Unexpected Innovation with Intelligent Document Processing

Intelligent document processing (IDP) is emerging as one of the most popular tools for “business transformation.” IDP solutions are generally used to digitize documents and their data by combining automated processing, AI technologies, third-party integrations, and optical character recognition (OCR).

Unsurprisingly, most organizations only start thinking about IDP when processing documents faster and more reliably becomes a priority. It can dramatically reduce (or outright eliminate) the human errors that slow down business operations or, in the case of MedTech, even endanger people’s lives.

That’s not overselling it either — a 2023 study on outpatient care found that medication errors “are prevalent” and that the “WHO estimated the global impact of medication errors to be approximately $42 billion annually.”

All that because of failures to update patient records and errors on prescription order forms.

So, the stakes are high for everyone, and IDP software has proven to help.

But just thinking of IDP as “faster and more reliable document processing” is underselling what it’s really capable of. It can drive innovation for your organization in unexpected ways…

Finding the data hiding in plain sight

The word “document” might be constraining your imagination. Consider that sometimes “documentation” can include scans of ID cards, photos, or X-ray film.

This year, Kheiron’s mammography AI, Mia, was tested by the National Health Service (NHS) in Great Britain. It was found to be able to spot the infinitesimal signs of breast cancer that human radiologists can’t. The “Mia Reader” combines IDP, robotic process automation (RPA), and deep learning. It’s described as helping radiologists make “the most critical breast-screening decisions.”

Those circles? They’re identifying tumors. Mia drew them.

Meanwhile, over in FinTech, an IDP software platform called Ocrolus can help lenders detect instances of fraud.

Ocrolus’ website says, “The AI-based platform uses machine learning and an unrivaled document dataset to scan documents and return highly accurate, decision-ready data to help minimize risk and prevent costly losses. [It] returns findings in the form of a document Authenticity Score, file tampering signals, and file tampering visualizations. Lenders can access all of this through an interactive, web-based Dashboard and via API.”

Mia Reader and Ocrolus are very different and, at the same time, very similar. They’re flashlights, telescopes, LASIK surgery — they help us “see” better. Today, if you’re performing strictly manual processing and analysis on your data, you’re missing things your competitors who are using AI “sight” aren’t.

It doesn’t matter what type of documentation you’re processing, either. From X-rays to applications, there’s probably a company already using IDP on it.

Upgrading customer service

This year, a report from Hiverr found that “52% of [customer service] professionals observed that customers often prefer human support agents for their empathy and understanding, though 42% appreciate a combination of AI and human support.”

According to this survey, humans still prefer talking to humans. Cold, unfeeling robots just can’t replicate our authentic “empathy and understanding.” 

…But is that true?

The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that a “chatbot was able to outperform human doctors in responding to patient questions posted online.”

Evaluators tended to describe the chatbot as more empathetic.

Whether our revealed preferences differ from our perceived ones, one thing’s very clear about AI in customer service: a lot of users want AI in the mix.

And intelligent document processing solutions are playing a big role in making that happen. Enterprises in every industry are using IDP to build the complex data pipelines that crisscross AI, internal systems, and third parties.

Some organizations are using it to automatically identify and extract data from customer email attachments. Others are integrating it into their website chatbots to have live conversations with users about uploaded receipts or medical records.

A few enterprises ahead of the curve are implementing these same systems as internal tools, too.

Shrinking the distance between remote workers and their work

In response to the world’s suddenly remote workforce post-COVID, Exela Technologies announced its Work-From-Anywhere IDP platform in 2022.

WFA may or may not actually be especially unique among IDP technologies, but its marketing definitely captured something in the zeitgeist. Remote work is popular, and it’s probably here to stay.

Many managers aren’t too excited about that. One Microsoft study found that 85% of business leaders think the “shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive.”

Well, they should feel confident. Studies about remote work’s effects on business processes and outcomes are generally positive. Remote workers are often as, or even more, productive than their in-person colleagues. One study that actually used employee monitoring software found that remote workers during COVID improved their productivity by 5%.

A different study found a 13% increase. Another recorded it as higher than 70%!

Whether your enterprise deliberately embraces remote work or just has to accept it as its new reality, implementing IDP software effectively can get you a lot closer to that 70% mark.

You might think that real-time, global access to extracted data via a mobile phone or a web browser would be normal by now. But just like those bosses who think remote work is a productivity killer, the reality is very different from the expectation.

Transforming with an intelligent document processing solution

For healthcare and MedTech companies trying to digitally transform and automate document processing, Onymos KnowYourDocs can help. It’s an IDP platform that transforms to fit your use case. Not only can you license KnowYourDocs’ complete source code, but it also includes an optional out-of-the-box UI, an intuitive API, natural language processing (NLP) so that human-in-the-loop data verifiers can ask questions about the documents they’re reviewing — and a lot more.

Join companies like Albertsons and institutions like the University of Cincinnati that are already leveraging KnowYourDocs today. Get in touch with the Onymos team to get started.