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This Week in Imaging: Artificial Intelligence, Katun Arrivia MFPs, and Tariffs are Some of 2024’s Biggest Stories

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As 2024 comes to a close, let’s look at some of the biggest events and trends that happened in the print industry and that are likely to influence 2025 and beyond.

Artificial Intelligence

Overall, AI is likely the most important development for both the office and commercial print Industry.  That’s not to say that the industry hasn’t already been using AI, for instance, with color-matching for commercial-print applications. But this year we saw two notable AI introductions – HP Inc.’s Print AI and Xerox’s AI-Powered AltaLink 8200 MFP series – both of which deploy AI in important new ways, such as correctly formatting printed documents.

In the area of document workflow, AI is also revolutionizing the way documents are processed.

For instance, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is used to convert scanned documents and images into machine-readable text. AI is also being used to automatically sort documents into categories (invoices, contracts, emails) based on content using Natural Language Processing (NLP). It can also extract key details (dates, names, keywords) to automatically tag and organize documents for easy retrieval. All of these can result in saving thousands of man hours in performing these tasks.

AI can also extract certain information from documents, such as invoice amounts and client names from unstructured documents, reducing manual data entry. And it can summarize lengthy documents or highlight key insights, as well as route documents to the correct person or department based on their content or priority.

Tariffs

With the election of President-Elect Trump in November, significant U.S. tariffs may be on the way, ranging from 20 percent, to up to 65 percent for goods from China.

It’s not just hardware like printers and copier/MFPs that could be affected, but raw materials, parts, and supplies such as ink and toner. In the commercial print market, that could also lead to higher production costs for things like newspapers, magazines, and books.

Katun Arrivia MFPs and Fujifilm Expansion

This year was also marked by Fujifilm Business Innovation’s continued expansion into Europe and North America.

We also saw Katun launch its first MFP series, the A3 Arrivia lineup, which is sourced from Fujifilm Business Innovation, and which Katun is distributing through dealers in North America, Latin America, and Western Europe.

Managed Services

Meanwhile, the print industry continues to transition to a revenue model based not on transactions, but on subscription-based services, with OEMs and dealers providing managed print, network, and security services for enterprises. This can include not only managed print services, but:

  • Document Management Services: Providing solutions for capturing, storing, retrieving, and securing digital and physical documents. These services can include document scanning and indexing, and secure cloud storage and retrieval solutions.
  • IT Support and Integration: Providing network configuration and connectivity support;  security for protecting print and scan; and troubleshooting software and hardware issues.
  • Environmental Sustainability Programs: Providing enterprises assistance in reducing their environmental impact. For print, this means helping the organization participate in recycling programs for depleted toner cartridges and old equipment, and advising them in investing in more eco-friendly print solutions.

Meanwhile, some things will probably never change for the print industry, most notably: gradually declining office print volumes, and of course, ever-present speculation on possible consolidation.

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Print Management

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Environment and Sustainability

Fujifilm Business Innovation Awarded EcoVadis Gold for Environmental Sustainability

Commercial and Production Printing

Konica Minolta Partners with Taktiful for Production-Print Digital Embellishment

Acquisitions

Texas Dealer DOCUmation Acquires Popsmart Technologies

Other News

Ricoh Enhancing Industrial Computer, PC Businesses with New Company