Inside the AI Pavilion: How Collaboration is Shaping Print’s Future
A conversation with Marc Raad (Significans Automation), Mark Subers (PRINTING United Alliance), and Chris Minn (Digital Ink)
When PRINTING United Expo 2025 opened its doors last week in Orlando, one area in particular sparked curiosity and conversation across the show floor – the brand-new AI Pavilion. Created by the PRINTING United Alliance, this new feature aimed to help the print community understand, explore, and begin their own journey with artificial intelligence.
Significans Automation President, Marc Raad, caught up with Mark Subers, Chief Innovation Officer of PRINTING United Alliance, and Chris Minn, CEO and Founder of Digital Ink, who joined as an All-Star representative of PRINTING United, to reflect on what the AI Pavilion means for the industry – and where it goes next.
Supporting the Industry Through Education
“The inspiration behind the AI Pavilion came from the needs of our members,” explained Subers. “We’re the largest graphic arts and printing association in the U.S., and we saw how many people were asking the same question: ‘Where do we start?’ when it comes to AI. So, we built a dedicated team within the Alliance to focus on it – producing newsletters, hosting member forums, and even offering consulting services to help businesses break through the process.”
The result was an interactive space at the Expo designed not to sell products, but to spark understanding. Through live sessions, panel discussions, and demonstrations, the AI Pavilion became a hub for discovery, offering attendees both inspiration and practical insights.
Building AI Strategies That Work in the Real World
For Significans Automation, the AI Pavilion was the perfect environment to showcase what they do best: bridging innovation and implementation.
“As a professional services company, we’d usually be lost among the sea of technology vendors, but the AI Pavilion made perfect sense for us. It reflects exactly what we do – helping customers by building AI strategies along with workflow automation.
Marc Raad – President, Significans Automation
When asked what advice he’d give to businesses exploring AI for the first time, Raad emphasized the importance of preparation. “AI adoption starts with a lot of planning and coaching. We love to act as that coach – helping companies develop a strategy that makes sense for them budgetarily, as well as considering their people resources and technologies holistically. It’s just like building a home, you’re not going to renovate the entire house overnight. You can adopt AI whether it’s in months or years. Keep your business running, keep revenue flowing, and renovate one floor at a time.”
The Year of Automation – and Education
If there was one theme across PRINTING United 2025, it was clear: automation.
“This is the year of automation,” Raad reflected. “Everywhere we go – whether it’s the Wide Format Summit or other leadership events – the conversation always starts with the base: automation and integration. That’s the foundation. From there, people start talking about AI. And what we’ve seen this week is that people are hungry for both innovation and education and that’s what the AI Pavilion provided.”
Mark Subers agreed, noting that while excitement around AI is high, many businesses still lack the foundation to put it into practice. “The sessions here were packed, even spilling out of the AI Pavilion,” he said. “Adobe’s session was incredible. But the looks on people’s faces said it all – they are not quite ready, they don’t have that foundational, they haven’t done their due diligence and they know they need to, and they just don’t know where to start.That’s what we’re here for – to help kickstart that and get help start the renovation process as it were.”
Looking Ahead: The Future of the AI Pavilion
With the inaugural year proving to be a resounding success, PRINTING United is already planning for the AI Pavilion’s return in 2026.
“This was actually a late addition,” Subers revealed. “We had space reserved and decided to turn it into something bigger. It wasn’t cheap, but this is what we’re here to do – invest in education for our members and the industry. It was more successful than I could have imagined… It was packed every day.”
Plans are already in motion to make the AI Pavilion even more integrated with the main Alliance booth next year – potentially with more space and new features for hands-on learning. ”
This is going to be a hot topic for the next three to five years. AI is going to be key. We’ll keep evolving to match the speed for which transformation is happening. The AI Pavilion will certainly be back next year.”
Mark Subers, Chief Innovation Officer – PRINTING United Alliance
Wrapping Up – But Just Getting Started
As the doors closed on another PRINTING United Expo, one thing was clear: the conversation around AI and automation in print is only just beginning.
