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FuturePrint Podcast
#298 - Printflation, AI and Trust: HP’s Amir Raziel on What’s Next for Print
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In this FuturePrint Podcast episode, Marcus Timson is joined once again by Amir Raziel, Head of Strategy at HP Industrial Print, for a wide-ranging conversation about where print is really heading as we move into 2026.
Drawing on almost 20 years at HP across operations, sales, product marketing and strategy, Amir revisits his well-known framework of five key transitions – from AI-driven automation and resilient supply chains through to sustainable production, experiences and services – and explains how each of them has accelerated over the last 12 months.
He unpacks the reality of “printflation” in 2025: rising ink and paper costs, multiple price increases, cautious capital spending and slow delivery of some post-drupa promises. At the same time, research from firms like Keypoint Intelligence shows sustainability rocketing to the number-two concern for PSPs and converters, with regulation turning ESG from a marketing angle into a business imperative.
The discussion also tackles:
- How AI, workflow automation and software are shifting value away from raw hardware
- Why energy consumption and data-centre growth could soon constrain press investments
- The rise of Chinese vendors in labels and packaging – and how established players must respond
- Why trust, service and transparency are becoming critical differentiators
Amir shares practical advice for PSPs and converters on unlocking value today – from better conversations with brand customers to “non-stop digital print” and quick wins hiding in existing workflows. He closes with three strategic questions every print business should ask as it prepares for 2026.
If you’re leading a print or packaging operation and want a clear, strategic view of what’s coming next – and how to prepare – this is essential listening.
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Welcome And Guest Background
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the latest episode of the Future Print podcast. Happy to have back with me Amir Raziel, who is head of strategy at HP Industrial Print. Welcome back to the podcast, Amir.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Marcus. It's becoming quite a quite a habit, and I'm enjoying our chats as well. So happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's great to have you back. We've had um already a couple of podcasts of people who want to track back um and listen because always fascinating. Your role gives you that kind of fantastic helicopter view of the industry. You're a keen observer of trends and you're brilliant at um being able to distill them down and provide people with guidance and help. So I'm I'm looking forward to the chat today. Before we get into the um the meat of the discussion, I guess, um Ami, would you mind would you mind about your background and um what it is you do for uh HP?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so I'm I'm the global head of strategy for for HP's industrial print. That's uh the division that deals with uh high-end production presses or digital digital production presses, uh primarily the indigo and the pagewide uh pagewide businesses. And and I've been with with the company for well, it'll be 20 years and two days from now. Um so um across a range of roles from from operations to uh sales and account management and product marketing and now strategy. Uh so we look we look at the industry overall, and and as part of the management team, you know, our goal is to to guide the business towards you know what we call profitable growth, growth that is good for us and is good for for our customers and for the industry.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. And um obviously with the the chats we've had before and the presentations and talks you've given at some of the future print events have been um really insightful. And one of the key themes was the five transitions
The Five Industry Transitions Update
SPEAKER_00that you talk around. Um how have you how have they really sort of played out this year, 2025, as we've got through the year, um and perhaps looking into next? Are those transitions coming into force? And you've got sort of some insights there as to how the year's been so far and into next.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so first of all, being being transitions, being long-term shifts, they don't change from from year to year. If they did, there wouldn't be transitions, right? I mean, and and so for the most part, we've seen we've seen them uh accelerate, right? We believe they're still the backbone of the industry evolution, and and we've seen them accelerate. There are some new ones or some things that we're seeing that are worth mentioning. Let's let's walk through them for a minute and see. I mean, the first one we talked about was the shift to to AI-driven automation. I think anyone, hopefully anyone listening to the podcast or listening to us now can has seen accelerated focus in AI. Uh, we're starting to see the fruits of it in print. Um, in HP, we released our you know, our own NEO, right? Our own agent uh that that helps PSPs and converters make sense of their production environment based on the data that that we have. Um that that's