AI and Intelligent Automation
AI invoice processing stops teams from burning hours retyping numbers from messy PDFs. That rework slows approvals, clogs queues, and invites errors. New AI now reads a document like a person—tables, charts, forms—and shows exactly where each value came from. Pair it with a simple review step and safety checks, and work moves faster without losing control. In one week, you can test this on a single workflow with a small, redacted sample and see time per item and exceptions come down.
Why Now
Most back-office workflows were built to ration scarce expert time. Intake, triage, and QA exist because parsing messy PDFs is slow and error prone. Today, tools are mature enough to read a document as a visual object—not just text—so they can pull tables, figures, and form fields and show exactly where each value came from.
Data is easier to connect, and safety checks (accuracy checks, logs, approval gates) are standard. That unlocks a practical way to reduce queue length and rework without big platform changes.
Business Payoff by Role
Chief Financial Officer
Immediate levers sit in manual handling. In invoice capture, claims, or financial statement pull-outs, pilots often show 15–30% handling-time cuts within a month; 20–40% is achievable with tuning and clear acceptance criteria. Expect better first-pass yield and fewer write-offs from mis-keyed data. Use hedges until baselines are measured, but the direction of travel is consistent across pilots we see.
Chief Information Officer
Delivery speed improves because the AI does the first pass, and your people confirm. Fit is straightforward: a REST API or hosted tool adds on top of your existing stack; integration starts with one data source and grows. Security posture is manageable with logging, human approval gates, and redaction in week 1. Open SDKs and GitHub libraries reduce lift.
Chief Operation Officer
Cycle time drops when the queue shifts from “read and type” to “review and sign-off.” Throughput rises because the AI parses tables, charts, and forms the same way every time, and flags are only exceptions. Many teams report lower rework once they require “show the source box on the page” before approval.
What to Change (Process Re-wiring)
These steps exist to ration expert time: intake, triage, review, and QA. Make the AI do the heavy lift and reserve people for judgment.
Before (invoice line-item capture)
- AP clerk opens PDF.
- Manually keys header + lines.
- Flags unclear items to supervisor.
- QA samples entries later
After
- AI parses the PDF (tables, totals, tax) and produces a draft JSON + “source boxes” for each field.
- AP clerk reviews only fields with low confidence or mismatches vs. PO/receipt.
- Supervisor signs off exceptions; everything is logged.
QA checks exception samples, not every item.
1-Week Pilot Plan (Doable Without New Budget Cycles)
Scope
One workflow (invoice capture or claims intake), one team, ≤10 users, ≤1 data source (e.g., invoices from Vendor A).
Data
150–300 redacted PDFs that reflect real variation (multi-page, line-items, tax). Avoid sensitive data in week 1; redact fields you don’t need.
Tools
Use “AI that plans, drafts, reviews” with human sign-off, accuracy checks, logging, and approval gates. A hosted tool or API that extracts tables, charts, and form fields with visual grounding works well. (LandingAI’s approach and SDKs are examples; use any equivalent tool you prefer. )
Success checks
- Turnaround time per document (baseline vs. pilot)
- Exception rate (AI → human)
- Rework / corrections after approval
- User satisfaction (quick 3-question pulse)
Case-Style Walkthrough (Invoice Capture)
Inputs (week-1 sandbox)
- PDF invoices from one vendor (last quarter).
- A lookup of valid PO numbers and expected totals.
- Acceptance criteria: “Extract header fields (vendor, date, invoice #, total) and all line items with quantity, unit price, line total. Show the page-level source box for each field. Flag mismatches >±1% against PO.
System prompts/checks (copy-paste)
- Planning prompt (system): “You are an assistant that reads invoices as visual documents. Plan how to detect header fields and line items. Note edge cases (page breaks, tax lines, credits). Output a plan, then extract.”
- Extraction prompt (system): “Extract vendor, invoice date, invoice #, currency, and totals. Extract each line item: description, SKU (if any), qty, unit price, extended price. Provide a JSON array of lines plus a ‘grounding’ object listing page number and bounding box for each field.”
- Review checklist (human): Do totals match PO within ±1%? 2) Are discounts and tax separate? 3) Do line counts match pages? 4) Are all flagged low-confidence fields resolved?
