What do you feel were the main trends and key industry developments in 2023?
A rise in the pace of digital transformation whether in-house or through broader service offerings. The consolidation driven by changing client needs, mergers and acquisitions and also as print businesses make decisions about who and what they are going to be over the coming years.

How have the continuing economic and market specific challenges affected you and your customers during 2023 – have you had to do anything differently to adapt/react?
Economic, political and market changes are in the most out of our control. I believe whilst the supply chain challenges, rising energy and consumables costs rises of 2022 have been less volatile in 2023 this has also been balanced with building processes to mitigate where possible and set new joint expectations with suppliers and customers alike.

AI (artificial intelligence) has been one of the hot topics of 2023 – what opportunities and threats do you think it poses for print in 2024 and beyond?
In print manufacturing we expect to see the further use of automated and integrated workflows driven by analytics, automation, AI and machine learning but fully integrated. No technology moving forward can be an island. The print industry has at its foundation been built on technology, over many years we have seen new technologies provide new opportunities both in solving challenges but also in leaping forward into new capabilities and services.

These new technologies such as AI should be embraced and controlled as a friend, not an enemy. Our sister company, XMPie showcased a cross media campaign where content was sourced via ChatGPT, automatically localised, personalised and processed into mobile, online and voice. Wow!

What do you expect to be the main trends, key industry developments, and biggest opportunities for printers in 2024?
Companies will continue to embrace broader service offerings that complement the core print production with the customer experience at the forefront of the client engagement, solving challenges, supporting end clients' customers and opening new markets. A great example of this is the work that Go Inspire, a Xerox company, do to go beyond print, supporting the client experience (CX), with data insight and marketing performance leading to significantly higher campaign ROI. When print and digital combine, it can be so powerful – they are truly better together.

ESG and sustainability will continue to be a big play for printers as more and more clients set high expectations of their suppliers to have clear programs and measurements in place to manage their carbon emissions and their social impact in the communities in which they operate.

How can suppliers better help printers navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities in 2024?
To continue to take some of the heavy lifting in market engagement and education, our Genesis Initiative provides a toolkit of learning in business, sales, design and production. It’s not just about supplying technology but connecting with wider business outside, as well as within the print industry.

Our Xerox Genesis Initiative is a good example where we educate designers to get the best out of their campaign designs by using BeyondCMYK capabilities on Xerox products like Versant 280 Adaptive, Iridesse and iGen5, to date over 2,000 designers have passed through this training, and what’s even better, it’s free. More educated designers seek out more capable printers.

Note: This prediction is taken from a special Briefing article in the new issue of Printweek featuring insights from industry suppliers, hence it does not follow the same question template as the other predictions.