one, and I think everybody would agree that that's something that's seeing more investment, more focus and return. Um we talked about the transition to low-risk supply chains. And 2025 has seen a lot of impact on supply chains. You know, tariffs are are you know have shaken it up again. Uh, and and everybody's starting to look at where they're producing, how they're producing, what is the impact. And so that's that's something. Uh, we also talked about the shift to to sustainable production. And I think that there has been a change in in how people look at things. But the change is that regulation is turning sustainability from a nice to have to a business imperative. And you need this in order to be able to produce. Um and right, and at the at the same time, the increasing cost of print, labor, paper, and and tariffs, etc., and the uncertain and financial environment are driving a focus on the two remaining transitions, which are you know, from information to experience and from product to service. So people are focusing more on premium niches and trying to connect the digital and the physical world. And we're we're hearing a lot more talk about connected packaging, smart packaging, and and those types of things. So this is still, I think all of these transitions are still valid. At the same time, I think there are a few more things that we're we're we're seeing. I think vendors in general continue to deliver and develop more productive presses. So productivity in digital print continues to grow. That hasn't changed. Automation and AI are driving more what we call outcome-focused production. Um, and people are investing more in integrated software and data-centric services rather than just the hardware. At the same time, the two two things that we've seen are consolidation, right? That is creating stronger, more innovative players, and that's true for both PSPs and vendors. And I think we saw this at Label Expo uh a few a few months ago. Chinese vendors in labels and packaging are are accelerating or improving and they're accelerating the growth. And that's pushing all of us in the industry to to raise up our game. Uh so I I think I think these are these are the trends. I mean, we just had um Smithers uh Pyra uh present in our in our analyst forum last week, and there was a comment that stuck with me um specifically about flexible packaging on how monomaterials are leveling the playing field in substrate. From an industry that was all about a lot of materials and complexity, um converters need to
Productivity, Consolidation, And Competition
SPEAKER_01find other ways to differentiate, and they're starting to differentiate through print, which is what we've been talking about all along, but it it it it does reframe how you know how people need to think about digital's role in packaging, right? So that's those are a few few of the things, and and I'm speaking a lot, but uh no, no, no, it's brilliant.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot there to unpack, but we'll go through the conversation and and in a little more detail and so on. Um interesting you mentioned that about the monomaterials. Um I would I I I I guess the next question is is it these sort of macro sources that you've mentioned there, tariffs, volatility, have they had the biggest impact maybe on change, growth, and investment? Are they the key ones, or is it a mixture of the whole thing?
SPEAKER_01Uh I don't know. I think I think when we look back at 25, you know, it was it was a volatile year. And and I think we can call what we saw printflation, right? Raw materials, ink, ink prices were up, paper still above the pre-pandemic baselines, and and vendors had to uh raise raise prices. Um so on the one hand, prices increased, on the other hand, the geopolitical situation, tariffs made buyers cautious on capital, especially presses. So while labor pressures eased a bit, but the center of gravity is shifting to software to automation. And and all along the year, we've seen price increases across the board in more than one wave, right? I mean, there was one wave of increase and another wave of increase. And and when you look at the the financial results of the top, you know, the top digital vendors, most of them posted low or negative growth. And then throughout the year they adjusted down their full-year outlook. Um, and that's that's a concern uh for all of us. Um so so that's one. I think 25 was also a year where a lot of the vendors look to materialize their promise from Drupal. Um I mean, we are now a year and a half after after Jupa 24. Um and and if you look at the market, most of the products and the promises that that were there are not commercially available yet. I mean, we've seen, especially in commercial print, beta starting, um, promises of release in six months or whatever in 26 or 27. Uh, and that that's still that's too far away from for comfort, right? I mean, it'll be two years after Drupal already. Uh at HP for us for us, it's a bit different. I mean, we've seen a year of growth based on the products that we have in the market, uh, and which is available here and now, and and we feel cautiously, I would say, right? And that that we are we are living up to what we we said we would do at Jupa. Um, so I'm happy about that. Definitely not happy about the industry overall and the the the challenges that we've been we've we've been going through.
