Code Smarter, Not Harder: Document Processing Is Solved

Streamline document processing with ABBYY’s Document AI API, which offers more than 90% accuracy for complex, unstructured data such as invoices and contracts. It overcomes challenges like unreliable data, insufficient capabilities requiring excessive additional coding, and difficult integration by providing high accuracy, effortless integration, and scalability. ABBYY supports high volumes, complex, multilingual documents, and various formats, making it optimal for various use cases including RAG, machine learning, KYC, customs clearance, order processing, and expense management. Developers benefit from ABBYY’s pre-trained models, intuitive APIs, and detailed documentation.

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The daily grind of dealing with unstructured data from documents often leads to frustration for developers and AI professionals. Whether you're extracting key fields from an invoice, converting images to text, or trying to integrate document parsing into your workflows, the process can feel like an uphill battle. Add to that cumbersome APIs, errors in extracted data, or general-purpose LLMs that fall short when it comes to reliability, and the challenge becomes enormous.

But what if there was a smarter and faster way to tackle document processing? Purpose-built solutions like ABBYY’s Document AI API are stepping in to revolutionize how developers handle documents. With precision, ease of integration, and AI-backed accuracy, these tools unlock efficiency and success in complex workflows.

This post explores how OCR, document-specific models, and easy-to-use APIs can redefine development workflows and outlines exactly how to transform tedious document processing into one of your project’s biggest strengths.

 

What makes document processing so challenging?

Before we talk solutions, it’s essential to understand the pain points that developers and AI professionals face when dealing with documents.

1. Limited tools for unstructured data extraction
   Many developers start with generalized tools like basic OCR or open-source libraries. While these can handle simple text extraction, they often fail when presented with unstructured formats, handwritten notes, or tables embedded in complex layouts.
2. Reliance on manual corrections
   Generic OCR services frequently produce inconsistent or incomplete results, forcing teams to spend countless hours making manual corrections. This not only defeats the goal of automation but also limits scalability.
3. Fragmented APIs
   Fragmented APIs or poorly documented tools delay development. Without clear guides, SDKs, or sandbox environments, developers spend valuable time troubleshooting rather than building.
4. Accuracy issues in AI models
   General-purpose LLMs or solutions built on top of them often hallucinate or produce missing, inconsistent, or unreliable results. The data they generate might skip entire sections or misinterpret essential input, which can cripple document-heavy workflows.
5. Need for scalability
   Handling high document volumes, supporting multiple languages, and working across diverse formats requires robust, scalable solutions. Poorly chosen tools force developers to handle scalability themselves, adding complexity and increasing costs.

Unlocking efficiency with purpose-built APIs

To overcome these challenges, developers and AI professionals are turning to purpose-built tools like ABBYY’s Document AI API. Unlike generic OCR or open-source models, these APIs are designed specifically to handle complex document processing at scale. Here’s how they solve common pain points:

• High accuracy with real-world documents
  ABBYY's OCR technology achieves over 90% accuracy, even with complex, unstructured data such as receipts, invoices, contracts, and handwritten text. Hallucinations are eliminated, ensuring reliable extraction of structured data.
• Effortless integration for developers
  With self-service onboarding, intuitive APIs, and detailed documentation, ABBYY empowers developers to integrate OCR and document processing capabilities seamlessly into their workflows. Developers can leverage SDKs, code samples, and sandboxes, as well as pre-trained models for common business documents to start building within minutes.
• Purpose-built for automation
  Unlike general-purpose tools, ABBYY’s API is engineered for business documents. It’s optimized for everything from invoice data extraction to contract review, delivering consistent results across use cases.
• Scalable and cost-effective
  Whether you’re working on a proof-of-concept or deploying a large-scale solution, ABBYY offers flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing that scales with your needs.

How to integrate document processing with ABBYY’s API

Looking to modernize your development workflow? Here’s a step-by-step approach to streamline document processing using ABBYY’s Document AI API.

