In today’s fast-paced, data-driven world, businesses are handling an ever-increasing volume of documents. From contracts and invoices to insurance forms, medical records and legal filings, the need to efficiently extract and manage data from these documents is more pressing than ever. Historically, this task has been done manually, which can be time-consuming, error-prone, and expensive.
Extracting shreds of information from documents no longer needs to be part of everyone's (or anyone’s) job.
Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), document processing has undergone a revolutionary transformation.
AI document processing is now at the forefront of automating and streamlining the way organizations extract, analyze, connect, and use data from documents. This technological leap is making it possible to handle large volumes of documents quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. It has become central to what is known as Generative AI and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), though both terms have somewhat different origins and meanings.
It essentially describes artificial intelligence algorithms that use a series of techniques to classify documents, detect the patterns and context of the language, identifying differences and similarities, while accepting and responding to human training, to structure and extract desired information, despite the complex, unstructured form of the language in documents. Let’s dive in.
Before AI took center stage, extracting data from documents has involved a lot of human labor. Employees must manually read unstructured complex documents, search for essential information, and enter data into other systems, structuring and connecting the information by sorting, selecting, copying and pasting. This process has been both slow and often error-prone, and requires high levels of skill and attention to detail. It is a tedious process that can lead to significant inaccuracies.
Additionally, many businesses rely on a variety of document formats, such as PDFs, Word documents, scanned images, and even faxes. This diversity adds another layer of complexity, requiring multiple systems or manual intervention to extract data from each type of file. As the volume of documents grows, so does the challenge of processing them in a timely and accurate manner. The more complex the documents and variations across documents, even of the same type, the more difficult and time-consuming.
For centuries, people have relied on documents to communicate, negotiate, and establish business relationships. Meanwhile, computer systems have historically not been able to process complex documents, and rely on structured data to analyze information and automate processes. Now, these parallel universes can be brought together! Documents that people create and rely upon can now automatically share all of the data that computers require, providing extraordinary opportunities for business insights, automation, and growth.
AI document processing is a combination of optical character recognition (OCR), machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning that empowers systems to "read" and understand complex, long-form documents in ways similar to human beings, but at much greater speed and scale.
One of the core technologies behind AI document processing is OCR. OCR technology allows computers to view scanned images or PDFs and convert them into machine-readable text.
Once OCR is applied, AI can use advanced algorithms to interpret the meaning of the text, identify key pieces of data (such as dates, amounts, or names), and categorize it for further processing.
The latest AI systems may use the structure of documents to see the patterns of data involved. Documents are not all flat text, but likely include tabular information, graphs, images, and complex formatting differences.
One key element to look for in AI systems is the latest NLP technology. NLP helps understand document data and related words, phrases, tabular information and clauses through the surrounding context.
For example, a dollar amount can be a payment, a valuation, a penalty, a liability, a deposit, a claim, and on and on. It’s the context surrounding the data that defines the nature of the dollar amount.
Historically, documents have been written in a manner that enables human readers to fill in the context around a given piece of information; now, the best NLP techniques have reached the point where they can achieve comparable results.
To better understand the impact of AI document processing, consider a real-world example of an insurance company handling thousands of customers. In the past, the renewal or quote process would involve manually reviewing all sorts of historical documents to extract the relevant information needed to understand the risk and value associated with this client. Providing a simple, competitive quote can become a guessing game, glancing at a digital stream of documents. With AI document processing, the company can automate much of this work, and provide the data in an accessible, structured, ready-to-decide form.
Here’s how it would work:
This automated approach dramatically accelerates the process, reduces human error, and enhances customer service by providing faster responses to policyholders and prospects.
AI document processing is not limited to any single industry. From banking and insurance to healthcare and legal services, various sectors have begun leveraging AI for document management.
As AI continues advancing, the capabilities of AI document processing will only expand. Integration with other technologies like robotic process automation (RPA) and advanced analytics can further optimize workflows and drive efficiency across industries. The ability for AI to analyze, categorize, and make decisions based on extracted data will unlock opportunities across every industry.
AI-powered document processing is evolving rapidly and is set to become a cornerstone of digital transformation in many organizations. It’s not just about saving time and money; it’s about enabling businesses to extract value from their data more effectively and intelligently, ultimately driving innovation and creating new business opportunities.
AI document processing is revolutionizing how we extract and use data from documents. Through the power of AI, businesses are automating time-consuming tasks, improving accuracy, reducing costs, and creating more efficient workflows. As this technology continues to advance, it will undoubtedly shape the future of how organizations manage documents and leverage data, opening the door to even greater levels of innovation and automation.