On the final day of Printing United Expo in Orlando, Wayne Beckett from INKISH stopped by the Fiery booth to speak with Heather Long, Product Marketing Manager at Fiery. Despite the long week, Heather was in high spirits. “It’s been incredible,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of foot traffic and strong leads, so it’s been a really successful show for us. We’re excited to wrap up on a high note.” Wayne noted that this year’s event seemed to be the biggest yet, with both exhibitors and visitors. Heather agreed. “Yes, it’s definitely been busy,” she said. “It’s great to see so much energy and engagement from the industry.” Heather explained that Fiery was using the show to preview a new workflow automation solution called Fiery JobFlow Pro. “This is the successor to our current Fiery JobFlow,” she said. “We’ve completely redesigned it from the ground up on a much higher performance platform, so it’s faster, more flexible, and now integrates with AI.” She described how the system is designed to remove repetitive, time-consuming prepress tasks. “For example, if you’re getting hundreds of small jobs like business cards, you don’t want operators spending all day clicking the same settings and doing the same impositions,” she said. “JobFlow Pro automates those steps. It reduces clicks, eliminates human error, and frees up time so operators can focus on higher-value work.” Wayne asked how the system fits into a typical production environment, especially for companies running web-to-print systems. “That’s one of the biggest changes,” Heather explained. “We’ve re-engineered the architecture so it can receive jobs from multiple sources—e-commerce sites, job tickets, Command WorkStation, or even drag-and-drop from a browser. Once a file is received, the AI scans not just the metadata but also the file contents to understand what kind of job it really is. So if someone uploads a file named ‘businesscard.pdf’ but it’s actually a catalog, the system will recognize that and route it to the right workflow automatically.” She added that the AI also improves communication and usability for less experienced operators. “If a preflight report comes back full of technical terms, a beginner might not know what to do with it. JobFlow Pro can translate that into plain language, so it’s easy to understand. It can even send the report back to the customer automatically with simple instructions so they can fix it themselves.” According to Heather, the system is flexible enough to suit any type of user. “You can have an experienced prepress technician or a new intern using it,” she said. “Once the workflows are built, the AI handles the routing and logic. It’s all about making automation accessible.” Wayne asked how far the system goes in the production chain. “Ultimately, the goal is to get the job to print,” Heather said. “We can connect to any Fiery-driven printer—whether it’s a cut-sheet device or a large-format printer—and we can also integrate with MIS or ERP systems to feed production data, trigger new workflows, or even automate tasks like printing shipping labels once a job is complete. It really can go all the way to dispatch.” She added that the new system is far more dynamic than before. “The old JobFlow was more linear. JobFlow Pro can branch, connect, and scale. It’s built on a modern node-based framework, so it’s open-source friendly. Customers can create or add their own building blocks to customize workflows. We’ve tried to remove the need for scripting so it’s easier to use, but power users can still go deep and integrate at the API level.” Fiery JobFlow Pro, Heather confirmed, will be available in early December. “It’s all about our new motto: ‘Print smarter, automate anything,’” she said. “Reducing touchpoints, improving consistency, and giving customers tools to scale up—those are the goals.” Wayne smiled. “That’s exactly what the industry needs,” he said. “Fewer touchpoints, more automation, and faster turnaround.” Heather nodded. “Exactly,” she said. “That’s what we’re aiming for.”