1. Set up your API environment
   Sign up on ABBYY’s platform and create an API key. With quick onboarding and no upfront payments, getting started is seamless. Access the sandbox environment to test capabilities.
2. Load your first document
   Choose the document type you want to process (e.g., invoices, forms, or declarations). The API supports a wide range of file formats, including PDFs, images, and scanned files.
3. Extract data
   With just a few lines of code, you can transform unstructured input into structured formats like JSON or HTML. ABBYY supports extracting full text, field-level data, or logical information (such as tables or hierarchies).
4. Customize outputs
   Fine-tune outputs to match your workflow requirements. ABBYY’s pre-trained models support multi-language documents, handwritten content, and complex layouts, making customization straightforward.
5. Deploy seamlessly
   Integrate outputs into your broader automation workflows, whether for AI model training, financial analysis, or customer onboarding pipelines.
6. Test and scale
   Run QA on extracted data to verify accuracy for specific workflows. ABBYY’s scalable infrastructure ensures consistent performance—even as document volumes grow.

Leading use cases for document processing

Implementing robust, accurate OCR tools opens pathways to efficiency across industries. Here are some standout applications powered by ABBYY’s Document AI API.

1. AI model training and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
   Need high-quality input data for machine learning? Large language models (LLMs) are powerful, but they require accurate and structured data retrieval to generate useful responses. In RAG systems and domain-specific LLM training, document processing ensures that high-quality data is extracted and structured before being fed into retrieval mechanisms or training datasets. The Document AI API not only performs OCR but also understands document layouts, tables, and sections—essential for indexing relevant knowledge, preventing errors, and enhancing AI-driven applications.
2. KYC and account opening
   In financial services, insurance, telecom, and other industries, customer onboarding involves processing “proof-of”-type documents such as identity documents, utility bills, bank statements, and pay stubs. Extracting accurate customer details from these documents is critical for compliance and a smooth onboarding experience. The Document AI API automates this extraction, accelerating customer service, reducing manual data entry errors and speeding up account setup.
3. Customs clearance
   Global trade relies on accurate processing of shipping documents, commercial invoices, and declarations. Customs clearance workflows require extracting data like HS codes, item descriptions, and declared values from documents in multiple formats and languages. The Document AI API ensures compliance and reduces delays by providing structured and validated document data.
4. Order processing
   Businesses processing high volumes of purchase orders need an automated way to extract relevant details like product names, quantities, and pricing. A robust document processing solution ensures that order data is correctly captured and integrated into supply chain systems, reducing fulfillment errors and improving efficiency.
5. Invoice processing
   Accounts payable teams handle invoices in various formats, making it challenging to extract key details such as line items, totals, due dates, and vendor information. The pre-trained invoice processing models of the Document AI API streamlines invoice parsing by automatically extracting these fields, recognizing different invoice formats, and integrating seamlessly with accounting systems.
6. Expense management
   Expense reporting requires processing various receipts and invoices. Automating this workflow ensures that expense details are accurately extracted, categorized, and reconciled with finance systems. With pre-trained models, the Document AI API streamlines this process, reducing manual work and improving financial transparency.

Why developers trust ABBYY

ABBYY’s Document AI API has been purpose-built for developers who need accuracy, scalability, and reliability. Here are the standout features that set it apart.

• Unmatched accuracy: Delivers over 90% data extraction accuracy, even with complex, unstructured data.
• Effortless onboarding: With a self-service platform and free trial, developers can test and deploy quickly.
• Scalable cloud-based solutions: Supports high document volumes without performance issues.
• Pre-trained models: Optimized for key business documents such as invoices, receipts, and purchase orders, saving developers significant time during setup.
• Comprehensive documentation: ABBYY provides SDKs, samples, and extensive guides to reduce troubleshooting time.

Start working smarter today

With the right tools, document processing doesn’t have to be a bottleneck in your development workflow. ABBYY’s Document AI API makes it effortless to integrate high-accuracy document processing and OCR, structured JSON output, and reliable automation into your projects.

Join the waitlist now to try ABBYY’s Document AI API, and experience a smarter, faster approach to tackling documents—from invoices to unstructured data—with best-in-class results. Don’t wait to transform how you approach document processing.

Take control of your workflow today!