SPEAKER_00Is it interesting you said that they're not live quite many many of the vendors not necessarily living up to what they perhaps stated at Drupal? It's that I mean I I I don't know. I'm asking that's what I'm asking you. It's it's it's a normal thing with with with an event like Druper that it's a projection forward and not always yeah, you see you see the materialization of of those statements, or is that particularly unusual this year with 2024?
SPEAKER_01No, well, Jupa has always been about imagining the future, right? I mean uh I think uh 2012
Printflation And Post-Drupa Reality
SPEAKER_01was the B2Jupa, 2016 was the Incet Jupa, and then we people were talking about different names, or maybe it was the other way around. But so so it's always you come to Jupa and you look to see where the future is heading. But part of it is you, you know, it's is is you know, we're we're in business, right? So so we need to show the future, but we also need to be very clear about what we have to sell. So so I don't think it's extremely unique. I think we expected it. I think you know people need to look at the companies, they need to look at the vendors and the PSPs, and they need to look at where the companies are heading, what level of conviction they have to get there, how you know, and what how likely they are to get there, and how much they can trust in those promises. And that's that's a big big deal, especially with the volatility, especially with a challenging my macro environment. So I don't think it's very different from previous Jupa. I think it's becoming more and more critical as the industry changes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I would imagine more noticeable. And like you said, with all of these changes, it's possibly a unique troupe in that sense that you know the period after has been unusual. So um that makes that makes a lot of sense. You mentioned um obviously part of your role is clearly understanding these trends and so on, and I know you you keep a close eye on research. Keypoint intelligence latest research reveals some of the key pressures on the printing industry. Could you explain more a bit about the findings um and and what you make of perhaps some of them and perhaps what it might signal about where value is moving?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it came up in a chat we had. I mean, we we work with keypoint and and you know, we we spoke about Smithers, others, and we work with IT strategies and and with with Napco, right? And we we work with all of these these firms, and and key points Mark Boyd shared a study on workflow solutions and where it's heading. And one of the things they they looked at and they they asked, you know, they asked converters and PSPs, what what are your concerns? What concerns you, right? And the number one answer is always rising costs, right? That that's and that's still the same one, and it fits well with what what we just spoke about. Number two has been over the last few years has been labor, right? Labor shortages was number two and number four, number five, and the previous research. And this year, labor dropped significantly, right? Where sustainability leaped up to the number two priority. Uh for me, I think I think the signal is clear is that the value is moving towards efficiency, automation, and measurable impact. And and so what Mark was saying is that software spend is creeping up, modestly but consistently. And and like I said, in sustainability, it's it's that shift I mentioned earlier. It's becoming a business imperative. There are regulations coming up that if you are not meeting them, and if you will not meet them over time, you will not be able to do business in specific countries. And we we've seen it more than once or twice. So these are important things to address. Um, and then you know, when Mark was walking us through through, he was walking us through through the bottlenecks, right, of what customers are facing, and right, these are the bottlenecks in print production. And we saw customer approvals topping the list, right? So the process and how long it takes for customers to approve. And and we were sitting through this and I was smiling to myself because it mirrored the workflow review we were looking at a few weeks earlier. Um, in today's environment, you know, PSPs and converters aren't really short of press time, right? They're short of decision time, or they're short of the people, and and and they need the processes they have in their plan to be uh more optimized and and more efficient. So it fits it fits more or less. Labor is still there, it's still a concern, but it's it's shifting to okay, it's an issue, now how do we deal with it, right? And and and that's that I think is is was was the biggest aha uh from that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, really interesting that sustainability's leapt up and that um uh that that is um like you say in in line with with regulations, but also it chimes with like you like you say, uh agility and efficiency, doesn't it? You you you you you you touched there on the labour shortages, which became an acute and clear issue, didn't it, post-COVID? Uh how do you interpret this mindset mindset shift among converters and PSPs? Um is technology meeting that shortage now, or I I don't know that we're fully meeting it.
