As AI continues to grow in popularity, there are naturally going to be people who may see it as a threat. To combat stigmas surrounding AI, Cassie Green, content director for Appparelist, moderated the panel discussion “Revolutionizing Apparel Decoration: Unlocking AI’s Creative Power for Profitable Design” at PRINTING United Expo. Green was joined by Marshall Atkinson, business coach at Atkinson Consulting, and Mark Coudray, founder of Coudray Growth Technologies. 

Together, Coudray and Atkinson outlined various AI platforms that are currently available, what the benefits and pitfalls of each are, and how shops can best utilize them.

The purpose of the session was to show those who are still hesitant to explore AI technology that it’s time to dive in because, in reality, AI is a tool that can aid print shops in various ways. And it’s not just for apparel decorators — it applies to everyone in the industry. 

“AI is all about moving faster, so we can use the benefits of this technology, and we can apply it to business practices,” Atkinson said. “We can use these tools more than you might think. You can use it to write a blog article or write an email, or you could use it to create a spreadsheet. You can also use it for training and different things; so we can apply this technology in ways that we’ve never thought possible.”

If You Haven’t Started, Now is the Time

Atkinson said that the biggest challenge pertaining to AI is simply just adopting it. He referenced the acronym FEAR, which stands for “false evidence appearing real.” And because of this FEAR, people react like a deer in headlights. 

“We think that it’s not going to work, or we think there’s going to be a trademark copyright violation and it’s not true. And what happens is we don’t actually do things. We just sit on our butt and let somebody else do it. And so what you guys really need to do is just dive in and just start using things, start figuring it out, open up an account, start playing with it,” Atkinson said. 

Finding the Right AI Platform

Given that AI has exploded onto the scene and everywhere you turn there’s a different AI app or website to use, Coudray gave some words of advice — clarity, confidence, and commitment. 

“You just have to be clear on what you want,” Coudray said. “Clarity is number one, that’s the first starting point because if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there, right? You’ll go nowhere. So you’ve got to get clarity around what you’re trying to accomplish with AI.” 

For confidence, Coudray said that it’s two-fold, you have to have confidence that the program you found can help you reach your clarity or initial goal, and you also must have the confidence that the platform is going to work for you. 

As for commitment, Coudray emphasized that even if you don’t initially get the result you wanted, you should remain committed. 

“There’s no failures, there’s only learning lessons. So if you have an outcome that’s not to your expectation, or it was an undesirable outcome, the price you pay is the price of that lesson,” Coudray said. 

As for what platforms the panelists have had success with, the pair talked about Midjourney, Tracejourney, Notion, and Raft to name a few. 

AI’s Future in Decorated Apparel

As AI continues to grow in popularity, Coudray said he sees this as an opportunity not just for apparel decorators, but for every small business out there. 

“Small business today has been absolutely hammered with COVID through all the restrictions, all of the corporations that are consolidating, and you need to be able to stand out,” Coudray said. “Once your competition figures out that you’re using Midjourney or Trace, they start working on their own program to compete with you down the road. That time from the discovery of what you’re doing until they have something to compete with you, that total time is competitive longevity. That’s how long you want to be unique in your space.”

The session concluded with questions from the audience.