What 269 Registrations Taught Us About AI in Promo, Print & Apparel
- Jay Busselle
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
Last year, 269 people registered for the first Automate & Elevate Summit. We asked them what AI, automation and technology tools they were actually using, and the answers gave us a fascinating snapshot of where our industry was at that moment.
One number jumped off the page: nearly 3 out of 4 respondents were already using ChatGPT. AI had clearly moved from curiosity into the everyday workflow for a lot of people.
The data basically confirmed what I suspected: promo, print and apparel people are leaning into AI in our own wonderfully chaotic way.
The 2025 Top 10
Once we cleaned up the responses, combined the different spellings and organized the tools, here's what rose to the top:
There's a lot hiding inside that list.
ChatGPT dominated, but look at everything underneath it. Image generation. Automation. Research. Coding. Video and audio. Sales prospecting. Data visualization. And sitting at #4 was Merch.ai, an AI platform built specifically for the promotional products industry.
People weren't just experimenting with one kind of AI. They were looking for ways to use technology across different parts of their work.
Here's what I really want to know:
What will this Top 10 look like one year later?
Will Gemini or Claude break into the list? Do automation tools move higher? Will more industry-specific platforms show up? And will AI agents become part of the everyday conversation?
Maybe the biggest question is how many tools will appear this year that weren't even on our radar in 2025.
Let's face it; a year in AI is a long time.
The Combinations May Tell an Even Bigger Story
The individual tools were interesting. The combinations were even more interesting.
We saw people moving beyond a single AI tool and beginning to combine technologies. ChatGPT with Zapier. Creative AI alongside automation. General-purpose AI mixed with tools designed for specific jobs and workflows. A list of tools tells us what people are trying. The combinations start telling us how work itself may be changing.
Tools like Zapier and Zoho showed us the potential of connecting systems and automating work, which is also at the heart of what Eric Granata and PromoPilot are building for this industry. Merch.ai was another early signal in our 2025 data, showing the growing opportunity for AI and technology designed around the way promo businesses actually work.
We're moving from "Look what AI can make" toward "Look what AI can help me do."
Here's What I Think
AI isn't coming to our industry. It's clearly here. When nearly three out of four respondents are using ChatGPT, we've moved past the early-adopter conversation. The better question is how well we're using these tools and whether they're actually helping us work differently.
We're experimenting before we have everything figured out. That feels pretty familiar for promo, print and apparel people. We're curious. We try things. We keep what works.
The next chapter is bigger than ChatGPT. I think we will see a lot of growth in the combination of tools like ChatGPT, Zoho, Zapier, and Apollo.io to build highly automated, AI-driven outbound sales and lead generation funnels in a step-by-step workflow. I can't be sure but I believe a lot of business owners have moved past just creating content.
Industry-specific AI may be one of the bigger stories ahead. Merch.ai stood out last year because it was built around the work we actually do. As more platforms like that emerge, the question becomes less "What can AI do?" and more "What can AI do with an understanding of my business?" There is still a pretty big gap between using AI and actually changing how you work.
What about the 12% of respondents who were essentially AI-free? I bet that number stays pretty close to the same.
That's exactly why I'm excited to ask these questions again this year. I want to see what moved. What disappeared. What surprised us. And I really want to see this year's Top 10!
My guess is we're going to learn a lot.
Save the date:
Thursday, November 12 | 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
Automate & Elevate 2026
Registration is coming soon. 💪🏼 ©️ 2026 Branded Merch Network
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