FuturePrint Podcast
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FuturePrint Podcast
#264 2025 in Focus : Industry Shifts & Strategic Insights with Keypoint Intelligence
The print industry stands at a transformative junction in 2025, facing challenges that demand innovative solutions and strategic thinking. Keypoint Intelligence CEO Anthony Sci takes us deep into the forces reshaping print businesses worldwide, offering valuable perspective on navigating these turbulent waters.
Tariffs dominate the current business landscape, with increases ranging from 5-25% creating widespread uncertainty. Yet amid this disruption, Sci identifies a silver lining - companies are developing leaner approaches and embracing technological solutions to overcome economic hurdles. Strategic partnerships have proliferated as manufacturers seek cost efficiencies, with major collaborations between print giants reflecting a fundamental shift in how the industry approaches production challenges.
Perhaps most striking is the accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence across the print ecosystem. Despite its growing prevalence, Sci reveals that approximately 80% of companies still lack formal AI policies - a significant vulnerability as employees independently leverage these tools. The convergence of AI with robotics presents particularly promising solutions to the industry's persistent labor shortage, especially as companies struggle to attract younger generations to print careers.
While traditional print segments continue their gradual decline, specific niches shine brightly. Labels, packaging, and textiles represent substantial growth opportunities, with digital transformation still in early stages across these sectors. China and India lead in textile innovation, while cross-regional knowledge exchange drives advancement throughout the global market.
Looking ahead, industry consolidation appears inevitable after years of competitive pressure that has steadily eroded profits. For business leaders, success will depend on embracing emerging technologies, preparing for structural changes, and developing creative approaches to talent acquisition.
Ready to gain deeper insights into print industry trends? Connect with Keypoint Intelligence and FuturePrint at upcoming events including LabelExpo Barcelona, Printing United and FuturePrint Industrial Print in Munich to explore how these developments might impact your business strategy.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Well, hi there and welcome to this week's podcast from Futureprint, and I'm really pleased to do something a little bit different. We're kind of halfway through the year 2025. It's funny, you always kind of say big year, but it's, you know, it's a 2025 significant year. Wanted to get someone who could give us a real bit of insight into what's been happening and what they see happening. Very, very pleased to have Anthony Ski with me. He is the CEO of Keypoint Intelligence. These guys are a partner of Futureprint. We're really pleased to be working closely with them. Anthony will explain a little more. Anthony, great to speak to you. Thank you for giving us your time.
Speaker 2:Very sure. Thank you for having us A real pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, anthony. Just for anyone who doesn't know Keypoint Intelligence, you've really raised the profile of this organization in the last year or so. Yeah, I think people are probably starting to kind of go, yeah, kind of see them around a lot. So give us a little bit of a story around Keypoint, what you do, what key markets you're in, and then we'll talk more about print industry and what's going on in that space, anthony.
Speaker 2:That sounds great. Thank you, frasier. So Keypoint Intelligence has been around around. Next year will be 65 years, so a long time formulated from two companies Buyers Lab and InfoTrends. So Buyers Lab was the testing lab, with VLIQ InfoTrends analysis and consulting. So the company has definitely changed. I've been president CEO for four years now Been in the industry my whole life, so I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's just what it is. Started as a coffee or salesperson in New York City and worked in a unique balance of dealers for the first half of my career, and then I had executive positions at Xerox and Sharp and also came here, like I said, four years ago. You know, I think we focus on a motto is to really solve business challenges of customers, and we do that with our analysts, our subject matter experts and our industry-wide tools, and I think what we really try to do is give clarity to complex business solutions and issues that customers have, and so those are really like what we do and there's various ways that we do those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I guess you know obviously we're focusing a little bit on the print space and industry generally. Just for clarity, you mentioned yourself that you're in certain segments particularly. Give us a little flavor of the areas that particularly you are focused on and maybe you're interested in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think for us we have five core areas. So we call it data or platforms. So that's our BLIQ. We have an e-commerce platform and then we have a CPQ tool called QuoteIQ, e-commerce, one is called U-verse and BLIIQ people have been using for a long, long time. Then we have our lab. So a lot of people come to our lab for many reasons, right, if they're launching a product after their R&D tested it to make sure that that is good. So we have awards line of the years. But we do competitive analysis. We make sure that the statements that manufacturers make live up to that. So verification, we do a lot of those things. But overall the lab is always busy. It's interesting. Over the last couple of years we've gotten into robotics.