SPEAKER_01I wouldn't go I wouldn't go so far to to say that let's be we need to we need to be a bit more modest. I I think that it's a mindset change. I think that we're seeing industry leaning into software automation and AI to boost throughput, right? Um I think in the in the research that we were looking at, more than half said they're mostly integrated.
Research Signals: Costs, Labour, Sustainability
SPEAKER_01So it's so it's a journey, but the direction is is there. Um and and you know, we we do voice of the customer uh from time to time. And one of those we heard from one of one of the plant managers saying, you know what, I I don't need five more operators, I need one orchestrators and I need the presses to set themselves up. And that that's that's you know, that's my or that's the mantra for where operational excellence should be heading. Um and that's that's the the driver for non-stop digital print vision that we showed at label expo. It's it's where we think we need to take the the technology, at least for HP.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Any other sort of um factors perhaps that are impacting printers? You've you said a few things there that I think yeah, expand a little further on now.
SPEAKER_01I I I think I I think that as we talk more about software and AI and automation, uh energy, energy consumption is gonna become become uh constrained uh globally, right? It's not just for print. Um but you know, we were talking about tariffs, and and and one of the things we were we were doing, right? We modeled tariff scenarios alongside energy costs. And and those curves can really dent capital spend and plans. Uh and and so it it sharpened our focus on on the parts of the business can deliver value and payback faster to our customers. Uh and energy is a big big deal. People don't realize this uh that AI needs a lot of energy. Right? So I'll give you some some some indication. Today AI data centers and the co and the corn accounts for about two percent of the global electricity use. And in 2026, AI would consume as much power as Japan. Right? So it's it's and then in the US, you know, data centers account what four percent of their demand today, and that will triple by 2030. Virginia, right, is is the epicenter. They have a uh you know data center alley that consumes, and I'm I'm I'm hoping that figure is is a bit is a bit high. It what I'm seeing is up to 39% of the state's electricity. So I don't know if it's 39, but even if it's half, okay? 20% of the state's electricity consumed by AI. Now you're in the UK. UK has a goal to increase compute capacity 20 times by 2030. What will that do to energy consumption? And then the the bigger question is what will it do if you're if you're a PSP or a converter and you have a site, you're gonna start to see your quotas on energy consumption be limited. So what will that do to equipment purchasing plans? And and as as vendors, as OEMs, we need to respond with presses that reduce consumption, reduce CO2, improve it. Um we've actually seen uh a print service provider rule out a couple of digital presses because they could not afford the increased electricity consumption, they could not get it approved by the local electricity company, so it'll become a factor for investment decision, whether it's energy cost because prices will go up, or because you simply cannot get approval for more. So that's it's something for for people to talk about. And uh it's a discussion I had with with Marco Bohr from IT strategies, and it's you know, it's you know, he he he helped me realize that. I think it's a big it's gonna be a big deal for the future.
SPEAKER_00And and and how do you plan for that? Is that is that sort of yeah, does that play a little bit towards digital printing? Because there is that advantage of of on demand, but is it really sort of broader than that that actually it's it's whatever we're doing
Bottlenecks Shift From Press Time To Decisions
SPEAKER_00and whatever we're producing, whatever manufacturing industry we're in, it's gonna become it's gonna grow as an issue rather than be managed?
