What Happens to Office Print Devices When the Boomers Retire?

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

What Happens to Office Print Devices When the Boomers Retire?

By Art Post - Print4Pay HOTEL

I’ve been in this business for 45 years. I’ve watched the evolution from liquid toner, to digital, to connected MFPs, to today’s AI-enhanced workflow hubs. I’ve also watched the people using them, and that’s where the real story is. Because here’s the truth no one in our industry wants to say out loud: When the Boomers retire, the printed page goes with them. Boomers grew up in filing cabinets. They love paper. They trust paper. They’ll print emails, proposals, and spreadsheets just to “review them properly.” Many of them still keep binders. Those habits drove the golden age of A3 copiers. But every month more Boomers walk out the door with their retirement cake, and they’re taking a huge chunk of print volume with them.

Gen X: The Last Stand for A3

Gen X is now in leadership, and they still appreciate a good printed contract or a set of construction drawings. They’ll hang onto print longer than anyone else. 

But even they’re shifting toward:

• digital approval flows
• cloud storage
• scanning instead of copying

Gen X will be the last big generation to justify large A3 deployments in offices.

Millennials (Gen Y): The Turning Point

Millennials don’t hate printers, they just don’t think about them. Their workflow looks like this:

Scan → Store → Share not Print → Copy → File

They’re fine signing digitally. They collaborate in Teams and Google Drive. They work remotely. Printing is a “special occasion” activity. Marketing materials, legal packets, and engineering plans will still hit paper, but the volume isn’t coming back.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha? Forget It.

This is the first workforce that actively avoids print. Many don’t know how to use a copier.  They see printers as slow, confusing, and environmentally wasteful. They expect automation, apps, and instant access. They won’t buy copiers.

They will buy:

• robotics
• workflow automation
• intelligent document processing
• digital collaboration tools

To them, paper is friction.

So What Happens to Office Print Devices?

We’re already seeing the shift:

• Fewer A3 placements
• A4 dominating what’s left
• Wide-format engineering print hanging on the longest
• Packaging, labeling, and signage staying strong

And the copier itself?

It stops being a “printer” and becomes a:

• scanner
• capture device
• automation gateway
• robotic endpoint

The printed page becomes specialty output, not daily output.

The Dealer Fork in the Road

This is where things get interesting.

Dealers who evolve will replace declining print revenue with:

• robotics service
• workflow automation
• managed IT
• cybersecurity
• document intelligence

Think about it, who already has:

• field technicians
• service contracts
• leasing relationships
• onsite access
• recurring revenue models

Copier dealers.

We are perfectly positioned to become the service channel for the next generation of office technology, including robotics. It’s the natural evolution. Dealers who don’t evolve? They’ll become the typewriter dealers of the 2030s.

My Two Cents

Print doesn’t disappear overnight. But its role changes from “central business tool” to “supporting specialist.” The copier becomes the front door to digital transformation, and in many cases, the docking station for a robot that handles the mundane tasks we’ve been supporting for decades.

Paper goes down. Scans go up. Automation wins. And the dealers who embrace that shift will lead the future, not chase it.

This article first appeared in Print4Pay HOTEL and is written by Art Post.