Speaker 2:So that was very interesting for us to shift a little bit into robotics, looking at SCAR products, 6-access and a bunch of other things. So our labs are doing that. There are two labs, one in the United States and one in the UK. That is it. A lot of people might not know this, but we are a global company, right? So we have two offices in the United States, in New Jersey and Massachusetts, and we also have offices in the UK Amsterdam and Tokyo.
Speaker 2:So, we do a good Y and it's interesting, our split of people ask me this all the time of business is probably almost 50-50, maybe 60-40 US to overseas, but it is an interesting dividing line between Europe and Asia that we do almost as much as we do in the United States. I think for us those are the core elements of what we do. We have advisory, which are the subject matter analysts. Then you are asking areas, so we do labels and packaging, we do format, we do production right. We do all of the elements. Right now, textiles is big, so we're big into textiles, and that opens up a whole bunch of geography between china, india, other areas of the world that we focus on too yeah, and, as as you mentioned, um you know, broad across the globe um certainly certainly getting more high profile in europe than perhaps previously, which is good news.
Speaker 1:So let's just look at this year so far and give us a bit of a feeling in terms of where we are halfway through the year. What are the standout shifts? Are there any trends that you've observed? If you were picking sort of two or three things, what would they be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think the top thing has to be tariffs, right.
Speaker 2:That's something that everyone is talking about and I think our industry, like any industry, when there's uncertainty in the economy and we don't know what that all means when it all is finalized and finished but I think people, put you know, are hesitant to spend because they don't know what the future looks like. So I think for any company right now and I've talked a lot in a lot of different industries, we have that right there's a head that's a hesitancy of what is going to happen. One of the things that we're known for are our forecasts and trends, so we put a lot of information out on tariffs and how it's affected people and industries, and I think that we really do try to stay on top of it. We are very fortunate that we have great relationship with manufacturers, dealers. We get different perspectives on things and I think that's an important element when you're really trying to give people some clarity in an uncertain time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that makes an awful lot of sense, and also drilling down a bit or absorbing some of the cost, how it affects their clients, which are the distributors or dealers, how they're affected, how those dealers and distributors' clients are affected.
Speaker 2:So I don't think there's one set answer, fraser. I think it's really dependent on manufacturers of what they want to do. We have seen tariff increases anywhere from 5% to 25% in different areas and different industries. So it really has had an impact and I think it will start to settle down as all of these deals are finalized and we're getting there and I think you know the bigger countries getting that down right, like China finalizing that it was just extended by another 90 days. So I think once we get finalization or, you know, get finalized on those, I think people will start feeling like, ok, this is the impact on those.
Speaker 1:I think people will start feeling like okay, this is the impact. Just out of curiosity, do you sense that there's any positivity from this? Is there going to be? You know, as you just said, it'll settle, and I think you're right, it will settle soon. But does it help in any way? Is there, you know, can?
Speaker 2:I ask you, is the US feeling a positive impact to this? Or you know, are people making decisions in a different way globally that might make them more strategic with their? You know the way they invest, for example. Can you see any sort of sense that it's a positive? Yeah, I think. Listen, for the United States, if you look at it from a business perspective, right, it has generated billions and billions of dollars. Right, and what that means and at what cost is that to whom? Right is being absorbed as we speak? Right, but I think, from a business perspective, I see more and more and you can think about this with all of these strategic partnerships going on within our industry. Right, I think you know originally, you know you just saw Xerox and Lexmark, right, xerox and Kyocera with the inkjet. Canon just signed on a strategic partner for MSPs, fuji and Konica.
Speaker 1:You have the.
Speaker 2:Riko, toshiba, oki, you know Atera partnership. So I think people are leveraging production because production is so expensive so I think more and more of the production consolidation and, I think, overall cost consolidation and that cost consolidation is not just tariffs. That's been going on for a while.
