It might be said that artificial intelligence (AI) is destined to improve our personal and professional lives in ways that aren’t completely known or appreciated. But the last year alone has given us a glimpse at how various applications can help us enhance efficiency, accomplish more and do away with mundane tasks, carving out time better served with high-value projects.
Our State of the Industry report (see page 8) delves into how eight leading office technology dealerships are bolstering sales, marketing and internal processes. Not surprisingly, the manufacturer community has made similar technology commitments to aid dealer partners and their clients in addition to internal operations. We’ve got a selection of applications that are currently impacting OEM product offerings, simultaneously providing a glimpse into how AI will evolve through the lens of our industry. The best may be yet to come, but as you’ll see, we’ve gotten off to a strong start.
Avision
Jun Huang
General Manager
Being able to do more with less is a driving force behind AI, and that extends to the feature sets of MFPs. Efficiency and accuracy are two of the value propositions behind our Drop N Take smart copy feature. This intuitive technology can reduce the inaccuracies that invariably bubble to the top when MFP users hastily rush document printing in order to make an important meeting or presentation.
The Drop N Take function, which is available on Avision’s A3 and A4 units, can turn a disorganized pile into straight and orderly output, regardless of whether you’re using the flatbed or automatic document feeder. Instead of spending time carefully ensuring a page is straight and positioned correctly on the glass, the de-skew function will take improperly positioned originals, rotate them correctly and churn out a flawless copy.
Generally, a stack of pages needs to be aligned well for an automatic document feeder to avoid jamming the machine. The de-skew function can turn a haphazard pile of original documents into a tight deck of two-sided copies with all images properly oriented. The Drop N Take feature also provides automatic cropping and blank page removal.
Dealers can learn more about Drop N Take and our line of a dozen A3 and A4 units by visiting us at all the BTA events this year. You can also reach me at jun@avision-labs.com.
Epson
Juan Carlos Castillo
Director, Commercial Channel Sales
As AI reshapes the technology landscape, Epson is focused on ensuring its product portfolio is AI-compatible and ready to integrate seamlessly into the broader AI ecosystem. Unlike AI in computing, where processing occurs at the core, Epson products take on a unique role by enhancing the activities that require print, projection and scan. As such, our products are equipped to support AI-driven environments.
One example is the role of AI with MFPs. The Epson WorkForce Enterprise AM-C550, designed to boost productivity, tracks weekly power and consumable usage, triggers service alerts and publishes detailed device information. As a result, this data provides a strong foundation for future implementations of AI-related services.
Our philosophy of efficient, compact and precise innovation to enrich lives is supported by AI and helps our customers unlock new levels of efficiency and productivity.
HP
Greg Kuziej
Senior Director, Office Print Product Management
HP is embedding AI across its print division to help office technology resellers deliver smarter, more secure solutions to customers. These AI-driven innovations are designed to streamline workflows, reduce manual tasks and boost productivity—key selling points for today’s hybrid work environments.
A standout feature is HP’s AI-enhanced workflow automation. AI tools that simplify scanning to email now auto-generate email subject lines, file names, and searchable summaries, making document handling faster and more intuitive for end users. For dealers managing fleets, HP’s predictive maintenance capabilities—built on Smart Device Services—use AI to anticipate issues before they disrupt operations. AI also optimizes printed output by removing unwanted content, ensuring clean, professional results.
Security remains a top priority. HP’s printers now include quantum-resistant hardware and integrate into zero-trust environments. On-device AI features, such as automatic redaction of personally identifiable information (PII), enhance data privacy without relying on the cloud—an attractive proposition for compliance-conscious clients.
By integrating AI into print, PCs, and conferencing solutions, HP is positioning its channel partners to lead in digital transformation with intelligent, secure and efficient offerings.
Katun Corp.
Kay Fernandez
VP of Global Marketing
AI is rapidly transforming the way we work, and at Katun, we’re embracing this evolution to drive greater efficiency, responsiveness and innovation. Across our organization, we’re actively adopting AI tools to streamline operations, support our teams and discover new and fun ways to help our partners succeed.
