AI-Powered OCR Data Recognition System For Invoice Processing

Customer

A leading procurement platform provider for the healthcare industry.

The Challenge

Despite the rise of electronic solutions, around 80% of invoices, remittances, and payments still rely on paper. The client, a procurement platform provider for hospitals and suppliers, faced significant challenges:

• Invoices from vendors were submitted in various formats, causing difficulties in normalization.
• Manual processes for invoice verification led to delays, data mismatches, and a heavy reliance on human intervention.
• Approximately 40-60% of invoices arrived by fax or email, with the rest in paper format, further complicating processing.

Objective

To minimize manual intervention and automate the process of invoice format conversion while allowing vendors to submit invoices in their preferred formats, including paper, scanned documents, PDFs, and images. The system needed to recognize and verify all text and image data on invoices, detect duplicates, and differentiate between vendors with similar names.

Solution

ZLabs developed an AI-powered OCR system leveraging advanced machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) technologies, alongside Cognitive OCR capabilities. Key features of the solution include:

1. AI Integration: The system utilizes AI to learn and adapt to new vendor invoice formats, reducing the need for manual training and improving processing efficiency.
2. Enhanced OCR: The solution's Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities were enhanced with AI, enabling the accurate extraction of both selectable and non-selectable text, as well as image data such as logos and signatures.
3. Automated Verification: The AI-driven workflow automates the identification and verification of invoices, significantly reducing manual processing time.
4. Intelligent Duplication Detection: The system intelligently identifies and handles duplicate invoices and similar vendor names, ensuring accuracy and preventing errors.

Benefits

• Speed and Accuracy: The AI-powered solution dramatically reduced invoice processing times and improved accuracy by eliminating manual errors by improving OCR capabilities.
• Cost Efficiency: Automation led to significant reductions in operational costs, allowing vendors to benefit from shorter payment cycles and hospitals to take full advantage of early payment discounts.
• Scalability: The system continuously learns and adapts to new invoice formats and vendors, ensuring seamless scaling as the client’s business grows.
• Transparency and Control: The system provides complete visibility into the invoice processing cycle, reducing the risk of misplaced or mishandled invoices.

Results

• 60% Reduction in manual processing costs per invoice.
• 50% Faster invoice approval cycles.
• 5x Optimization in invoice capture with minimal disruption to existing processes.