Speaker 1:So you so, in a way you're kind of saying, this might, um, you know, sort the wheat from the chaff a little bit, you know, in terms of kind of some leaner approaches to business, some, you know, maybe just as kind of tweaking that could be beneficial.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely think that whenever there is an economic challenge, there's positives that come out of it.
Speaker 2:And I think people become more efficient, because they have to, because costs are going up and looking at ways to leverage technology. I think that's why you're seeing such an amazing amount of AI, not just in our industry worldwide, and more and more people are using AI in our industry. I think it's funny because we have adopted AI right. We have adopted AI for over the last two years. We've been doing it with IT for a lot longer, but now we do AI consulting and we're talking to more and more manufacturers and distributors of their overall plan.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you something interesting, fraser I was just at meetings and I talked to a bunch of people and probably 80% of companies do not have an AI policy, which just blows me away, because you have to think the employees are using it and the company would be liable for anything that they put out. That could be a hallucination from AI. So we set up AI policies and then we do AI assessments for what way AI can be best used in your organization and I will tell you it's the fastest growing industry and segment of our business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's interesting to hear. So I mean, yeah, there was a sense that it was kind of a trend, a topic, but actually what you're saying now is no, this is serious. This is happening and individuals are making use of it. Companies are catching up.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I think it's a very interesting trend. I think, you know, it's so funny in regions of the world, right? So I think the US is probably. You know US and China are leading the way with AI.
Speaker 2:I think Europe is there. I did a speaking engagement, fuji had me there and it was lukewarm the amount of people that even had interest in AI. But now when you look at six months later, all of a sudden it's like, hey, we can't bury our head in the sand anymore. This is real, and I think what you're going to see is technology changing industries, because AI and robotics is probably one of the hottest mixtures today and I think when you deal with our industry, you have labor shortages and can the labor shortages be solved by technology? And I have had a lot of conversations about robotics and the production space and printers and how that whole industry evolves yeah, no, I think you're right.
Speaker 1:so so just putting ai and maybe robotics to the side, is anything else that you sense, uh, has occurred in the first six months, or is there anything else that business leaders are saying to you that you've kind of thought I, I didn't think of that, that wasn't necessarily on my radar. Is there anything else?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know so much that it surprises us but the amount of technology for efficiencies, especially in workflows. I think one of the biggest things is many companies might have five or six different platforms to get information from and they don't talk together.
Speaker 2:So the issue is that it becomes inefficient, and we've worked with more and more companies about making the workflow of their organization efficient, and a lot of people don't even know that Keypoint does that efficient, and a lot of people don't even know that Keypoint does that. So Keypoint, I think, has the reputation of being or we have the reputation of being, the BLIQ, the testing lab, and we'll do some consulting work, but we have developed some really good platform tools that have helped companies with efficiencies, and I think that's where companies really are focused now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I think you could put that also in that pot, couldn't you to say, business efficiencies, sort of lean approach to what they do? Yeah, could be one of those things. Yeah, okay, that's quite interesting, as you mentioned yourself. You know, obviously you hear these things. Are you being specifically asked to look at these topics? You know, are customers coming to you and saying can you do adapt your offering to navigate what are potentially changes to the business environment?
Speaker 2:definitely right. So we have a whole consulting business and that consulting business. That's all they do is bring up ideas from customers, either voice of the customer. I want to get to a new region of the world. I'm thinking of going into this.