SPEAKER_01I think it's gonna be a glob, I think it's gonna be a global manufactur a global issue, you know, in general. I don't think it's print specific. For print, we you know, we need to continuously focus on reduced energy consumption. And and we've done this both within the Go and Page, right? Inkjet, as it looks at drying, right? And definitely drying on synthetics, if people are trying to do that, right? That that requires huge amounts of energy. Uh and and we need to continuously improve drying capabilities, drying capacity, drying requirements, and the overall energy consumption of our presses. That's as an industry for digital print, especially because because because of the what we deal with, and because we want to use water-based as much as possible rather than others, right? And that from a sustainability perspective, these are two factors that will dictate development over the few years. And I think I think that's you know, we're we're doing this at HP. It's a big pillar of of how we develop uh products. I think everybody needs to look at it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's fascinating because uh up to now the whole narrative around AI is about being more productive, more efficient. But when you step back, and I I saw a BBC report recently as well talking about the power consumption of AI data centers, it's it's it's quite incredible the amount of data that they have to produce process, but clearly that uses a lot of energy, and that's going to grow. So really interesting insight there. So I suppose so I suppose Amir, uh in light of all of these trends, how is the how is the sector likely to evolve in your opinion?
SPEAKER_01I think when we look at print, uh you you look at commercial print and you look at labels and packaging, right? Which are different, very different environments. And then in commercial print, uh analog print continues to decline, will continue to decline three, four percent a year in volume. Um digital print helps make up for that in value. Uh and but it's becoming a more competitive environment, especially here on the low in the lower end. And we're starting to see vendors you know cooperate more, collaborate more, especially when when the the you know the the traditional print, uh toner business, MFPs, etc., is declining faster. So some of the vendors are losing capability for scale. Um we should expect continued consolidation. Vendors, converters, platforms for on-demand. It's about scale for efficiency, but also about funding real RD and integrated solutions. And if and if you don't have that, you need to think about who you're partnering with and how you're doing. Every time I map a fragmented niche, the winning scenario looks the same. Fewer entities, tighter integration, more spend, clearer accountability for outcomes. That's we could we could have a separate you know, complete, complete different discussion
Energy Constraints And AI’s Power Hunger
SPEAKER_01just about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's almost like these forces are compounding um upon the industry and and and and that almost that pressure is is is is defining a new path forward. What what signs are you seeing and what what could this consolidation mean for innovation, Pab? For competitiveness and and and even the structure of the industry. Does that but does that mean we're gonna see business models change or innovation start to decline or increase?
SPEAKER_01Uh I think in general collaboration and consolidation tends to uh you know and more the more MAs, the more vent joint ventures, collaboration you'll see will tend to improve innovation and competitiveness, um, but it can narrow choice for for the customers, and it can raise the bar from for smaller firms. And and we need to be careful uh of of commoditization of the business. And you know, bigger players means you need to raise the bar. So you know we won't have 40, 50, 60 inkjet vendors at label expo. Uh, but the ones that remain are the ones that provide real value. Uh and and and so the winners, right? The people who provide value to their customers will remain. And that that's the the the benefit of it, right? And hopefully it will sharpen focus and allow us to to be better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, in your view, the print tech vendor landscape you mentioned there is gonna change a little bit. Um and you also hinted earlier at the impact of of Chinese technology into places like to some extent the US, but perhaps even more so Europe. Um how's that developed and what and what impact is it is it making?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. We we met at Label Expo, right? And we we spent some time chatting there. People who spend time walking the halls at Label Expo saw uh uh dramatic uh presence of Chinese label vendors across the board. Uh and and and the products are rapidly improving in capabilities. And there are areas that that that Chinese vendors have taken the the industry completely in ceramic sprinting, right? I mean price of ink dropped heavily. Uh by the way, it's the market that digital has taken taken by storm, right? Um but but uh but that's uh that's a place and their technology is improving, it's it's getting better, um, they're scaling up, they have more, you know, higher quality breadth, automation, dpi, I mean it's all there. Um and because the because of the slowdown in growth in China and the challenges that the Chinese economy is facing, one, then US is less of a market, right? But then the Chinese need to focus externally. And they US is a problem, so they'll they'll focus their energy on Europe, and and so they'll feel the pressure first. And then the the response the strategic response has to be you know differentiation in service, in integration, and in trust. So the the the you know price that that those are the areas that people need to or that the vendors need to to spend their time with. And because if when you're spending a million or a million and a half, half a million on on a piece of equipment, you want to know uh for five, seven, ten, fifteen years, you want to know that that vendor will be there, right? And will partner you for the future. Um that that's a big, big deal in in investment decisions.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what you said there as well, service differentiation and trust. And I think I think tr uh uh well all three are uh uh are super important, but in this volatile time, trust must be paramount, right?