One primary focus area is improving internal productivity. We’re using Microsoft Copilot to bring AI directly into tools such as Teams, Word, Excel and Outlook, enabling employees to automate repetitive tasks, analyze data more quickly and summarize key points from meetings. Trello’s AI features are used for project management to better prioritize tasks, predict timelines and enhance team collaboration.
The global marketing team uses HubSpot’s AI tools for content creation and to refine content, allowing for more personalized, relevant outreach. This improves our marketing efforts, ensuring we consistently deliver meaningful content to our audience. We also leverage Adobe’s AI-powered ecommerce tools to create personalized, data-driven digital experiences that improve the user journey and boost engagement.
We’re finding creative uses for AI, too. At Katun’s Latin American offices, teams used AI to design action figures of Katun leaders and products, adding a playful, engaging twist to social media content that’s sparked excitement and increased interaction.
As we continue to explore the potential of AI at Katun, we remain focused on how it can empower our partners through smarter automation, better customer experiences and sharper insights.
Konica Minolta
Cody Walton
Senior Director, Sales Engagement
At Konica Minolta, artificial intelligence is reshaping how we deliver value to customers, empower dealer partners and drive innovation across our business.
AI is now integrated into our hardware platforms. Our Auto Quality Adjustment (AQA) technology uses AI-powered image diagnostics to monitor printed output, detect quality issues and even perform self-corrections. This advancement enables predictive maintenance, reduces downtime and ensures optimal device performance, enhancing value for end-users and dealer service teams.
AI-driven tools also enhance daily sales engagements. From AI-powered work assistants with Copilot to CRM-integrated assistants that streamline follow-ups and deliver real-time customer insights, these technologies allow our teams to work smarter, personalize interactions and close business more efficiently.
Additionally, the service customers receive is undergoing transformative change. AI has improved service operations through 24/7 virtual agents that quickly resolve common issues, triage support calls and escalate complex cases. Predictive analytics further optimizes device performance and service schedules, boosting uptime and customer satisfaction.
We’re rethinking how AI can impact all our diverse business units including our IT services division, our new IIM business unit (BlueIrisIQ), our physical security arm (Force Security Solutions) and even our core imaging business. Whether enhancing object detection in video surveillance or automating document workflows, AI is helping meet the evolving needs of modern workplaces and creating opportunities for our customers and dealers.
The second half of 2025 is exciting as we launch new AI-powered solutions to drive efficiency, automation and intelligent decision making. Konica Minolta is committed to leading the future of work through smart technology that empowers our customers and dealer partners.
Kyocera
Ravi Koul
Senior Director, Product Marketing Office Technology
Kyocera is at the fore of exciting technological innovation, bringing practical applications of advanced AI capabilities to the document solutions market. These advancements are transforming how we interact with office devices and get work done by enhancing productivity, offering more robust document security and more. Kyocera is committed to integrating AI into its products in functional ways and, as a result, is poised to deliver significant benefits to our channel partners, end-customers and users.
Many of Kyocera’s devices harness AI technology to ensure users attain high-quality outcomes promptly and efficiently. These include:
Handwriting enhancement: Scanned handwritten documents have improved clarity, making them easier to read and process.
Image defect prevention: Common issues for scanned documents such as folded corners or attached Post-it notes are identified, and users are notified so they can rectify them prior to processing.
Confidential document guard: Protection for sensitive information in documents is bolstered during scanning and printing processes, providing users greater peace of mind.
B: Image resolution is further enhanced thanks to AI, delivering crystal-clear results for important business documents and applications.
Additionally, Kyocera is working on deploying AI for additional use cases in operational assistance, serviceability, security, document processing and sustainability. By leveraging AI technology, Kyocera ensures its devices meet the evolving needs of modern workplaces, providing remarkable customer experiences and driving growth in a challenging market.
Lexmark International
Chris White
Director of Global Product Portfolio
Lexmark is strategically weaving AI into the fabric of its business, creating value for end-users, empowering dealer partners and optimizing internal operations.
