Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past several months, you’ve likely heard about the surge in artificial intelligence (AI). Sites like ChatGPT for text output and MidJourney for image creation are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to new applications for AI.

But what does it all mean for the print industry and more specifically, for print-on-demand (POD)? While nobody can predict the future, we certainly can make some predictions considering the speed at which we’re seeing new projects using this technology.

What is AI?

First of all, what is AI exactly? At its core, AI refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These systems are “trained” on massive data sets specific to the task they’re ultimately programmed to complete. These tasks include learning from experience, understanding natural language, recognizing patterns or objects, problem-solving, and even creating art. For example, an image-generating AI program may have been trained on millions and millions of images from the internet.

How is AI Being Used in POD?

As you can imagine, the allure of having a computer create hundreds and even thousands of designs that you can leverage on different sales channels and across multiple products makes the idea of automating this process very valuable. In fact, websites such as wondrai.com are doing this for their customers already. They proport to listing 1,000 products every day with their software.

Others use sites like MidJourney to create unique designs, upscaling them for better print quality, and then taking them into Adobe Photoshop or ever Canva to add some text. Viola! You have yourself a T-shirt design! Here’s an image I created in MidJourney that could easily be made into a T-shirt or coffee mug.

Credit: Travis Ross

The next potential step would be to fire up ChatGPT to create unique titles and descriptions of your masterpiece. For example, check out this prompt I created asking ChatGPT to create me a title and description for a cat T-shirt for sale online:

Credit: Travis Ross

Taking it a Step Further with Automation

Now that we’ve established how easy it is to use AI to create unique products, let’s spice things up a bit. What if we used an AI quote generator to come up with hundreds of quotes to use with our cat design we made earlier? Here’s an example of one such program:

Credit: Travis Ross

Once we have downloaded hundreds of quotes that could apply with our cat image, we can take it to a bulk image creator such as Canva’s Bulk Create tool. From there, we simply upload our image and choose a font for our text.

We then connect the text to our list of quotes and press Create. Canva (and many other sites with similar features) will output a new design with our cat image and one of our quotes. It’s a very simple process and as such, designs like this are being loaded onto products every day by the thousands.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

As you can see, the opportunities for using AI in print-on-demand are only limited by your own imagination. But what about the legal and ethical implications? Here are a few of these considerations.

1. Intellectual Property Rights – One major concern when using AI-generated art is intellectual property rights. Considering all of the outputs an image generator creates are in some way generated from human artists and designers, you can see how the art community could see this as violating their rights.
2. Impact on Artists’ Livelihoods – The rise of AI-generated art could potentially displace traditional artists from their livelihoods if businesses increasingly opt for cost-effective automated solutions over hiring human talent. Additionally, relying heavily on artificial intelligence might hinder aspiring artists from honing their skills and pursuing a career in the arts, as they may find it challenging to compete with AI-generated creations.
3. Ethical Use of Data – AI systems often require vast amounts of data for training purposes, which might include copyrighted or personal information. It seems that government oversight in the AI community will be needed so companies adhere to strict privacy and data protection guidelines while also respecting intellectual property rights.

So, What Do I Do in My Business?

There are two sides to every dilemma, and we’ve presented both here. Obviously this tech is only going to continue to evolve over time, and you can be certain that businesses will take advantage of those opportunities. In order to compete in the long game, you need to understand this new tech. It’s not going anywhere.

At the same time, there is litigation happening now that may ultimately make any work you do in this arena completely moot. While I can’t imagine all forms of AI will be outlawed, there may be certain aspects that are not safe to use in your business legally speaking.

Ultimately, the decision to use AI-generated content in your print-on-demand business is up to you. But either way, it would certainly be wise to dig into this new technology and understand its potential for your business.