Last month, the Imprint team took a road trip. It wasn’t a long one, but it did leave an impact! We ventured just a few NYC blocks over to the Jacobs Javits Center to attend the AI Summit New York. Hundreds of vendors presented AI-powered solutions aimed at enhancing—and often claiming to transform—a business’ operations. One reason for going: our clients frequently find the abundance of tools overwhelming and seek our guidance to navigate the options effectively. Another reason: to satisfy our curiosity.
Navigating AI options
The enormous event underscored the challenge of evaluating numerous AI tools. You could wander the maze of booths and stages for hours and leave not entirely sure what you just saw. So we took a structured approach that I think helps in this situation: We categorized the flood of tools into essential “needs” and aspirational “wants.” Separating AI tools into these two buckets helped us sort through in an informed way that led to better decision-making amid the proliferation of offerings.
Essential needs
For Imprint and our clients, tools in the “needs” category prioritize operational and process fundamentals. Every business is seeking to simplify or automate processes to enhance efficiency and reduce costs. And some AI tools are great at such productivity improvements. Many are also amazing with capabilities like rapid analysis of large datasets. These examples align with continued process improvement initiatives, which are core activities embedded in the culture of most businesses. At some level, we all need to get more efficient with the work we do.
Strategic wants
Conversely, “wants” address visionary opportunities beyond our day-to-day challenges. This includes goals like advancing personalized communications and achieving high-quality video production at reduced cost. Many of these tools are so new that we try to approach them with a healthy dose of skepticism; You need to be ready to quickly lean into or pivot away from the technology. For example, Imprint is actively testing a video tool we came across at the Summit. We’ll know soon from the pilot if it lives up to its promise of faster, less expensive video that meets our client’s needs. If so, we’ll embrace it further across our operation. If not—there are many other options waiting out there. This is what I love about the “wants”—they’re nice to have, but if they don’t pan out, you let them go and move on to the next.
The advantage of curiosity
The Imprint team entered the Javits Center with open minds, looking to discover solutions we both needed and wanted. It’s this commitment to exploring all types of AI tools that distinguishes us from so many of our competitors. And it’s that mindset that our clients count on to help them separate the whiz-bang tools from those that can actually make a difference for them. Because let’s face it: There are so many tools rapidly coming to market—so many shiny objects to sort through and get distracted by.
That’s why curiosity overlaid on this needs-versus-wants framework makes sense for us. We all get excited about the next slick AI tool. But by going in with some concrete questions—Will this really make us more efficient? Can we improve the quality of our work with this? How could this technology benefit our clients’ marketing efforts? We can separate what’s cool from what’s truly game-changing.
Curious which AI tools are worth your attention, and which you can safely ignore? Our team helps brands evaluate emerging technology with clarity and intention. Reach out to continue the conversation. Send us a message here or email imprint@imprintcontent.com.
