Ongoing digitalization of archived paper documents and rising demand for the use and analysis of dataįor these reasons, AI-OCR is expected to continue to play a part in future digitalization.Rising expectations for AI-OCR as a means of boosting efficiency through the use of digital technology to enter data from paper forms, which will remain in use in existing practices.Īmong the factors behind this are the obstacles to making existing practices paperless (digital), which include the need to fundamentally redesign entire workflows and their computer systems and other associated infrastructure, and the need to maintain record-keeping integrity (document authenticity, accessibility, and so on) for entered or archived information at a similar level to that provided by paper records.The two main reasons for this are as follows. The market for AI-OCR is projected to increase from an estimated JPY700 million in FY2018 to JPY3.2 billion in FY2030 (2). This section considers the future role of AI-OCR, the market for which is steadily growing, and the scope for its further development amid the shift to paperless practices as part of society-wide digitalization. Role of AI-OCR in Society-wide Digitalization The article also describes Hitachi’s plans for dark data analysis, a technique for extracting the value hidden in ordinary business documents. This article describes an existing OCR and AI-OCR that combines OCR and AI and presents an example of how operational efficiency has been boosted by use of Hitachi’s form recognition service that incorporates AI-OCR. The information on these forms is entered into computer systems for processing, meaning that when this work is done manually there is scope for improving efficiency by instead adopting AI-based optical character recognition (AI-OCR). Meanwhile, paper forms such as invoices are still used to record and pass on information at government agencies, private-sector companies, and other organizations that engage in administrative work.
Hitachi’s new IT strategy involves an acceleration of its work toward the digitalization of all corners of society as a means of improving convenience for the public and enhancing efficiency in both the public and private sectors (1). Innovation in digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is bringing major changes to society.