Printflation, AI and Trust: HP’s Amir Raziel on What’s Next for Print
This article is inspired by a podcast interview with Amir Raziel of HP Industrial Print. You can listen to the podcast here.
When you talk to Amir Raziel, Head of Strategy at HP Industrial Print, you don’t just get a product pitch - instead a clear view of where the whole industry is heading, and what converters and PSPs need to do to stay in the game.
Amir’s role spans HP’s high-end production press portfolio - Indigo and PageWide - and after 20 years with the company across operations, sales, product marketing and now strategy, he’s uniquely placed to see how the pieces fit together.
At the centre of his thinking is a framework FuturePrint audiences will recognise: five long-term transitions reshaping print.
The shift to AI-driven automation
The move to lower-risk, more resilient supply chains
The transition to sustainable production
A shift from information to experience
And from product to service
“These aren’t trends that change year by year,” he stresses. “They’re structural transitions.” But what has changed over the past year is the intensity. AI is no longer theoretical - HP has launched its own agent to help PSPs make sense of production data, and investment across the sector is accelerating. Sustainability has jumped from “nice to have” to “licence to operate” as regulation bites. And brands are doubling down on premium niches, connected and smart packaging, and experiences that link the physical and digital worlds.
2025: A Year of ‘Printflation’
If there’s a single word that captures 2025 in print, Amir suggests it might be “printflation”.
Raw materials, ink and paper all rose above pre-pandemic levels. Vendors put through multiple price increases. At the same time, geopolitical tension and tariffs made buyers more cautious about capital investment.
The result: “Most leading digital vendors posted low or negative growth and revised their outlooks,” he notes. In addition, promises made at Drupa 2024 from many vendors have been slow to materialise, with many new platforms still in beta or expected for release in 2026–27.
HP, he says, is in a better place than most, driving growth from products that are already commercially available, but he is candid that the wider environment has been tough for the entire industry.
Where the Value is Moving: Software, Automation, Measurable Impact
Amir references recent research from Keypoint Intelligence and others that HP has been working with. Rising costs remain the number one concern, but there’s been a noticeable shift elsewhere.
“Labour shortages have dropped down the list,” he explains. “Not because they’re solved, but because mindsets have changed. People are leaning into software, automation and AI to boost throughput.”
Sustainability, meanwhile, has leapt up to become the second priority. Driven by regulation and Scope 3 reporting, the focus is moving beyond the pack itself to how it is produced, the energy it consumes and the waste it generates.
Workflow bottlenecks are also under the microscope. In study after study, customer approvals and process gaps and not press speed, top the list. “PSPs aren’t short of press time,” says Amir. “They are short on decision time.”
This is pushing value into integrated software, data-centric services and outcome-focused production rather than raw hardware alone.
Energy: The Next Big Challenge
One of Amir’s strongest warnings is about a topic that’s only just starting to hit the industry radar: and that is energy.
While AI is clearly on a fast trajectory of adoption and development, aligning with this is the explosion of AI and data centres are set to consume a rapidly growing share of global electricity. Governments and utilities are already talking about caps and quotas and this affects everyone.
“We have already seen a PSP rule out new digital presses because they couldn’t get the extra power approved locally,” he says. “That’s a glimpse of what’s coming.”
For HP and other OEMs, that means designing presses that use less energy, dry more efficiently (especially on synthetics) and reduce CO₂ per printed unit. For converters and PSPs, it means energy consumption will become a bigger factor in investment decisions, alongside productivity, quality and uptime.
Consolidation, China and the Risk of Commoditisation
Another defining feature of the current landscape is consolidation and the rise of Chinese technology vendors.
At recent shows like Labelexpo, the scale and quality of Chinese label and packaging technology solutions have been impossible to miss. With their home market slowing and the US being more challenging for them, Amir expects Europe to feel the competitive pressure first.
His view? The response cannot be a race to the bottom on price.
“When you’re spending half a million to a million and a half on a press, you want to know that the vendor will be there for five, ten, fifteen years,” he says. That pushes established players to differentiate through the following:
Service and support
Integration and workflow
Long-term partnership
And, crucially, trust
Trust, in Amir’s words, is a kind of protective “moat” that can be built when vendors share data transparently, admit issues early and ship fixes fast. He sees customers repeatedly reinvesting with suppliers who behave this way, even when there have been bumps in the road.
The risk, he cautions, is that if the sector commoditises too far and too fast, it becomes harder to fund the real innovation and the service everyone needs.
Where PSPs and Converters Can Unlock Value – Today
Despite volatile conditions, Amir is upbeat about the opportunity that is presented to the industry.
First, he argues, PSPs and converters need to have better conversations with their own customers.
“The simplest and best way to unlock value is still to sit down with your customer and ask enough questions to really understand their challenges,” he says. “Price is never the real answer on its own.”
Brand challenges revolve around growth and profit. Digital print can help deliver both: more targeted campaigns, faster iteration, smarter connected packaging and more resilient supply chains. But you only uncover those opportunities if you’re prepared to move beyond a price-per-thousand mindset and dig into the real pain points.
Second, he points to what HP calls “non-stop digital print” by deploying automation, software, robotics and smarter scheduling to lift utilisation and cut waste.
“Some of the fastest wins hide in plain sight,” he explains. On HP PageWide, for example, simple rules-based ganging and smarter job patching on corrugated can add four to six points of utilisation with no new hardware, just by using the right software and processes.
It’s a reminder that not every improvement requires a brand-new printing press. Often, the biggest step change comes from better connecting what you already have.
Three Questions for 2026
Looking ahead, Amir suggests three questions every PSP and converter should be asking themselves as they plan for 2026:
How resilient is my business model to shocks?
Geopolitical, macroeconomic, regulatory - the last few years show there is no “normal”. Where might you be exposed, and how would you cope?Am I really leveraging AI, automation and cloud-based technology?
Not in theory, but in day-to-day workflows. Where are you on that journey, and what’s your next concrete step?What unique value do we provide to our customers – and how deeply are we integrated with them?
Do brands see you as a vital strategic growth partner? Are you helping your customers grow and protect margin, or are you just a line item in procurement? This naturally affects loyalty and customer retention.
Answer those honestly and act on them, and Amir believes print businesses will be better placed for whatever 2026 throws at them. And as is often the case, even more important than technology, mindset is key.
“Leadership needs to set the vision and the North Star,” he says. “You may diverge left and right and hit rocks along the way, but as long as you keep your eyes on the long-term goal, you’ll get there.”