Why Copier Dealers Are Becoming the Backbone of the Robotics Boom

By Celeste Dame | Greg Report Ai 2025

I have watched the copier channel carry companies through more uncertainty than most people remember. Every transition from analog to digital, every shift in workflow, every surprise request landing late in the day. Dealers always found a way to keep customers steady. They made complicated equipment feel manageable because they showed up, listened, and solved what was in front of them.

That same experience is shaping the next chapter. Robotics is gaining attention, but what matters is how businesses absorb new tools without losing momentum. Dealers understand that part better than anyone. They earned trust door by door, meeting by meeting, and now those relationships are becoming the bridge to a technology most companies are still learning to understand.

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When Clicks Die and Robots Walk In

Remember when paper was king and every copier was a cash machine? Yeah. That party’s over. And now, it’s not just about fewer prints. It’s about dealers asking themselves what’s left when the pages vanish.

I just wrapped a full read of Celeste Dame’s latest deep-dive: Beyond the Page: Reinventing the Copier Channel in a Less-Print World. And let me tell you, this isn’t your average vendor-padded puff piece or PR-massaged forecast. This thing is loaded with actual numbers, actual insights, and one brutal truth: the clicks are drying up—and they’re not coming back.

We’re talking a nearly 50% drop in U.S. paper usage since 2011. Copier/MFP unit sales? Down 20%. Post-COVID? Even worse. Hybrid work hit print volumes like a freight train, and they’re not bouncing back. Service contracts are thinning out, meter reads are tanking, and even the diehard lease-renewal crowd is pushing back.

But here’s the kicker. This report isn’t mourning the death of the copier. It’s lighting a torch under what comes next. And surprisingly? That next thing has legs. Wheels. LiDAR. 

A name tag.