SPEAKER_01Trust trust is is is a moat in my eyes. Reliability, transparency, partnership, uh, you know, in volatile markets, technology buyers stay with vendors that share data, admit issues, go solve. Um and and that's that's a big that that's a big deal. It it it should help to to address this, but uh I have to tell you as an industry we need to really carefully under think about you know how fast are we commoditizing the industry? And and is it is it is it gonna lead us or allow us to invest further in in innovation the way we want it to?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And and and I guess it's difficult to track trust as a as an issue. It's just more like uh has this come through in any of the research or is it Is it more sort of what you're hearing across the board that um people don't necessarily articulate the word, use the word trust, it's just perhaps becomes higher in their
Implications For Digital Drying And Processes
SPEAKER_00obvious need, perhaps?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean it's it's you know that it's something that that over time and when when definitely when you're dealing with customers, um you you so you see you see print service providers renewing you know renew renewing the uh the investment with the same vendor despite take ups, right? And and you ask them, they will tell you, well, uh in some cases they show us the data before we notice the issue. They admitted it, they ship the fix the next day. That's trust we can bank on. And those are vendors that we want to continue to work with. That's by the way, what we you know use as the northern, right, as the as the North Star, as the guiding light for for our post sales or for our customer success organization. Let's identify the issues before they happen, right? Um let's fix them, let's ship them, and let's be very transparent on the issues and where they happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's that's all we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. Um despite these kind of shall we say, mixed market conditions, what do you see as the most promising opportunity perhaps for PSP and converters for uh unlocking value and improving perhaps print utilization of their business?
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna say something quite simplistic first, but but but I think it it it's it's true. The best opportunity for PSPs and converters to unlock value can be found in talking to their customers directly and by asking enough questions to unlock the challenges they're facing. Right? It sounds simplistic, but but but but but I I it's something I want to repeat over and over and over again. Price is never the answer. You need to get into the discussion and sort of peel the onion, right to get to to the root cause and understand what they really need. It's never a price discussion by itself. The challenges that brands are facing today are about growing profit, right? About about growth and about profit, about both. Well, let's adjust the let's adjust the growth aspects, let's understand how digital print can provide incremental growth opportunities to you know the brands, to the CPGs, to these, um, and and how it can help them you know l turn the challenges that they're facing into opportunities. And and I think that's that's one thing that that need to beyond that, I think that the best opportunity lies in in what we call non-stop digital print. Right. Um as runs get shorter, as as demand varies, you know, uh they need to be able to respond fast to the changes and streamline it. That's driven by print technology, but also through automation, software, robotics. The automation itself will become the profit center. It will lift utilization, it will help cut cut waste, and it will unlock new service models. So those are the things. I mean, one of the things we have in our in our PageWrite
Market Outlook: Commercial, Labels, Packaging
SPEAKER_01business is is software that helps automate and and streamline uh the the role of jobs. And if you you know you can pilot a simple rules-based ganging step on a corrugated line, no hardware change, just smarter patching, and you tick up utilization, four or five points, six points. So sometimes the fastest wins hide in plain sight. And I think that with the current market conditions, invest you know, huge mega investments in millions and millions of dollars is not always the right answer. That's you know, right? We need to start thinking on how do we improve what we have and and how do we take this and run it more efficiently? And there is a lot of value hidden there that we need to unpeel.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So it's it's it's listening to customers asking the right questions, solving perhaps the problems or the pain points, but also interrogating your own operation as well, right? And then and really sort of finding finding the the gems within that to improve and and and add agility and so on. So and and also refreshingly, it's about what you already have from what you're saying. It's not like, well, just buy a new press or buy this. Actually, you may have the tools, like you just said, in plain sight.
