As a journalist, I subscribe to a wide range of newsletters, both as inspiration and to keep up with emerging trends. It seems like almost every one of them has some content about artificial intelligence (AI). But in most cases, they seem to assume a level of preexisting knowledge on the topic that many of our members likely don’t have. To be honest, prior to researching this article, I didn’t either! One of the key questions for our members is what AI means for them: how does it affect the printing and packaging industries—or does it? From a larger perspective, there is significant discussion about whether AI is a help or a hindrance to humans—in fact, some pundits have gone as far as to say AI will destroy humanity. I guess the jury is still out on that one. But meanwhile, let’s take a look at what AI is and how it may—or may not—affect how we do business in the printing and packaging industry over the foreseeable future.

AI has been around for a long time. We often talk about machine learning, which is a subset of AI, and it is likely better understood by most of us than the broader artificial intelligence term. Your Roomba, for example, learns the best pathways to vacuum your house. That’s machine learning. Maybe newer models will be able to do more with a broader spectrum of embedded artificial intelligence.

Coursera, an online learning organization, defines the two terms, AI and Machine Learning, this way: