Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become indispensable tools in today’s fast-paced business world. One of the key issue issues has been the time, cost, and expertise required to automate processes like document automation. This is where Zero Shot Learning (ZSL) comes in.
Today, automation is necessary for companies looking to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve accuracy. Document automation, in particular, plays a crucial role in sectors such as finance and logistics, where countless documents need to be processed efficiently.
However, traditional methods of document automation often involve lengthy model training, limited flexibility, and ongoing maintenance. Zero-shot learning could solve this by requiring no data or training.
In this blog post, we will explore how Zero Shot revolutionizes document automation, providing instant and hassle-free solutions for businesses seeking to optimize their document processing.
What is Zero Shot Learning?
In machine learning, accurately categorizing objects from previously unseen classes is crucial for achieving truly independent systems that recognize objects independently. This is precisely where Zero Shot Learning (ZSL) comes into the picture.
ZSL represents a machine learning model that uses the power of pre-trained deep learning models to generalize on new categories of samples, where the classes in the training and testing sets are distinct and unrelated.
The fundamental concept behind Zero Shot learning is to transfer the knowledge acquired from training instances to classify testing instances effectively. In essence, ZSL operates as a subfield of transfer learning, which revolves around leveraging knowledge obtained from one task to apply it to another related task.
In traditional machine learning approaches, machines heavily rely on large volumes of labeled examples to accurately recognize and identify new objects or categories. But this method has limitations, as it necessitates extensive labeled datasets encompassing every potential class or category.
Zero Shot learning addresses this constraint by enabling machines to learn from limited labeled data and generalize their knowledge to previously unseen categories.
This remarkable capability to transfer knowledge and leverage the relationships between different classes, attributes, and features empowers Zero Shot learning as a potent technique for expanding the capabilities of machine learning models.
Why is Zero Shot Automation Essential for Businesses?
Handling numerous documents is a given when you run a business–it cannot be avoided. Manual document processing is a time-consuming and error-prone task that can hinder productivity and introduce inefficiencies.
By automating this process, companies can save valuable time, reduce costs associated with manual data entry, and achieve higher accuracy in data extraction.
Challenges of Traditional Automation
Many businesses want to switch to new OCR providers or automate manual document processing workflows. However, traditional document automation methods often present significant challenges:
- Onboarding time: One major obstacle is the lengthy model training process, which can take weeks to complete. This delay can hinder business operations and impede the desired efficiency gains.
- Training is costly: Traditional automation systems need numerous examples to train the model effectively. Generating many examples requires considerable effort and resources, which can further prolong the implementation of document automation solutions.
- Inflexible models: When confronted with new document types, traditional automation models would need help. These methods often need more flexibility to handle diverse document formats, leading to errors and inconsistencies in data extraction.
- Constant maintenance: The maintenance of these models can be cumbersome, requiring constant updates and adjustments as new document types are encountered.
How Does Zero Shot Solve Issues of Traditional Automation?
To address these challenges, Zero Shot Automation provides an ideal solution. By leveraging Zero Shot classification, businesses can revolutionize their document automation processes.
- Rapid Onboarding: Zero Shot can enable instant onboarding, reducing training from weeks to minutes.
- Flexibility: Businesses can upload any document and specify the fields they want to extract. It can effectively classify and extract data from previously unseen document formats by leveraging the underlying patterns and similarities between documents. This flexibility allows for adding new documents and streamlines the implementation process.
- Cost and Resource Savings: Businesses no longer need to invest significant effort in labeling and training documents, as Zero Shot learning leverages the knowledge already contained in the training instances. With document automation, you could scale seamlessly with costs rising sublinearly.
- Improved Accuracy and Consistency: Get >90% accuracy out of the box, which can be improved further with fine tuning.
Zero Shot Learning presents significant advantages for businesses looking to automate document processing, providing a seamless and efficient solution. Let's go more in-depth about the advantage:
Rapid Onboarding
Model training is a key aspect of document automation. It's required to train the AI to capture the information you need. Traditional automation systems normally take weeks or even months to complete onboarding. You must manually provide examples by marking the required fields on your documents.
The significant advantage of Zero Shot Learning is its ability to eliminate the need for extensive model training. Zero Shot models can implement automation and quickly realize the benefits without delays. With Zero Shot Learning, businesses can achieve faster implementation and quicker time-to-value.
It allows you to upload documents and get results. Try it out now!
Traditional OCR tools require template training, where only data from similar types of documents can be extracted.