SPEAKER_01Okay, don't get me wrong, we want we want the aspects of that. I thought you might say that.
SPEAKER_00But no, it's good to hear though that you you you know, I'm uh you know, joking aside, it it it it um if if you're strategic about it really, isn't it? That's that's key. And in then you're whatever investments uh growth-oriented uh um changes you're making, you're gonna need to grow and invest in equipment going forward, isn't it? So it's it's it's about being cleverer, smarter.
SPEAKER_01It's about investing. I mean, yes, you you're gonna need to invest, but it's less about the overall uh uh it's not about speed, the the print speed. Okay, it's about the efficiency, it's about the productivity overall and how it plugs into your production floor. And and that results, you know, in sometimes a slower press, but the one that does setup faster, right? Right, and and and can is able to stream the jobs with zero zero setup and is automated and it's integrated to your setup, can produce can provide the converter and the print service provider with a lower total cost of ownership than a press, which is twice as fast. So it's a it's a different uh and then let's be right when when when you talk to to to an to a print shop owner, those are the primary things they look at, right? They're clever business owners, they they look at the cost.
SPEAKER_00It's this is the primary factor, and impacting total cost of ownership is a variety of things, and the faster we go and the short but but also the shorter the runs are the different the focus is all yeah yeah absolutely um so then uh looking ahead to 2026, perhaps business owners, whether they're across the board, but you know, thinking more of PSPs and converters I suppose, looking ahead to 2026, and could you get leave us perhaps with three facts or questions or thoughts you believe every converter and PSP should be asking themselves
Consolidation’s Impact On Innovation And Choice
SPEAKER_00to navigate the year ahead?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and and I think there are three uh I think these questions that that I think about. The first one is how is a repeating question from the previous year is how resilient is the business model that I have to shocks? Geopolitical shocks, macroeconomic, regulatory shocks. You know, what are the risks that I have, and and if they come at me, can I handle them? Because you know what what the last few years have taught us is that every year we get something new on the horizon. There's never business as usual. So that's the first question every business owner needs to ask himself. The second question is am I leveraging AI, automation, uh cloud-based technology to drive efficiency and differentiation? What am I doing? How am I doing it? Where am I along in that journey? It's a question that that was relevant at 25, and it will become even more relevant in 26. And we're asking ourselves the same continuously, day in, day out. And I think the third question, which is a bit related to the previous to the previous to the previous two, is what unique value do I provide to my customers? What's my unique value proposition, and how do I integrate better with them to understand their needs so that together we can drive value? Um, and if I I think if you're answering these three questions for 26, I think you're already well set up, you know, in the business. No promises made. We've we we've we've all seen how different things can can turn up. But I think these are good questions to to ask yourself as you head into the new year.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. I really appreciate that and providing that sort of really good analysis and insight and and uh experience, Amir. And um Amir will be giving a talk um at the future print industrial print event, specifically at our AI for industrial print conference on the 22nd of January. So we're looking forward to seeing him at that event too. And a great way to kick off 2026 and a great way to round off this year is to have a quick chat with you and an update. Appreciate all your openness there and um vision as well. I think that's that's key. And it's a vision forward, isn't it? And it's um as much as anything else, it's equipping our businesses with the right mindset, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's look, you need to set the vision in the North Star, understand, and then start walking. Now you'll you'll diverge left, you'll diverge right, uh, you'll you'll hit the rock on the road, but but as long as you keep your your you know your your eyes on on the long term goal, you'll you'll get it. So that's that's what that's what I try to do.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant. Well, thanks very much for joining us, Amir.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Marcus. Appreciate it.
