Artificial intelligence (AI) is often discussed in solving global problems and describing scientific breakthroughs in medicine or industry. But it is equally important to apply AI in those areas that ensure the coordinated work of the company’s employees. So, how does it affect the work of a secretary?
How does AI speed up work with documents?
Information resources are arrays of office work documents, archives, and databases in any organization. These elements of the information resource are created both centrally (for example, in the office) and in various structural divisions at workplaces. The totality of information resources, technologies, and technical means that allow them to be used and the organization’s personnel specifically involved in information resources constitute the organization’s information infrastructure. The organization’s modern infrastructure is formed using information management methods – a specially created system for managing the organization’s information resources.
Any secretary is one of the important elements of this infrastructure. The secretary accumulates information, serves as its source, processes it, and carries out communication processes using various information technologies and organizational techniques. Documents for processing can flow in a continuous stream, leaving no time for other important assignments. As a result, secretaries are forced to stay overtime or even more to do everything on time, risking making mistakes in a hurry and thereby only adding work to themselves.
AI fits perfectly into a chain of similar actions, such as processing incoming documents. Usually, it happens like this: the secretary scans the letter, manually enters the details into the system, registers, searches for the addressee among the employees, and sends him a document. Intelligent services can complete actions that an office worker spends from 5 to 30 minutes in a couple of minutes.
AI solutions are based on two technologies:
- machine learning uses mathematical data models that help a computer learn without direct instructions. The program contains algorithms for an independent finding of solutions through the integrated use of statistical data, from which patterns are derived and based on which forecasts are made;
- computer vision is the automatic capture and processing of images of stationary and moving objects using computer tools. In the case of incoming correspondence, this is the recognition of text characters in the scanned image of the document.
The advantages of the AI technologies in the work of the secretary
There are at least 3 reasons why the introduction of intelligent systems in work with documents is a promising idea:
- processes are accelerated along the entire chain of processing an incoming document – from registration to the preparation of a response;
- it is possible to unload the employees who are involved in each stage of work with the letter;
- according to calculations, the cost of processing one document is reduced by 2.5 times.
Intelligent document processing services take care of the whole routine: they recognize the text, extract details from it, and distribute it among registration logs. The clerk only needs to scan the letter and enter it into the system – it can even be in one file, which the AI will divide into separate documents. For example, if a set contains a contract and annexes, the system determines the leading document and links the rest to it.
Moreover, with the help of machine learning, AI easily categorizes documents by their content. For example, it distinguishes a letter from a contract or an act from an invoice for payment. In the same way, he classifies letters according to the need for execution. But this requires a preliminary selection of documents accumulated in the organization, distributed by class.