Flexibility and Robustness
Traditional OCR tools require template training, where only data from similar types of documents can be extracted. This would require retraining every new document type and format.
Zero Shot Learning offers unparalleled flexibility in handling diverse document types from various sources. Whether documents come from 100 different places or comprise ten different types, Zero Shot Learning can effectively handle the variations.
For instance, if you are an AP team handling receipts, invoices, customer orders, purchase orders, or any other document, you can insert the document into software like Nanonets. The tool will then perform image classification to separate the documents and extract data without training. It can also export data into ERP or a tool of your choice.
The flexibility of ZSL future-proofs the automation solution, as businesses can seamlessly adapt to evolving document types and formats without needing separate models or extensive retraining.
Cost and Resource Savings
Traditional document automation methods often cost $1000s of dollars in employee costs in preparing and maintaining training data. In contrast,
Zero Shot Learning removes this entirely. It also reduces the barrier of entry as you don’t require developers to do the training and setup. Anyone can set this up!
Improved Accuracy and Consistency
Zero Shot Learning is based on cutting-edge technology, which, when paired with state-of-art machine learning models trained over millions of models, can provide much higher accuracy than training a model.
With ZSL, you can see a ~90% accuracy on most document types which can be further fine-tuned. Businesses can rely on the consistency and reliability of Zero Shot Learning to streamline their document processing workflows and make data-driven decisions with confidence.
How does Instant Document Automation with Zero Shot work?
Zero Shot Automation relies on image classification to extract the required document fields. The process can be broken down into the following steps:
- Upload Documents: With Zero Shot Automation, businesses can upload any document, whether it's an ID card, tax statement, salary slip, bank statement, customer order, claim forms, or invoice. This flexibility eliminates the need to train models specifically for each document type.
- Zero Shot Image Classification: The Zero Shot Automation system employs Zero Shot image classification techniques to understand and categorize the uploaded document. It leverages the underlying patterns and semantic relationships between document types to classify and extract the desired fields accurately.
- Specify Fields: Businesses can specify the fields they want to extract once the document is uploaded. For example, they may require information such as name, address, amount, date, or customer ID. This customization enables businesses to tailor the automation to their specific needs.
- OCR Extraction: OCR tools can help extract this data from images or documents. This data can then be exported in any format or directly integrated with other tools.
Real-world example of Instant Document Automation with Zero Shot
To illustrate the power of Zero Shot Automation, let's take the example of one of our clients - a business-to-consumer (B2C) company specializing in simplifying individual tax processes.
This company deals with a high volume of documents, including ID cards for verification, tax statements, salary slips, bank statements, and invoices, totaling one million pages.
This B2C client can significantly streamline their document processing workflow using Zero Shot Automation. The benefits of Zero Shot Automation in this scenario include:
Short Turnaround Time: The company needed better accuracy and were looking to switch OCR providers and move swiftly. With Zero Shot, they could integrate the software within two days.
Multilingual Support: Zero Shot Automation supports multiple languages, including European languages. This capability allows the client to effortlessly process documents in different languages, catering to diverse customers.
Accuracy and Cost Savings: With an impressive accuracy rate of 92%, Zero Shot Automation ensures reliable data extraction. This high accuracy reduces the need for rework and manual intervention, resulting in cost savings. In the case of the B2C client, the increase in accuracy from using Zero Shot Automation leads to savings of $5000 by minimizing errors and improving overall efficiency.
Taking Instant Document Automation to the Next Level with Nanonets
When it comes to instant document automation, Nanonets Zero Shot Extraction offers a powerful solution that simplifies the process and eliminates the need for time-consuming training.
Nanonets learns from your documents and offers the highest accuracy in the market. With features like workflows, you can automate the import, extraction, data cleaning, approvals, and export process!
Nanonets seamlessly works with any structured or unstructured document. Whether it's invoices, receipts, forms, or any other document, Nanonets can handle it. Try it out now!
Conclusion
Zero Shot allows businesses to achieve instant document automation without extensive model training. This revolutionary approach saves valuable time, reduces costs, and enhances accuracy.
Whether operating in the finance or logistics industry, Zero Shot simplifies the onboarding process, provides flexibility in handling diverse document types, and future-proofs your automation efforts.
By harnessing the power of Zero Shot in conjunction with complementary solutions like Nanonets, businesses can transform their document processing workflows, unlocking increased efficiency and gaining a competitive edge in the digital era.
