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The AI project of the printing industry
Together with printing companies we make AI concrete on the shop floor. We give advice and share what we learn. You will also find the right training here and integrators who help you further.
What Printelligence offers is free. If you want to go further, you will find events and training at VIGC and at Sirris.
The research project of VIGC and Sirris, supported by VLAIO (Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship). Everything in this block is free for printing companies.
Next up: demo and workshop on 18 November
VIGC goes further with AI than Printelligence: sessions together with other companies and training at your own company.
Sirris is our partner in Printelligence. In the labs you test AI before you invest and the calendar is full of sessions about AI on the shop floor.
Get acquainted first: one hour online
VIGC inspiration session
No prior knowledge needed
You get a view of what AI agents can and cannot do, with applications from the industry that you recognise from your own work. No technical frills. After the demo there is time for your questions.
26 November 2026
For business owners and production managers who want to assess the possibilities, and for anyone in prepress or administration who wants to work with smart tools. Want to go deeper afterwards? Then there is the masterclass on the impact of AI.
Recommended next hands-on day
PRINTELLIGENCE demo + workshop
09:00 to 12:30
Live demonstration of the results from the PRINTELLIGENCE project. You see how AI is put to work on the shop floor of printing companies, from production data analysis to smart dashboards. For business leaders, production managers and IT managers. The demo can also be attended separately.
13:30 to 16:30
The practical next step for technical profiles. You start from a bare server and end with a working automation: SSH, Linux, Docker and n8n, clicked together live, on open source software that you repeat afterwards at your own company. You work on talking to your production data, building a dashboard and local AI. Bring your own laptop. Lunch provided.
Not sure where to start? Try the course finder or ask for advice.
Three contacts at VIGC and Sirris. Choose who you want to talk to and request a 30-minute conversation.
VIGC
For a work question, an AI scan, a tailored training or a private POC.
geert.bammens@vigc.be LinkedIn Request a conversation Geert's viewing and reading tips
Sirris
For local AI, local RAG, the right hardware and the Sirris labs.
ward.vanongeval@sirris.be LinkedIn Request a conversation
VIGC
For questions about print production and training.
carl.van.rooy@vigc.be LinkedIn Request a conversationFifteen guides, from your first custom GPT to a production dashboard with agents. Choose your level and begin.
You use AI in your daily work. You ask questions, have texts and analyses made and set up an assistant without programming.
You work with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to finish tasks faster. You build custom GPTs and use NotebookLM for document analysis.
ChatGPT, Custom GPT, NotebookLM, Prompting
You build something that works yourself: a dashboard, a connection, an agent or an AI server at your company. In plain language, with AI as the builder.
You combine AI tools in smart workflows. You start with vibe coding, build prototypes with Claude Code and connect tools through MCP servers. If you go further, you let agents work together and set up your own AI server.
Vibe Coding, Claude Code, Agents, Local AI
Green is using, orange is building. Every guide, training and tile carries the colour of its level.
Ten AI integrators help you with all your AI questions. Usually it is about your data: AI is the accelerator. The project team has visited them all.
The first proof of concept is finished and two steering groups are behind us. Read the reports and browse the presentations.
Report steering group 2, Corda Hasselt, 24 September 2026
In March we collected 75 ideas from the industry in Leuven. On 24 September we showed in Hasselt what has become of them.
POC 1 at Drukkerij Moderna
Since 2001 operators have typed more than a hundred thousand log entries at the press. We put them next to the machine data.
“every single time it is warm outside”
Stay informed about our progress and research in the printing industry.
Looking for a training that matches your AI level? See the full offer or plan an advice conversation.
PRINTELLIGENCE is a VLAIO COOCK+ innovation project of VIGC and Sirris. The focus: lower costs and supported operators.
By intelligently analysing incoming orders and clustering them optimally, AI minimises the set-up times of the machines. This increases the effective print capacity and ensures a much smoother flow.
By analysing machine data, AI predicts wear and defects early. This prevents unplanned downtime and considerably lowers maintenance costs.
Smart algorithms control energy-intensive installations (such as drying ovens) automatically and optimally. This gives printing companies a direct and structural energy saving.
Digital assistants translate complex data into personalised work instructions and real-time advice on the shop floor. This lowers the administrative burden and helps employees work without errors.
Two knowledge centres carry out the project and the Flemish government funds it. Click a logo to go to their site.
The industry
The Vlaams Innovatiecentrum voor Grafische Communicatie (Flemish Innovation Centre for Graphic Communication) is the independent knowledge centre of the printing industry, based in Turnhout. Companies come to VIGC for training and advice, for lab tests and for events.
In this project. VIGC submitted Printelligence and knows the questions of the printing companies. Together with the steering group it chooses the use cases and brings the results to the industry with workshops and this site.
The technology
Sirris is the collective centre of the Belgian technology industry, founded in 1949 by Agoria. More than 150 experts work from eight Belgian sites on technology that companies actually put to use.
In this project. Sirris brings along the AI knowledge from the manufacturing industry. It builds and tests the proofs of concept in cycles of eight weeks and turns them into reusable building blocks, such as prompts and scripts.
The funding
VLAIO is Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship, the agency of the Flemish government. It is the point of contact for entrepreneurs in Flanders and supports innovation at companies and knowledge centres.
In this project. VLAIO funds Printelligence through the COOCK+ programme. In the 2025 call, 14 of the 27 submitted proposals received support. Printelligence is one of them, with project number HBC.2025.0603.
To vlaio.beThe support programme
COOCK stands for Collectief Onderzoek en Ontwikkeling en Collectieve Kennisverspreiding (collective research and development and collective knowledge dissemination). With this programme VLAIO lets knowledge centres translate existing research into something a broad group of companies can use. It mainly targets SMEs that do not have a research department of their own.
VLAIO supports a new series of projects every year. These four come from VIGC or Sirris and are about production or about the printing industry.
Everything we publish about the project, to read in full in this place.
The project team's news agent
Kelly is the project team's AI news agent. Every working day at 17:00 she collects the news from the printing industry: only what counts for a printing company, two sentences per item, always with the source attached. She selects, the reader judges whether it is relevant. She does not run here as a demo but for real, every day.