Human roles
- AP clerks review low-confidence fields and mismatches.
- Supervisor approves exceptions >±1% or missing PO.
- Ops analyst tracks metrics and updates the checklist.
Simple approval script (pseudo-logic)
if doc.exception == false and confidences.all >= 0.90:
approve()
else:
route_to(“AP_Supervisor”)
log_to_dashboard(doc.id, turnaround_minutes, exception_flag, rework_flag)
Acceptance criteria (ready to scale).
- ≥90% first-pass yield on header fields; ≥80% line-item accuracy with zero critical errors.
- Turnaround time cut by ≥25% vs. baseline.
- Clear audit trail: each extracted value links to a source box on the page.
Metrics & Dashboard
Track five numbers first; add more later:
- Time per item (minutes)
- Queue length (items waiting)
- Exception rate (%)
- Cost per unit (blended)
- First-pass yield (%)
Weekly review cadence.
- Mondays: Compare last week vs. baseline; locate bottlenecks (e.g., specific vendors, long tables).
- Wednesdays: Update the review checklist with 1–2 new rules from last week’s errors.
- Fridays: Decide one minor change (e.g., add a new low-confidence rule or tweak the mismatch threshold).
Actions by trend.
- If time per item drops but exception rate rises → tighten acceptance criteria and retrain the review habit.
- If exception rate concentrates on one layout → add 10–20 samples of that layout and re-run.
- If first-pass yield stalls → add a required “show source box” for any field under 0.9 confidence.
Risks & How to Manage Them
| Risk | Description | Countermeasure |
| Data quality | Messy PDFs or scanned images reduce accuracy. | Curate a small, realistic set-in week 1; add 10 “hard” samples mid-week and re-measure. |
| Change Fatigue | Teams tire of tool churn. | ≤10 users, 1 workflow, and a 20-minute training; gather feedback on day |
| Unclear owner | No one closes exceptions. | Name a single supervisor who approves or rejects within 24 hours. |
| Missing safety checks | Silent errors creep in. | Require visual “source boxes,” confidence thresholds, logs, and human sign-off before any system of record writes. |
| Over-scoped pilots | Too many vendors/forms | 1 vendor or form type first; scale after metrics improve for two weeks. |
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
| Do we need procurement approval first? | Not for week 1 if you use a free trial or existing credits; keep the scope small and non-sensitive. |
| How do we handle privacy and security? | Start with redacted samples. In production, require logging, role-based access, and human approval gates. Most tools support these; confirm in your vendor’s trust center and docs. |
| How hard is integration? | Week-1 needs no integration—export JSON/CSV and upload to a sandbox. Later, use an API/SDK to connect to your ERP/AP system. |
| What training do users need? | A 20-minute walkthrough: “Here’s the review screen, how to resolve a flag, and how to approve.” The checklist does the rest. |
| When do we see ROI? | Early signals show up in week 1 (time per item, exception rate). Many teams convert pilots within 30–60 days once first-pass yield stabilizes. |
| Who should own this? | Finance/Operations as process owner; IT ensures safe deployment; a named supervisor approves exceptions. |
| Is this only for invoices? | No—claims, remittances, financial statement pull-outs, or lab reports also fit, but add them one at a time. |
Next Step (Do Now, ≤1 Week)
Run a 1-week pilot on invoice matching with 10 users and a redacted sample set from one vendor. Measure time per item, exception rate, and first-pass yield. If you hit ≥25% faster turnaround with clean audit links, plan the roll-out.
Next expert guidance? Book a 30-minute discovery call.
Reach out and talk to one of our AI and Intelligent Automation experts at Proactive Logic. Bring one workflow and a sample set; leave with a pilot plan.
Quote & Source Box
“Announcing: Agentic Document Extraction!” — Andrew Ng, X (Twitter), 02/27/25.
Sources:
- Leader: Andrew Ng
- Platform: X (Twitter)
- Publish Date: 02/27/25
- URL: https://x.com/AndrewYNg/status/1895183929977843970
Additional context referenced in this brief:
- Product overview and visual-grounding approach for complex PDFs (tables, charts, forms).
- Public SDK/GitHub library for implementation options.
- Subsequent performance updates reporting single-digit second processing in some releases.
