Why Document Processing Is Still Manual
According to AIIM research, organizations spend $20 in labor to file a single document and $120 to find a misfiled one. McKinsey data shows that employees spend 1.8 hours daily searching for and gathering information from documents. IDC analysis indicates that 80% of business data is unstructured, trapped in documents that systems cannot read. Yet most organizations still manually type data from PDFs into their business systems.
Teams need PDF processing automation that extracts data from any document and syncs it to business systems automatically.
How Teams Automate PDF Processing with AI
When teams automate PDF processing, documents become structured data instantly. Here's the workflow with Miniloop:
- Documents received - PDFs arrive via email, upload, or cloud storage
- Content extracted - AI reads text from digital or scanned documents
- Fields identified - Relevant data points extracted without templates
- Data validated - Extraction confidence checked and exceptions flagged
- Systems updated - Structured data synced to databases and applications
"Our AP team manually entered every invoice into the ERP. 200+ invoices per week. Typos, delays, and frustrated accountants. Month-end close was a nightmare of data entry catch-up. We evaluated OCR tools but they required templates for every vendor format. Automated PDF processing eliminated the data entry bottleneck. AI extracts vendor, amounts, line items, and dates from any invoice format. Data flows into our ERP within minutes of invoice receipt. Accuracy exceeds manual entry. Our AP team now manages exceptions instead of typing numbers. Month-end close shortened by 3 days." — Controller, mid-market manufacturing company
Teams using automated PDF processing report eliminating manual data entry while improving accuracy and processing speed.
What Makes Automated PDF Processing Different
Automated PDF processing goes beyond basic OCR to provide intelligent extraction:
| Manual Document Processing | AI-Automated Processing |
|---|---|
| Data manually typed from PDFs | Fields extracted automatically |
| Templates required for each format | Layout-agnostic extraction |
| Errors from manual transcription | Consistent AI accuracy |
| Processing backlogs common | Real-time document handling |
| Documents remain unstructured | Data immediately queryable |
Document data should flow automatically into business systems. Automated PDF processing transforms unstructured documents into structured, actionable data.
Getting Started
Most teams set up automated PDF processing in under 15 minutes. Connect document sources, define extraction fields, and let AI handle any document format. Turn PDF chaos into structured data.