A key focus area is our managed print services (MPS), where AI acts as a predictive engine. By remotely overseeing 1.5 million-plus printers deployed at enterprise customer sites, Lexmark leverages AI to anticipate and prevent printing disruptions before they occur. This approach remotely resolves 70% of potential issues, minimizing downtime and ensuring seamless operations for clients. Lexmark also uses AI to intelligently manage printing supplies by predicting toner depletion and automatically shipping replacements, relieving customers of inventory management burdens before they happen.
Furthermore, we’re dedicated to equipping our channel partners with the tools they need to successfully integrate AI-powered technology into their MPS offerings. Lexmark offers a complete range of resources and support, including our turnkey MPS Express solution, helping partners seamlessly deliver AI-driven MPS through our platform.
We’re always looking to drive efficiency and quality internally. We utilize AI to optimize manufacturing processes through smart cameras, conducting automated visual inspections of the newly minted printers on our assembly line. This has resulted in a remarkable 40% improvement in inspection speed, a near-perfect 99% reduction in errors and a rapid return on our AI investment within three months. Recognizing the broad applicability of our AI expertise, Lexmark offers Optra Edge, a user-friendly platform that distills best practices for other device manufacturers and organizations seeking to implement AI at the Edge. This speaks to our commitment to democratizing AI and fostering innovation across industries.
To keep us innovating for the future, Lexmark prioritizes internal AI skill development, providing employees with access to GenAI tools while fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Ricoh
Nate Howland
Portfolio Architect—AI Innovation Lead, RICOH Digital Services & Delivery
We believe AI has tremendous potential to reshape the workplace by streamlining repetitive tasks and workflows, and we’re investing in our people, processes and platforms to expedite and optimize its benefits. This includes:
People: Ongoing training for our teams is foundational to our strategy, ensuring they’re equipped to understand the rapidly evolving applications of this technology and apply AI capabilities effectively and responsibly. Another area Ricoh is exploring is agentic AI, which includes digital “staff” that can provide real-time support. These adaptive, next-gen assistants learn from user interactions to continuously improve and provide a more personalized experience for our customers.
Process: Many businesses, particularly those in industries with high document volume such as health care and financial services, continue to struggle with how to structure and integrate disparate data sources. Ricoh is investing in generative AI and machine learning to further enhance our document management and automation solutions through intelligent data processing, which can extract, interpret and classify even the most complex documents.
Platform: One of the ways Ricoh is mitigating the unpredictability of return on AI investments is through an orchestration layer on our digital platform, allowing us to evaluate the latest AI advancements and estimate costs based on specific use cases. This approach allows us to better navigate the uncertainties of this rapidly evolving field, maximizing our strategic advantage while minimizing risk.
Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America
Colin Regina
VP, Media Systems Group
Sharp is leveraging AI to revolutionize its service operations, benefiting both end-users and dealer partners. AI-driven innovations, such as predictive maintenance, automated diagnostics and intelligent troubleshooting, are transforming the way service teams diagnose and resolve technical issues. By reducing the time spent searching for information and identifying problems, AI enhances efficiency, accelerates repair times and minimizes downtime—resulting in improved customer satisfaction and cost savings for dealers.
A key example of Sharp’s AI integration is Synappx Manage, an advanced solution that uses IoT sensors and cloud-based data to automate service processes. This technology allows dealers to diagnose issues remotely, order necessary parts and even fix certain problems without requiring on-site visits. The result is a seamless service experience that cuts operational costs while improving response times.
Looking ahead, Sharp is developing AI-driven predictive algorithms to assist less-experienced technicians in troubleshooting complex issues more efficiently. These advancements will enable dealers to optimize their workforce by equipping technicians with real-time, data-driven insights, allowing them to handle a wider range of service requests with confidence. Additionally, AI’s ability to anticipate potential failures before they occur will help businesses proactively prevent costly disruptions.
While AI is a game-changer, Sharp recognizes the importance of balancing automation with human expertise. Skilled technicians will continue to play a vital role in interpreting AI recommendations and managing complex repairs. By ensuring AI tools are securely connected, Sharp is committed to delivering smart, reliable and secure solutions for the evolving business landscape.
Toshiba America Business Solutions
Kerstin Woods
Vice President, Solutions and Outbound Marketing
At Toshiba America Business Solutions, we leverage AI to transform our business operations and enhance dealer support. Toshiba’s AI initiatives span our major business areas, making significant improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction.
