Labelexpo Americas provided a wide range of educational content that addressed the latest technologies and trends poised to impact the future of the label and package printing industry. From automation and RFID to sustainability, numerous experts took the stage to explore the technologies that could prove beneficial to label converters and suppliers in the years to come.

On September 11, 2024, Katie King, an expert in artificial intelligence, delivered a keynote presentation on, “Harnessing AI ethically in the label industry.” According to King, AI is “the defining technology of our generation.” Her presentation centered on how label companies can implement this technology today to help their businesses grow and evolve.

In many ways, “augmented intelligence” is a better way to conceptualize AI. Common examples include chatbots and smart personal assistants that are often seen in Amazon’s Echo devices and Apple’s Siri. Forms of AI also include robots, IoT sensors, ChatGPT, and DALL-E, to name a few.

“The goal of AI is to take away the finger in the air guesswork about our staff, clients, and work, so augmented intelligence is a better term,” noted King. “We used to guess. Now we’re imitating intelligent human behavior but it’s not sentient and can’t be truly creative. AI comprises all these software-based tools that are a family of data science.”

Visual AI, meanwhile, might include computer vision, augmented reality, and facial recognition. For example, some insurers are starting to use Visual AI to assess damage from vehicle accidents to produce claims.

“Our human brains are incredible, but we don’t speak hundreds of languages,” explained King. “We can’t process the kind of data that AI can because the software is scanning so much data.”

King noted that there will be penalties to missing out on AI implementation. Plus, the common misconception is artificial intelligence will replace humans, whereas they will be redeployed into a business.

“The people who fail to evolve and use these tools are the ones who become redundant,” remarked King. “AI is full of insights and automation; it’s this fourth Industrial Revolution, and we can’t stop it. We have to evolve and go through a change management process to keep track on our industry and competitors.”

In label and packaging companies, AI can be used across the marketing and sales departments. Label companies can use AI for social media copy, website content, AI-generated artwork, and video closed captioning, just as a few examples. AI provides “social listening” to the needs and demands of your customers – and who they are and where to find them, said King.

“AI can be another marketing tool to satisfy customer needs profitably,” she commented. “It allows you to know who your customers are and their requirements, as well as how you can find and communicate with them. However, you still need to be strategic and ask the right prompts.”

AI will serve as the next wave of automation. But it’s important to note we’re not being driven by this technology. Conversely, we need to set the parameters and ask the right questions to truly benefit from its capabilities.

“We need to define the problems we need to solve, along with what tools are out there that can help us achieve our goals,” King emphasized. “You come up with the business plan. There are tools you can use to dramatically save you time, and make you more strategic and personalized.”

For example, AI tools and programs can make the design procedure for labels and packaging autonomous by creating multiple variations of each product design. Compared to a human designer, an AI design tool works quicker and provides better results in less time with minimum instructions. In addition to design, inspection can benefit greatly, as well. AI can be used for inspection and quality assurance to identify defective products to avoid a potential problem. This can create trust and loyalty with customers, and the same for brands with consumers.

“We need to have our clients’ trust and avoid that breaking down,” King acknowledged. “Have a roadmap and map out what change looks like at your company. Define how we might use AI that might require more investment and learn how you might use it to transform the way you run your organization. AI can make mistakes, so a human in the loop is essential. There might be bigger investments, but don’t delay that because your teams could be benefiting from this technology now.”

Creating a playbook for AI might include a definition of objectives and scope; developing use cases; building a team and assigning roles; creating implementation guidelines; ensuring data privacy and ethics; testing and refining the process; measuring the impact; and documenting and sharing best practices with your team.

“A tool doesn’t know our customers and our business, so we need to be strategic about what AI helps us achieve,” concluded King. “If we don’t evolve and use the next wave of tools, then we do get left behind. A marketer stuck in traditional ways of doing things may not thrive and get lots of work. If we want to be essential, we have to adapt. The time to start is now.”