Speaker 2:I'd like to get surveys of clients, competitive clients and get some feels of what's going on and I think as an organization we have totally adapted and I want to give my employees the biggest shout out there is possible because we have made a shift in who we are as an organization, and I think, a big shift right. Europe was always there for us, but we did an acquisition two years ago in Amsterdam that really has helped our base. We hired a leader in Europe and other outlets to really focus on different regions of the world. So we had to step up as an organization and make sure that we're there for our clients' needs worldwide.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just before we finish this particular point, I'm just interested in what you've just said. Are there any particular geographic differences? Um, obviously, you know, europe and usa probably are quite similar. China is there anything particular that you would say, oh, you know, china's doing something differently at the moment? Or Southeast Asia, or Japan, or the Middle East, or Africa. Is there anything else that you're spotting at all?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think different regions of the world specialize in different areas, right, of course. Yeah, so I do think that in China and India, textiles are part of what they do right, styles are part of what they do right. I think that it piques the interest of the United States and Europe to what they're doing, how they're doing it, how they're being successful. Conversely, china and India want to understand how to penetrate Europe and the United States, how to penetrate Europe and the United States. So I think what we're finding is we are that consultant of what's the best way to penetrate markets, how to do it, how to get into it. We've talked to many companies about strategic partnerships, which I think is such a big element today, because production is so expensive and to start something from scratch is so expensive and doing these strategic partnerships I think you're seeing more and more of these worldwide yeah, yeah, I mean you know, without a doubt, the power of collaboration is significant.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know we're we're, you know we're pleased that you guys work with us, um, but obviously you can see, as you yourself, other big organizations within the print segment, packaging segment. They're doing partnership deals to collaborate. They can see the value in it. Shared insight is valuable. Do you see any others? Are there other possible deals being done? Do you think there's something out there, one mixing with another? Anything you foresee in the next six months that might be exciting on the sort of landscape?
Speaker 2:I don't know if Everybody has talked about consolidation, I'll talk about it in the print industry and same with the labels and packaging for a long, long time. I don't know if we haven't really seen a true consolidation other than Xerox buying Lexmark, right, but I do think that at a point and we've been talking about this a long time and I think it's actually getting closer and closer You're going to see some major manufacturers come together, because you know the problem with the industry right has been for a long time is that there is a lot of competitiveness and with competitiveness drives down profits, and that has been going for a long, long time. And when you have large scale organizations, right, they have made cuts in employees, right, which is, you know, sad to see but a necessity to keep the business going. And I think that you know you have to do some kind of consolidation in that. And I do think within I don't know six months, but I can see within the next year one or two of those happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean interesting talking around this sort of subject. Obviously there's been a lot of talk around Lander and what's gone on there and the possibility that someone like HP might buy his business there certainly is. It feels like a bit of a shakeup. It's always in this kind of period of the drooper cycle that there is this sort of in between the cycle. There is something going on. I guess we've got in the next few months. We've got Label Expo taking place Now. The packaging and labels market is doing quite well. It's quite a healthy market and you know there's a decent amount of new technology. People like Domino are launching things. There's quite a lot in the digital space in that area. Are you observing stuff in that space?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. So we'll have three people at label expo in barcelona. So that is something that is near and dear to our heart and I think that you know we do a lot. It's very interesting. We do consulting work in labels and packaging, of just new areas that people are looking into. I still think it's funny like the whole digitalization of labels and packaging has not taken place. Right, if you look, it's still the percentages of that. So I think there's ways to go, but I do think you know, like, labels and packaging and textiles are two of our biggest growth areas. So, to your point, right, the print might be a little bit, you know, not growing and declining, and maybe a little bit more than a little bit, but the reality of it is, when you look at labels and packaging, you look at areas and we come out with four different areas of folding and corrugated and packaging and all of these reports that we put together in the forecast and the trends, and they're very positive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're quite hot, aren't they at the moment? Yes, and I think we both would agree that Label Expo hopefully will give us some insight into what the future holds for that and hopefully there'll be people buying technology there, investing in technology there and, as we said, there may be some shake-up in that market. The it's one of the sort of shining lights at the moment, isn't it? In terms of the technologies. Just thinking ahead for that next six months, do you think there's any anything that if you were talking to a group of leaders, would there be anything that you'd be saying to them in terms of how to prepare for the next six months, what to be looking out for? Would you be talking about certain segments you know as potential growth areas? You know we just touched on the packaging market. You mentioned textile several times. You know what have you got in your mind for business leaders?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think when I speak, there's usually four or five areas I talk about, right. So AI, I don't care what industry you're in.
Speaker 2:AI is going to help you with efficiencies, right. It's really, really something that people have to embrace. I think they're starting to, and you said it before different regions of the world are ahead of other regions of the world when it comes to things, but AI is a big thing. Robotics we have not seen this much activity in robotics in a long, long time, so I think everybody is racing to. How can robotics help in any industry? Right, Labels and packaging it's there, right. You have that in the print industry. More and more manufacturers in the print industry are getting into it. So I think that you're going to see more conversations about robotics.
