage of the data they have
available to automatically customise the
content for the recipient, creating more
relevant mailings. This is a small change
but one which can give you the edge
over the competition.
Your starting point could also be as
simple as installing smart software that
has the ability to monitor which presses
are busy and then route new jobs to
available presses on your behalf. Xerox
presses such as the iGen 5 employ
sensors to constantly monitor
themselves and make real-time inprocess
adjustments for paper
alignment and image quality to provide
the best possible printing outcome
without human intervention.
From a maintenance perspective,
today's machines will also connect back
to their supplier - allowing machine
data to be analysed securely, compared
to expected performance and then
adjusted or updated remotely. In the
future, this data could be used to
predict the need for service before the
machine fails.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT IN THE
FUTURE?
Whilst creating real revenue in 2018 is
arguably much more valuable than
speculating over predicted revenue in
2028, the potential for AI to change the
print industry even further is not too far
away. With the rise of digital content,
there is a huge opportunity to leverage
online data to offer much more
personalised print services in the future,
such as creating customised photobooks
by determining a user's favourite
social media images, or synthesising
targeted print catalogues or newsletters
based on what pages the shopper is
looking at.
But in the spirit of coming down to
earth, there is also a very real
opportunity in the here and now to take
advantage of the available software and
kit to bring the benefits of AI to your
business. So what are you waiting for?
Step back, look at your current
processes and see where you could use
this revolutionary piece of technology to
unlock even greater value.
More info: www.xerox.com
www.document-manager.com
March/April 2018
@DMMagAndAwards
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