To create better business outcomes for dealers and clients, we’ve integrated AI throughout our cloud-connected devices. This enables advanced predictive maintenance and proactive issue resolution to significantly improve uptime and customer service. For instance, Elevate Sky Predict uses machine learning to monitor MFP health and flag potential issues before they occur.
Elevate Sky AI further enhances this by applying AI to service information and overlaying device data to forecast these needs while automatically creating service tickets, ensuring swift problem resolution.
For our clients, Elevate Sky Translate leverages AI to perform contextually aware document translations into more than 190 languages, making it perfect for school, health care and government applications.
Toshiba’s Elevate Sky Workflow adopts AI to automatically classify semi-structured and unstructured business documents, redact personally identifiable information and route it into the appropriate workflow process, improving efficiency and reducing manual tasks.
By implementing AI-driven tools to improve pipeline accuracy and sales engagement, our sales operations also benefit. These tools analyze key factors such as industry, customer status and deal stage to predict the likelihood of an opportunity closing, thereby helping sales teams prioritize deals. Additionally, AI-powered email summaries enable faster customer response times and seamless issue resolution.
In marketing, AI has revolutionized our content creation and lead generation processes. AI tools optimize SEO, driving relevant traffic and increasing awareness. Integrated lead capture systems engage visitors with relevant content, enhancing conversion rates. And AI-driven video production ensures consistency and scalability, allowing us to produce high-quality content efficiently.
Overall, AI is helping Toshiba dealers by providing advanced tools for predictive maintenance, improving sales performance and enhancing marketing efforts. These innovations boost efficiency and facilitate better customer experiences, positioning Toshiba as a leader in AI-driven business solutions.
Xerox
Prashant Ramars Jilella
Senior Director of Xerox Digital Services
Shivani Agrawal
VP of Xerox Digital Services
In the rapidly evolving technology landscape, Xerox is a standout when it comes to innovation and forward-thinking solutions. With a legacy of transforming the way businesses drive productivity, Xerox pushes possibilities through cutting-edge AI technologies and intelligent document processing solutions.
We’ve made strides in the realm of document digitization, leveraging state-of-the-art AI to deliver best-in-class solutions. Leading this innovation are two proprietary products: Xerox IDP Solutions and Xerox IDP SaaS App.
Xerox IDP Solutions encompass enterprise-grade capabilities such as document classification, data extraction, duplicate document detection, translation services and fraud detection. The Xerox IDP SaaS App, accessible via mobile phones, laptops or directly from Xerox devices, offers a nimble, mobile-friendly version for quick data extraction and conversion. The app enables users to scan documents and easily extract data for seamless integration with business applications.
Xerox intelligent document processing solutions use large language models (LLMs) to analyze documents to determine their type, structure and intent. This advanced analysis allows for the accurate extraction of key data points from both structured and unstructured sections, converting complex documents into structured data that can be easily integrated into business processes.
Once valuable data is extracted, Xerox Agentic AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions come into play. Partnering with industry leaders such as UiPath and Microsoft, Xerox builds automated workflows for downstream processes originating from documents. These custom workflows span various industries and functions including invoice processing, order entry, legal document processing and customer support ticket creation.
Xerox has also deployed Gen AI chatbots. For example, the recently launched Solver provides immediate and insightful answers to technical questions and supply inquiries, offering 24/7 support across 18 countries in six languages. Solver’s advanced generative AI capabilities ensure personalized and efficient assistance, helping clients navigate their needs promptly.
Xerox AI-powered chatbots are revolutionizing help-desk support for functions such as HR and IT. The latest chatbot deployment assists the HR department of a large California county in handling employee queries related to new policies, showcasing how Xerox solutions are tailored to meet an organization’s needs.
Xerox isn’t just anticipating the future but actively shaping it. Its investment in AI enhances both internal operations and client offerings, enabling predictive decision-making, process simplification and improved service levels. The goal is to boost employee efficiency, reduce carbon footprint and elevate the client experience. By driving smarter, more efficient solutions, Xerox is setting the standard for excellence, transforming the way businesses operate worldwide and redefining the future of work.