Speaker 2:I think consolidation is definitely a topic that always comes up right, and how did it affect? The interesting thing is, we do business with 550 dealers worldwide and when you sit down and talk with all of the dealers, they are concerned with how does the consolidation of manufacturers affect them? And then you have new players knocking on the door, like Fujifilm, and in the United States, Caton came out with new product and how are they going to influence the market? So I think that when you look at different things, right, I don't think the tariff thing. I do think that will settle down in the next six months. But I think you know another huge topic of conversation is labor shortages. I don't care what industry, you are right and you know finding workers and operators for prints printers is very difficult thing to do. So I think you'll see more and more robotic things and I think it's very interesting. There's some printers that have tried robotic technology already and other people it's not even on their radar, right, oh, can I just ask you?
Speaker 1:you you did mention labor shortages a couple of times. Um, yeah, is it just there's a shortage of labor or there's a shortage of the type of people that we want for these jobs, and there's also a lack of young people wanting to work in the industry that we're in?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think you nailed it. I think it. It's all of the above. I think that to me, the biggest thing is getting the younger generation into our industry is paramount. I think there in the United States I know specifically of a couple of dealers that have focused there and have done a really good job of bringing younger people into the organization. I also think that it has to be skilled labor too, from the point of view of when it's labor-related right. So it's passing that on to the next generation. And where is that coming from?
Speaker 2:Yeah so where's the feeding round to get people interested in our industry? Because our industry is not sexy, right, it's very good and it's been great for me and my family and many other people. But I think, like going forward, where does that come? And we're fortunate enough in Keypoint to have several young people who are really interested in certain areas that, like we can talk about, right, that are true growth areas that they want to come and explore.
Speaker 1:No, I think you're right, Anthony. We've come to the sort of end of our 25-30 minutes. Is there anything else you just want to add? About Keypoint you mentioned you'll have some of your guys at Label Expo, so there's an opportunity to catch up with them there. Obviously, Charles is heading up things in Europe and certainly he's been around a lot of the events and his face is out there, so that's a real positive, as much as the other guys, Todd and Ross. I just wonder if there's anything else you want to add um any particular areas that you really would be interested in looking at from research point of view tell me, yeah, so I think so we'll also be a printing united.
Speaker 2:it's very interesting. We're probably, you know, in october alone I I will be, shark has an event, rico has an event, printing United is going on right, and then I'll be in London the beginning of November. So a lot of traveling, a lot going on in all of these shows and events. I think just really reiterating that we can help clients where they're stuck is the best way. If there's an issue right, a real business challenge that people have, that's where Keypoint comes in. I don't care if it's our tools and our platforms, if it's our testing facilities, our consulting, our advisory services in all of the areas that we talked about. So I really do think that we're well suited for now and the future. And I think one thing about our industry is it always changes right. It doesn't, and I said this the other day to somebody on a podcast that you know the good and bad thing about having a company that's 65 years old is it's great, it has a great reputation and, key point, we have a great reputation.
Speaker 2:But the interesting thing is you can get old and stay out, stay relevant in the industry and bring our clients what they're looking for no matter what it is in the areas I don't want to repeat the areas that we've talked about, but in those areas that people are really focused on today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anthony, absolute pleasure speaking to you. Perhaps you and I will catch up again, maybe December, january, for the sort of end of year wrap up. We'll see where you feel things have gone. It's been good to speak to you. Really gives us a bit of a view of kind of where you think things are. As I said, key point good partner with Futureprint. We're really enjoying working with you closely. It's always a pleasure to have a chat with you. So thank you for your time and look forward to catching up with you face to face at some point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fraser, thank you, and I just want to reiterate what a great partner you guys are. I had a great time at the FuturePrint, at the conference. It was great to see other future leaders, other leaders in the industry, and I think you guys do a tremendous job. So I just wanted to mention that. Very grateful.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. Thank you, sir, thank.
