Print and marketing service providers level up variable data publishing (VDP) with artificial intelligence (AI). There is ample opportunity to utilize AI to maximize productivity, however it requires guidance, rules, and human oversight.
Piet DePauw, head of marketing, Enfocus, explains that AI can be used to build a powerful agentic framework able to take in orders from customer agents, carrying out complex multi-step operations from simple, human-driven prompts. For example, AI-driven agents can interpret customer requests, extract production intent from simple prompts, gather missing information, trigger preflight checks, route files, generate summaries, and support multi-step workflows that would previously require several manual touchpoints.
“That matters because it gives people time back. Instead of using skilled staff to chase artwork, check basic data, or manually move jobs through repeatable steps, providers can use that expertise where it has greater value,” shares DePauw.
It is this type of service that enables providers to move away from being seen as commodity suppliers. “AI can support faster intake and smarter automation, but the strategic value still comes from human judgment,” adds DePauw.
Ayelet Szabo-Melamed, VP marketing, XMPie, stresses that the opportunity for print and service providers is selling outcomes. “It always has been, no matter what technology it uses.”
“The commodity trap is real, and most print businesses already feel it. Margins compress, clients treat print as a line-item purchase, and differentiation becomes nearly impossible when the conversation starts and ends at price per unit,” agrees Naimish Patel, VP of sales, OnPrintShop.
However, the escape route is not just adopting AI. It is adopting AI in a way that visibly changes the outcome for clients, stresses Patel. “When a print service provider uses AI to build targeted audience segments, clean a mailing list, generate personalized layouts at scale, and then connect campaign results back to measurable response rates, they stop looking like a vendor and start looking like a marketing partner.”
Success also comes when you lead with the data. Patel says the customers that do it right walk into client conversations asking about CRM exports, customer segments, and purchase behavior. “They are not pitching print runs. They are pitching outcomes. AI enables that shift because it does the analytical heavy lifting that most print businesses previously could not resource.”
The commercial model changes too. “When you offer AI-assisted campaign strategy, audience segmentation, and attribution reporting alongside production, you can charge for the intelligence. That is where the margin lives. Print as execution, AI as the brain behind it,” adds Patel.
Szabo-Melamed points out that customers don’t wake up wanting AI per se. “They want better response rates, higher revenue, more efficient campaigns, and a better customer experience. AI helps service providers deliver those outcomes more quickly and efficiently.”
Tracking Attribution
Print and marketing service providers are able to utilize technology to track attribution and prove return on investment (ROI) to clients.
AI supports this in two ways. “First, it can help connect campaign data across multiple touchpoints, such as direct mail responses, quick response (QR) code scans, personalized URLs (PURLS), email engagement, online forms, CRM updates, and sales outcomes. Second, it helps interpret that data, identifying patterns that may not be obvious from a standard report,” shares DePauw.
For print providers, there is also an operational ROI story. Automation can track how long work takes, how many manual touchpoints are removed, how many errors are caught before press, and how much rework is avoided. DePauw suggests that when data is connected to hourly costs, job margins, and production capacity, providers can demonstrate the value of better workflows in commercial terms.
Patel feels that attribution has historically been the Achilles heel of print. “Digital channels deliver a click log. Print delivers a best guess. That gap has closed considerably, and AI is a significant part of why.”
The foundational mechanics are QR codes and PURLs. “Every personalized piece can carry a unique identifier that connects the physical mail event to a digital response. Scan to convert, scan to register, scan to redeem,” notes Patel.
While these are not new, AI improves how the data is interpreted. “Predictive attribution models can estimate the contribution of a mail piece even when the recipient converts through a different channel later, because they can model the lift in conversion probability following a confirmed mail receipt,” adds Patel.
Matchback analysis is another key tool. Patel explains that by comparing the customer file against purchaser data post-campaign, providers can attribute purchases to mail recipients even without a direct digital response event. “AI makes matchback more accurate by handling the probabilistic matching at scale and reducing the false positive rate.”
More sophisticated providers are now building client-facing dashboards that show this data in near real time. “A campaign goes out on Monday, response data starts populating Wednesday, and by the end of the week the client can see scan rates, conversion rates, and preliminary return on ad spend by segment. That kind of transparency is what moves print from a budget line to a strategic investment in the client’s mind,” adds Patel.
Industry data puts direct mail’s median ROI at 112 percent when properly measured. “The challenge has always been the ‘properly measured’ qualifier. AI and integrated tracking infrastructure are finally making that measurement accessible to providers who are not Fortune 500 marketing operations,” offers Patel.
Szabo-Melamed says AI is helping providers analyze larger and more complex datasets than would traditionally have been practical. Especially since print and marketing service providers are increasing going omni-channel and combining print, email, web, mobile, and CRM data, in their customer journeys. AI can help identify patterns, uncover correlations, and improve attribution models.
However, it is always important to understand that good attribution still depends on data collection, tracking infrastructure, and campaign design. “What AI does is help organizations extract more insight from that data and identify opportunities that might otherwise have been missed,” explains Szabo-Melamed.
AI and VDP
The utilization of AI across a variety of processes is more than a prediction—it’s now a reality. While AI-based tools offer unmatched potential, experts stress that they must be used with care and human oversite.
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