At PRINTING United Expo, the Alliance Insights research team took to the stage to break down several recent and upcoming reports that together paint a picture of where our industry is today — and where it will likely go next. Nathan Safran, vice president; Lisa Cross, principal analyst; and Onamica Dhar, economist, all with the Alliance Insights research arm of PRINTING United Alliance, shared a ton of great data breaking down everything from automation adoption, to convergence, to AI usage across the industry.
Here are five key highlights from their data.
1. It’s been a challenging year, but not for everyone.
Dhar presented the preliminary findings from the upcoming State of the Industry report, with the caveat that the study is still ongoing and open. They feel they have enough responses for a statistical majority based on past SOI reports, but these exact numbers could shift slightly when the official report is released later this year.
Sales, she noted, increased just 0.6% for the first three quarters of 2025 on average. But only for about 37% of printers in the survey. 62.9% saw those numbers either flat or declining this year.
At the same time, operating cost inflation outpaced pricing, she said — costs were up because of inflation about 70%, while just 47.5% of printers raised their prices. This was, she said, in part due to customer resistance and pushback on further increases.
“So what are [printers’] biggest concerns,” Dhar said. “Participants mentioned that their biggest concerns are increasing sales, profitability, economic and overall business conditions, and rising costs [for labor and substrates].”
This is reflected in the data, with more than half of respondents citing each of those concerns as some of the top things they’re worried about as they start to plan for 2026. Rounding out that list with only slightly lower numbers in the 40% range were concerns such as the effects of tariffs on costs and supply chains, maintaining healthy cash and working capital balances, and the rising costs of utilities and overhead.
With those concerns in mind, it’s perhaps not surprising that the top priorities for 2026 include productivity or cost control initiatives for more than 70% of respondents. Automation is a priority for 61.2%, and more than 50% cited capturing higher value work, improved quality control, and improving the customer experience as being just as critical for their business.
Read the full article on Printing Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
