Five decades ago, I flew in a small plane from Silver City, NM, to Phoenix. Upon entering Phoenix airspace, the pilot scanned the skies and saw that the control tower hadn’t warned him about a passenger airliner flying dangerously close. We dove rapidly to avoid a collision. Afterward, the pilot told me that there’s no replacement for human eyes in an airplane. Decades later, I was flying in a passenger airliner that suffered a mechanical mishap mid-air. The pilot announced that the plane had built-in system redundancy. He said, “A keystone of airline safety is redundancy.”

Working together, technology and humans can achieve the best outcomes. Relying on one without the other is asking for trouble. This equation, and balance, is just as applicable to create accurate and complete product labels as it is in maintaining safety while flying.

While some manufacturers still regard what’s on their labels as an afterthought, there are myriad examples of how lack of label review quality can doom manufacturer reputations and endanger consumers. Depending on complexity, globality, and potential lethality of a particular product, the well-thought-out use of AI and human oversight to maximum benefit is not only advisable, but absolutely critical.

Consequences of giving label contents short shrift range from instilling customer doubt (e.g., inaccurate or incomplete labels can make consumers wonder if product quality itself is suspect) to deaths. One example of the latter is omitting or mis-stating product food allergens. On a broader level, product label mistakes ranging from mis-identified ingredients to inaccurate dosage and use instructions can endanger health, trigger product recalls, and trash brand reputation and consumer trust. Difficult-to-read labels can needlessly endanger (or at least mightily annoy) consumers.

Why humans still matter

I decided to use AI to craft reasons “why human review still matters in product label printing (even with AI).” Here’s what came back:

1. Regulatory Compliance & Accuracy:
AI can check for spelling, formatting, and even flag missing elements based on templates. However, only a human can ensure the label meets specific regulatory requirements (FDA, FTC, state/local laws) and that all claims, ingredients, and instructions are factually correct and up to date.

2. Brand Consistency & Nuance:
AI tools can maintain visual consistency and catch obvious design errors, but humans are needed to ensure the label’s tone, language, and style align perfectly with the brand’s identity – especially for nuanced messaging or when launching a new product line.

3. Cultural & Market Sensitivity:
AI might not catch words, images, or colors that could be culturally inappropriate or misunderstood in certain markets. Human reviewers can spot these issues and adapt labels for different regions or demographics.

4. Creative Design Choices:
While AI can suggest layouts or color schemes, the “wow factor” that makes a label stand out on shelves often comes from a designer’s creative instincts. Humans can judge if a label really pops or if it feels generic.

5. Error Catching & Quality Assurance:
AI can flag inconsistencies, but humans catch subtle errors like incorrect font usage, off-brand colors, or misaligned elements – details that can make or break a label’s professional look.

In summary

AI is a fantastic tool for speeding up the label creation and review process, catching common errors, and maintaining consistency. But for legal compliance, brand voice, cultural fit, and that final touch of creativity, human expertise is irreplaceable. The best product labels come from a blend of AI efficiency and human judgment.

Flipping the switch to AI’s importance

Kallik bills itself as a leading global enterprise labeling and artwork management software company. An article on its website made a strong case for AI tools accessing a central database. Notes the article, “Kallik’s labeling and artwork management solution contains automated data management tools, enabling your teams to pull information from a central database to ensure 100% accuracy… – That single repository, alongside robust traceability features that help you track each cycle of a label’s life, and a breakdown of each data point, will ensure your business remains fully compliant and that it lands on shelves in good time, keeping consumers safe.”

The article notes, “A manual labeling and artwork management process can sometimes involve over a dozen people – from your own internal production and labeling management team, to the legal department and your design agencies. With so many people involved, spread across a range of offices and solutions, it’s hardly a surprise that human errors are regarded as one of the most common reasons for labeling errors.”

Maladies that Kallik claims to address include avoiding regulations misery, inconsistent branding and artwork, lack of version control, outdated labels, errors in multi-lingual labeling for global distribution, and poor proofing and approval processes.

As with almost everything in life, the best solutions lie somewhere in the middle. Finding ways to make human involvement and AI complement each other can be a win-win middle ground.

Mark Lusky (www.markluskycommunications.com/mark-lusky-bio) is the president of Lusky Enterprises, Inc. (www.markluskycommunications.com), a 41-year-established marketing communications company dedicated to clients that live and breathe trust, likeability, and respect (thereby eschewing the “lie, cheat, steal” culture so prevalent today). Contact him at: 303-621-6136; mark@marklusky.com.