Despite the trend towards digital, documents have remained a quintessential element of the office. In fact, they’ve become a more prominent feature, taking on a myriad of forms, arriving from a constellation of origins, and undergoing an array of transformations. Modern businesses need a document management system to keep up with all of them, stay organized, and retain their operational efficiency.
Document management itself has undergone an evolution to keep pace with the needs of a modern company. As office environments have become increasingly sophisticated with the introduction of new digital tools, it’s made data and information move much more quickly through this environment. The best document management tools now leverage advanced tools like automation, cloud connectivity, and even artificial intelligence to support these rapid-fire processes.
The future of document management is intelligent. Read on to discover what that means, and how a company can take advantage of the new artificial intelligence capabilities within these systems.
How AI Is Improving Document Management
Artificial intelligence is finally reaching its maturity. For the past several years, engineers have experimented with some incredible applications of AI. Now, AI is finally making it into the realm of document management software, bringing with it abilities such as:
1. Faster Classification and Processing
Figuring out exactly where documents go is time-consuming, but the digitization of those documents is only half the battle. AI transforms the digitization process with capabilities that automate and accelerate the process. For example, optical character recognition (OCR) allows devices to “read” the documents being scanned. AI then determines the most important pieces of information – from invoice numbers to keywords – and processes the document into the correct workflow automatically.
2. Enhanced Data Extraction
OCR has been around for a while now and is common in many high-end office printers, scanners, and photocopiers. However, the abilities of AI don’t stop just there. Using OCR, an AI-powered DMS can identify the information most relevant or desirable to employees, highlighting it as it moves it into a workflow. Say goodbye to spending hours scanning resumes for desirable skills – only to miss them. Or, forget searching for that critical product number buried in an invoice with a thousand lines. Tell it what to find, and AI takes over the data extraction process without getting eyestrain.
3. Comprehensive Document Clustering
Document clustering is the application of cluster analysis to a set of documents. With this type of analysis, documents are grouped together according to certain features. It’s a powerful technique for gaining insight into relationships and patterns but done manually, it’s a chore. Not so for AI, however, which can build on the above features to build a catalog of clustered documents.
4. Next-Generation Security
Worried about who is looking at the company’s records? AI eliminates that concern. By handing over repetitive, rules-based tasks, AI improves document security by cutting down the number of eyes – and fingers – to which a document is exposed. Likewise, AI functions as an ever-watchful force of its own. It can flag suspicious activities, concerning document material, unauthorized edits, or unexpected situations in a document’s lifecycle.
5. Deeper Data Analytics
The future of business is data-driven, and the competitive edge will go to the company which is able to capitalize on its data to the fullest expense. Having AI in the document management system, therefore, represents a critical advantage – documents don’t need to enter yet another step for analysis. They’re already being analyzed, and insights extracted from them help a company thrive.
Why AI Makes Document Management Easier
Artificial intelligence delivers several critical abilities for process optimization in the document environment. However, this powerful technology is ultimately designed to make the entire document management process easier. Beyond better security or deeper analytics, AI means:
● Scalable architecture. By using a rules-based approach, AI can build its own data architecture according to the material that it’s fed.
● Reduced human error. The business world moves quickly and keeping up with that is challenging even for the most tech-savvy, digitally literate worker. AI supports that speed but eliminates errors that might occur due to human input.
● Automation of complex processes. AI simplifies the work humans need to do to manage their documents without removing the critical complexity which supports the modern office. In fact, AI is well-suited to complex processes such as multi-level approval processes, advanced workflows, and data analysis.
Make Excellence Automatic with an AI-Powered DMS
As the business world veers towards a complex, digital reality, every aspect of a company is changing in nature and form. The latest innovations in document management now leverage sophisticated tools like artificial intelligence to handle the most quintessential business processes. AI makes it easier to handle the vast amounts of documents and data which a business is expected to possess. The future of filing isn’t just digital – it’s intelligent.
XMC delivers productivity-enhancing solutions to clients in a variety of industries. Start a conversation today to learn how your company can take advantage of the latest advances in document management.