Technology, known as OCR, that reads printed or handwritten text in images and scanned documents and turns it into editable text.
OCR software analyzes the shapes in an image to identify letters, numbers, and layout. Traditional OCR worked best with clean, printed documents. Modern systems use machine learning to handle photos taken on phones, unusual fonts, tables, and some handwriting.
A common business use is processing receipts and invoices. An accounting app lets a user photograph a receipt, then OCR extracts the vendor, date, and total so the expense can be categorized without manual typing. OCR is also used to digitize archives, read passports at border control, and make scanned PDFs searchable. Errors still occur with poor lighting, faded print, or messy handwriting, so financial and legal data usually needs a validation step.
A field of AI that enables computers to interpret and understand images and video.
Machine LearningA branch of AI in which computers learn patterns from data to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed for each case.
Robotic Process AutomationSoftware bots that mimic human actions on a computer, such as clicking, typing, and copying data, to automate repetitive tasks.
Where AI actually pays off in logistics and supply chain, from demand planning to routing and warehouses, and the data you need before each one works.
A plain-English guide to computer vision: how machines classify and detect objects in images, and where the technology already works in retail, factories and healthcare.
How modern corporate cards and expense apps work for small teams: spend limits, receipt capture, IRS record rules and syncing everything to your books.