What do you feel were the main trends and key industry developments in 2023?
The continued challenge and aging industry and the ability to attract talent. The raising costs of people, materials and energy, the continued drive to higher levels of automation and the emergence of actionable insights and AI starting to appear in the industry.

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?
2023 in many ways was the reset of the new normal. Coming out of Covid we saw a huge resurgence in our customers' businesses and record numbers in many areas. 2023 took a slight step back but was still well above the Covid years but still increasing costs across the board. It has meant investment in automation, diversification, and acquisitions for many of our customers.

What do you expect to be the main trends, key industry developments, and biggest opportunities for printers in 2024?
Trend towards more remote or hybrid work in the front office driven by the need for greater flexibility and the challenges to hire skilled people. This shift enabled by technology and coupled with the arrival of more automation, actionable insight, API integrations and AI will continue to change the landscape. Mailing will continue to be a key part of the printing market and POP/instore and fulfilment/campaigns in support of regionalisation will continue to grow.

What are your hopes and expectations for Drupa 2024?
After eight long years I hope to see the largest attendance ever. We are seeing trade shows are back, they're relevant and people are attending. We are just coming off an amazing Printing United here in the US and I think Drupa will be even bigger and more international. I expect more than ever the focus to be more about software and efficiency that reduces touchpoints, automates process, and drives actionable insights than the hardware heavy shows of the past.

AI has been one of the hot topics of 2023 – what opportunities and threats do you think it poses for print in 2024 and beyond?
One of the biggest challenges our industry faces is the aging out of the brains [we] trust. We have so many wonderful, intelligent, and valuable employees that are retiring and the challenge is where do we find the next generation? I see AI as a complement to the skills of the employee and the ownership. Through the incorporation of AI in many parts of our business, it [leaves the skilled and knowledgeable people] to explore, research and develop the business in areas that they otherwise wouldn’t have time or money to spend on what comes next. And what comes next is more print, different print, creative and engaging print that will provide a long future for this industry.

How can suppliers better help printers navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities in 2024?
It starts with understanding the business. We as suppliers, vendors, partners will never know as much about their business as they do. Each business is unique in the people they employ, the machines they run, the products they produce and the markets they serve. Consulting and understanding that while helping them develop a three to five-year plan for the business and what new opportunity that they want or could seize with the right tools, technology and, most importantly, best practices. While each business is unique, there are a lot of learnings we can leverage from the literally thousands of customers we have with similar businesses, similar challenges and similar hopes and dreams for their business.

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.