Even in this digital dawn, when all sectors of life are rapidly moving towards digitization, some companies still use legacy systems for document management. Manual labor coupled with paper-based processing introduces a significant lag in efficiency and accuracy. Optical character recognition is the technology of this modern age that provides a solution to these corporate woes. A simple picture or a PDF of a document is no longer enough, businesses need to make them machine-readable and editable. OCR, optical character recognition, does exactly that and much more. Given the huge scope of this technology, it is projected to reach $27 billion by 2031. This blog discusses the key use cases where optical character recognition can revolutionize the entire industry.
- Banking and Finance
Financial institutions stand to benefit the most from optical character recognition. Since most transactions are still check-based, banks can deploy OCR solutions directly in their applications. Thereby, eliminating the need for customers to physically deposit the check. Similarly, optical character recognition plays a major role in document verification during the onboarding process. OCR services can eliminate the need for long waiting hours to authenticate user identity documents. Furthermore, banks can save a lot of resources by using this technology to process and manage the bank statements of their customers.
- Insurance
Similarly, optical character recognition shows great promise in the insurance industry. Major issues that are prevalent in this industry are identity verification and forged insurance claims. To curb these illicit activities, insurance firms spend a lot of human hours and resources. However, optical character recognition offers an easier and more accurate method to verify users and their claims. OCR is capable of seamless integration with artificial intelligence, giving it a huge performance boost in verification requests.
- Legal
Like many other organizations, legal firms still work on paper-based tasks. Whether it be personal affidavits, wills, statements, filings, or even judge rulings, all these forms require digitization. Under traditional circumstances, legal firms employ an army of paralegals to handle these laborious tasks. Optical character recognition promises the elimination of this horde of resources that can quickly consume much of the precious resources. Similarly, this technology allows seamless communication with the clients as well.
- Tourism
There is a layer of inefficiency deeply rooted in the tourism industry. For international travelers, it can translate to infinite stops to get their passports verified at airports, taxi services, hotels, resorts, amusement parks, or any other such place. Individually, such checks do not pose a problem. However, when multiple verification stops occur on the same day, it gets tiresome for the travelers as well as the authorities. Optical character recognition provides an intelligent solution to these repetitive tasks.
- Logistics and Transport
The transport industry still uses manual processes to verify shipments and their documents. Such processes are inefficient in this fast-paced world, not to mention the inaccuracies associated with such tasks. Moreover, manual processing of batch logistics can require an additional workforce. Whereas, optical character recognition provides an automated solution for converting text and print data to digital form. In addition to the faster processing, OCR can seamlessly integrate with the management software as well for accurate tracking of the goods.
- Healthcare
Healthcare is an extremely data-sensitive industry. One minor error can result in wrong medicine dosage, inaccurate medical procedures, and even fatal issues in patients. Optical character recognition can help hospitals stay ahead of these errors by digitizing the data collection and processing methods. Moreover, optical character recognition can also be used to create digital forms containing medical history, procedure & medicine details, and insurance data. In short, OCR can streamline all verticals of the healthcare industry resulting in better patient care.
- Retail
The global retail market is worth $27.34 trillion. This huge number represents the sheer amount of transactions and users which are subjected to meager manual processes daily. By implementing optical character recognition, many retail tasks can be automated. For instance, receipt verification, refund claims, and even promo code authentication can benefit from OCR services.
Additional Use Cases of OCR Solutions
Undeniably, all industries in the world can benefit from optical character recognition in some way or another. For instance, government departments have an endless backlog of document processing to do, and that too, manually. Moreover, certain government departments still rely on the stone-age method of paper registers for data storage and retrieval. These manual processes can cost taxpayers a lot. OCR can provide an easy and seamless solution to these ancient problems and bring the governments to the world of today.
On the same note, the automotive industry prints serial numbers on all separate components to ensure accurate assembly. However, manual verification can lead to downtime and inefficiency in the system. Optical character recognition is not limited to banking and financial institutions. OCR technology promises a wide array of applications in almost all sectors of human life.
