Natural Language Processing in AI – transforming document processing for businesses

Blog

Written by

Published on

April 8, 2022

Natural Language Processing in AI – transforming document processing for businesses

What is Natural Language Processing?

The branch of Artificial Intelligence that helps computers read, understand and interpret human language is called Natural Language Processing in AI. Also known by its abbreviated form as NLP, this technology is mainly used to facilitate communication and interaction between machines and humans.

As computers and machines do not operate with the same language spoken by humans, there was a need to create a new way of facilitating the same. With the help of linguistic intelligence and cognizance, Natural Language Processing can be used in several business applications such as digital banking and financial transactions, invoice generation and processing, insurance claims handling, navigation systems, virtual and digital assistants, and so on.

In terms of components, Natural Language Processing covers activities such as speech recognition and segmentation, word segmentation, text-to-speech, and optical character recognition. For businesses, NLP holds many advantages such as increasing email and document processing time, cutting operational costs, improving operational efficiency, and accurate content interpretation.

Natural Language Processing is immensely beneficial for businesses for bringing dramatic improvements to their document processing needs. The following sections elaborate more on this subject.

The challenge of data generation faced by businesses for document processing

Data generation at large volumes is inevitable in today’s business environment as advancements in technology and communication occur at breath-neck speeds. And this data is mainly generated in the form of documents, be it invoices, email attachments, PDFs, images, and others.

Businesses now come across such data in an unstructured form, which is also called free-text. Unstructured data mainly comprises datasets that are not arranged in specific structures and formats, and whose arrangements may keep on changing.

A second challenge exists in the form of fixed formats of the documents, wherein traditional solutions find it difficult to process documents having new formats. Another issue with processing free-text with conventional techniques is the low accuracy of text interpretation, which may cause further problems.

Processing data in large volumes is a huge barrier for businesses and can hamper operational efficiency at an organizational level. During the pandemic and in the ongoing post-pandemic times with remote and hybrid work situations, a need arose for solutions having strong language processing abilities.

Intelligent Document Processing with Natural Language Processing in AI

Fortunately, Natural Language Processing using AI technologies can help businesses tackle these challenges by transforming unstructured data into usable data. Also called Intelligent Document Processing, there are several AI solutions available in the market through vendors like Simplifai, wherein NLP in AI can be used for processing all basic document types.

Intelligent Document Processing uses Natural Language Processing to read, extract, and process data from structured as well as unstructured documents. NLP makes it possible to extract relevant information by identifying key intentions, keywords, phrases, and other important data points in the form of entities.

The use of Optical Character Recognition and Natural Language Understanding is worth mentioning in this context as well, as these technologies are used to interpret both structured and unstructured data.

Solutions such as the Simplifai Documentbot work with NLU and OCR together with NLP and perform actions based on the extracted and interpreted information such as registering CRM, archiving, forwarding and replying, creating tickets, and notifying stakeholders.

NLP also can perform sentiment analysis on the content present in a document and categorizes it based on different sentiments such as negative, positive, or neutral. Mapping out customers' emotions can give a huge boost to marketing activities, further creating the scope of personalized customer support and services.

Based on these features discussed above, it becomes prudent for businesses to adopt document processing techniques powered by NLP that can analyze complex, unstructured language and reduce time, effort, and operation costs by a significant margin.

The key business areas where Natural Language Processing is used

Customer service

For customer service and customer support, Natural Language Processing is used to interpret and organize incoming customer queries, and based on that interpretation, provide the necessary information to resolve those queries. Sometimes, the solution can also undertake certain actions such as directing the customers to specific web pages and performing actions such as ticket creation, updating CRMs, etc.

Virtual digital assistants

In this business area, NLP is utilized while creating and configuring digital avatars and assistants that can help customers and even entire businesses with many requirements. Personalization of customer service and enhanced customer journey is possible with the help of these avatars. Virtual digital assistants also enable customers to achieve end-to-end automation with solutions like Simplifai Digital Employees.

Invoicing and billing

As NLP can read and simplify unstructured data, it is highly useful for processing invoices and bills having a complex array of numbers and different formats that come with it. AI solutions powered with NLP are a good alternative to traditional, manual invoice and claims handling. Natural Language Processing can also recognize the intention, entities, and the need for taking further actions in this case as well.

Corporate communications

For business communications, NLP is mainly used for auto-text prediction, text analysis and interpretation, and language analysis, to name a few. This can not only lead to faster and more efficient communication in the business environment but also provide people with disabilities to communicate effectively.

How Simplifai uses Natural Language Processing in AI for document processing

At Simplifai, we use NLP as a core mechanism to operate our Documentbot that can read, understand, and interpret documents of different types, and use this interpretation to carry out further actions. Some of these actions are forwarding data interpreted to respective stakeholders, sending replies, document archival, registering in CRM and back-office systems, and many more.

The Documentbot is a powerful game-changing solution for document interpretation, mainly for businesses that spend long hours sorting documents manually. It comprises a combination of NLP and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that can identify different document types such as bills, invoices, manuals, brochures, personal identification material, etc.

About Simplifai

Simplifai is an AI solutions company that provides end-to-end automation for businesses dealing with free text emails, documents, and chat communications.

Along with RPA, API, and advanced NLP technology. Simplifai offers AI modules and tailored Digital Employee solutions that work with any third-party system programmed to carry out specific tasks at the front- and back-end with high-grade automation.