The Human Touch: Why AI Can't Do It Alone

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the fields of intelligent document processing (IDP) and optical character recognition (OCR). These types of AI-powered software operate to extract data from unstructured documents with unprecedented accuracy and speed. They also help businesses save time and money, improve efficiency, and reduce errors. However, despite the impressive advances in AI technology paired with IDP software, it is important to remember that AI is still a tool that needs to be managed by humans. Humans play a vital role in managing and monitoring AI-powered software to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and compliance - and that case doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

Why humans are still needed in document processing

Several reasons make the presence of humans a necessity in document processing, even with the advent of AI-powered IDP software. For starters, AI is not perfect. AI-powered software is trained on large datasets of labeled documents. This means that it is very good at recognizing and extracting data from documents that are similar to the documents it was trained on. However, AI can still make mistakes, especially with complex or unusual documents.

Which is why AI needs human supervision. AI-powered software needs to be monitored and supervised by humans to ensure that it is working properly and producing accurate results. This is especially important for businesses that need to comply with industry regulations or that process sensitive data.

Most importantly, AI can't make decisions. When it comes to IDP software, the type of AI used can extract data from documents, but unless a human pre-defines what they want it to do with such data, it cannot make decisions about it. For example, AI can't decide whether to approve or reject an invoice or whether to route a document to a specific department. Humans need to make these decisions or program the AI accordingly based on their knowledge and expertise.

Humans are still needed in document processing for the vital roles they play in the following areas:

• Training and development: To create and label the datasets on which AI is trained. Humans also play a role in developing and improving AI models.
• Quality assurance: To review the outputs of AI systems and correct any errors.
• Exception handling: Humans are responsible for handling exceptions, such as documents with poor-quality images or unusual layouts.
• Business process integration: AI-powered OCR and IDP software can be integrated with other business systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Humans are responsible for designing and implementing these integrations.

A human-in-the-loop approach

A human-in-the-loop (HITL) approach is a system design philosophy that incorporates humans into the decision-making process of an AI system. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as by having humans provide input to the system, review the system's output, or intervene in the system's decision-making process.

HITL approaches are often used in situations where AI systems are not yet able to perform reliably on their own, or where it is important to ensure that human oversight and accountability are maintained. For example, HITL approaches are commonly used in medical diagnosis, fraud detection, and self-driving cars.

There are several benefits to implementing a human-in-the-loop approach in document processing such as:

• Increased accuracy
• Improved efficiency
• Reduced risk

There are a few things that businesses can do to implement a human-in-the-loop approach in document processing:

1. Identify the right tasks for automation

Not all document processing tasks are suitable for automation. Businesses should identify the tasks that are most repetitive, time-consuming, and error-prone. These are the tasks that are most likely to benefit from automation.

2. Choose the right AI-powered software

There are a variety of AI-powered OCR and IDP software solutions available. Businesses should choose a solution that is designed for their specific needs and that offers the features they require.

3. Provide adequate training

Humans who are involved in managing and monitoring AI-powered software need to be adequately trained. They need to understand how the software works and how to identify and correct errors.

4. Establish clear roles and responsibilities

Businesses need to establish clear roles and responsibilities for humans and AI-powered software in the document processing process. This will help to ensure that the process is efficient and effective.

Why it is inefficient to rely on AI alone

There are several reasons why it is inefficient to rely on AI alone to process documents:

• Cost: Being prone to making more mistakes equates to being susceptible to spending more money correcting those mistakes. Since not all AI is created equal, it is often more cost-effective to use a hybrid approach that combines AI with human supervision.
• Privacy: Any intelligent system nowadays can fall prey to unwarranted hacking attempts or data breaches. Since AI-powered document processing may involve sensitive information, it is better to rely on human engineers and data analysts to protect such information.
• Dependency: AI systems need to be updated regularly. They require extensive data training to maintain effectiveness. Obtaining such data, of course, can only be done through humans to eliminate bias, misinterpretations, and outdated data.

Intelligent document processing software is a powerful tool that helps businesses automate their document processing workflows and improve their efficiency. There are lots of programs out there that will achieve desired results with accuracy and scalability. However, it is important to remember that despite its power, AI is still a tool that needs to be managed by humans. Humans play a vital role in training, developing, quality-assuring, and integrating AI-powered software. Businesses that rely on AI alone to process documents are likely to experience problems with privacy, cost, and dependency.

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About Invofox

Invofox is an intelligent document processing (IDP) software company that helps businesses automate the process of handling invoices, receipts, and other documents. The company's AI-powered platform can automatically extract data from documents such as invoices, bills, bank statements, and tax forms and validate the extracted data for compliance.

Invofox's customers include businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. The company's software is used by businesses in a variety of industries, including software, accounting, finance, logistics, and construction. 

If you are looking for a document processing software solution that can help you automate your document handling processes, improve accuracy, reduce costs, improve compliance, and improve customer service, get in touch.