AI in the Print Industry: How Smartpress Does (& Doesn’t) Use it
These days, AI is everywhere. But what about AI in the print industry? At Smartpress, we work tirelessly to create the best, easiest, most intuitive print experience there is – and that includes help from AI. (But don’t worry – we’re still all about real human connection! We’re just enhancing it with really cool AI technology.)
To get the most out of AI, we’ve adapted some of our print processes (some, not all) to ensure it not only benefits us, but also our clients, and all while retaining our signature human touch.
Key Takeaways
- How does a printer use AI? At Smartpress, we use it in conjunction with actual humans to smooth out processes and make the print experience the best it can be for our clients.
- AI innovations at Smartpress include using it for things like idea generation, basic graphic design tasks, a customer service chat outside of business hours and automations that aid in the creation of design files.
- Our new digital assistant, Smartpress Intelligence, can help configure your projects, offer product suggestions and provide advice to get you printing faster.
How Does a Printer Use AI?
The idea behind AI is to make our lives easier, faster and clearer. Basically, the goal is to make everything more efficient so we’re not wasting time (and money). Good in theory, but in practice, we need to make sure it’s indeed positive.
At Smartpress, we’re putting AI to good use while keeping many human eyes and hands on your projects – it’s truly the best of both worlds! By blending the ease and precision of AI with our innate spirit of collaboration and care, your projects look super professional and your experience remains super human. See what we mean below.
Pamela Hoffmann, Copywriter
Let the Brainstorming Begin
When it comes to AI and copywriting, it’s all about brainstorming. We use AI to help kick things off and get the creativity flowing. (And by we, I mean me, the person writing this right now. Hi, I’m Pamela, a yoga-doing, tennis-loving vegetarian bookworm.)
Once I have an outline for things like blog articles, Support resources, emails and social posts, AI comes in handy to brainstorm headlines, taglines, SEO keywords and calls-to-action.
And while AI is a great place to start for idea generation, it’s my job to make those ideas my own and write content in a way that makes the most sense for you, our clients. Rest assured, we never use exact ideas from AI – it’s all written by yours truly.
Jeff Barr, Graphic Designer
Simple Design Tasks with AI
With a Creative team of four designers and nearly 55 years of combined experience, we’d be silly to let their expertise go to waste and rely solely on AI. So we don’t! Instead, they blend graphic design and AI for simple, basic tasks that need to be knocked out quickly and require less creativity, like:
- Touching up photos, correcting blemishes and removing unwanted elements
- Extending or adding area to a photo to make it fit a specific aspect ratio
- Generating abstract and organic textures, like marble or woodgrain that are used as backgrounds instead of a flat color
For everything else, our Creative connoisseurs take the reigns. They design Smartpress’ marketing assets to showcase our products in the best light (literally), as well as interior decor and exterior signage. They truly put the “create” in creative.
And while they design both digital and print assets, they love print the most. Why? There’s a final, tangible product at the end – their creations actually become real! (Very cool, then, that they work for a printer, am I right?)
John Schmanski, Account Executive
The Case Against Using AI in Sales
When we talk about AI in the print industry, and Smartpress specifically, there’s one area we purposefully keep AI-free: Sales. The amount of print knowledge our Sales team has simply can’t be beat – even by AI. These people live and breathe print, and because of that, your print projects result in an ROI you can count on.
We pride ourselves on the fact that when you want to talk to your rep, you can. Your questions and feedback go straight to them with no digital middleman. And for those times when you really just need to talk to them face to face, our video consultation option lets you do it. Whatever your print needs, they’re happy to hash it out. Seriously.
See all the ways real humans are still involved in your print project.
Hailey Stoick, Customer Experience Manager
Jami Dixon, Customer Experience Specialist Team Lead
AI at Your (Customer) Service
At Smartpress, world-class customer service is one of our core values. So when it comes to incorporating AI, we’re very strategic about it – and much of it will always be human-based so you get the care and personalized attention you deserve.
Our customer service team members go through an eight-week training program centered on our print process, online chats and written communication, as well as phone etiquette and shadowing a team lead or manager for more insight and advice.
So where do you find AI in customer service at Smartpress? With Pressy, our more helpful, bluer version of a certain paper clip you might remember… He’s your go-to outside of business hours and can answer questions about things like panel sizes, paper stocks and what to expect with your order. He’s even a research assistant for our team when they don’t know something off the top of their heads. He’s nice like that.
Staying Analog in the Activity Log
And speaking of human-to-human communication, your Smartpress Activity Log is exactly that. No matter where your order is in the print process, we provide customer support throughout it all, and it’s all from our actual experts.
When you respond to notifications in your Activity Log, one of our team members reads it and takes action. (Eventually, Pressy may be involved in these communications – but for now, you can only find him on some product pages and during non-business hours.)
Jody Frahm, Prepress Technician
Behind-the-Scenes Automation
AI plays a role in our prepress process, too. While there’s a whole team of humans preparing your design file, we use AI and automation to create an even more precise process and better results for you.
Our team of experts works their magic on your design file, interpreting your work and ensuring it’s technically correct. To help do that, they use automations like a pre-flight check that reviews image resolution, fonts and file corruption and a post-flight check that makes sure your file is a PDF with high resolution images in the CMYK color space with bleed. Wow.
Not to mention AI can reformat mailing lists and export them to usable formats. All essential when you print online at Smartpress. So how can AI be used in printing? One part of the answer is prepress.
Print Smarter with Smartpress Intelligence
To make your experience in our online print shop even easier, we’ve developed our very own AI assistant called Smartpress Intelligence. This handy tool can help you configure your products and get you printing even faster. Just tell it what you need, and it’ll offer suggestions to get you the best results.
For example, say you’re a cafe owner and need some outdoor signage for promoting your menu and specials. Smartpress Intelligence will then provide recommendations for formats, materials, sizes and more. It’ll even help you configure all of those specs to place your order.
“Smartpress Intelligence gives our customers the freedom to self-guide their product selections, configurations and see immediate pricing quotes,” said Smartpress Vice President Matt Chapman. “This launch doesn’t change our core belief in world-class, human-centered customer service. It simply frees up more time for our teams to provide personalized service to clients.”
Get the Best Print Experience at Smartpress
As a company that’s constantly moving forward, we’re excited to adapt and change with the latest technology – as long as it benefits both our employees and clients. And by keeping up with AI in the print industry, we’re doing just that. Start experiencing our thoughtful blend of innovation and personalized service with your next print project.
