How Much Does AI Document Processing System Development Cost?

Many businesses are looking to automate their document processing efforts with AI. Modern machine learning is capable of extracting data from complex multi page documents, analyzing it to provide insights and help with making data-driven decisions. However, one of the primary considerations for organizations looking to adopt this technology is the cost of development.

In this article we provide a guideline for assessing the cost of your AI document processing project, and provide budget estimations for projects of different complexity. 

Smart Document Processing Capabilities

Modern machine learning algorithms and neural models are capable of processing complex documents with high accuracy.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

OCR, or optical character recognition, is a set of algorithms and neural models aimed at detecting text and special characters in an image. OCR has been widely used in the industry to detect simple typed text, but with the recent developments in AI technology it’s now used to detect both typed and written text, as well as special symbols, including custom ones.

OCR is used to digitize both structured and unstructured documents, capturing critical information, and providing actionable insights for better decision-making.

Smart Document Processing

These days AI is not only capable of simply detecting text on a page, it’s used to solve far more complex tasks. Neural models are capable of detecting document type and its layout, extracting context-dependent context, like field titles and field content, and extracting the data in uneasy to process format.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) & Large Language Models

AI is now not only capable of extracting the data, but understanding it on a deep level. Large language models like BERT and GPT can be used to generate a summary of a document, correct text recognition mistakes, and can be trained on the data from the documents to create a smart knowledge database.

AI Document Processing Applications

Smart document processing has found its uses in many industries across the market. From accounting and insurance to jurisprudence and healthcare, AI aids in document digitization and smart processing efforts.

Insurance Claims Processing

AI-powered document processing systems can extract data from tax forms and insurance claims, like policyholder name, claim and policy number, coverage details, bank account details, thus automating data entry and significantly cutting down on time needed to process each claim.

Automatic claim verification and risk assessment helps companies weed out claim submissions that go against policy details and make informed claim approval decisions.

Financial Document Data Extraction

Documents like invoices, purchase orders, receipt, loan applications, forms like W9 and others, can be processed using AI. By extracting relevant data like invoice numbers, transaction amounts, payment terms, and vendor details, the task of processing finance documents can be fully automated, completely eliminating the human factor.

AI can be integrated into a finance document handling ecosystem and aid in expense management by streamlining the processing of expense reports and receipts, financial auditing by quickly gathering and analyzing financial data, supporting comprehensive and efficient audit processes.

Architectural Drawing Analysis

AI is not only capable of working with typed or handwritten text. Modern computer vision algorithms can process complex documents, like architectural drawings, and extract valuable insights. AI can analyze the drawing and extract design elements, zoning information, room labels, electrical layouts, doors, windows, electrical outlets, and more.

Extracted data can assist specialists in preparing accurate cost estimation for construction projects, ensure regulatory compliance, and streamline the material ordering process.

Processing Of Logistics Documents

Logistics documents like packing lists, bills of lading, certificates of origin, and purchase orders can be automatically processed by AI systems to extract relevant information, accelerate onboarding and compliance, improve audit readiness, and automatically classify documents.

AI helps to not only process the documents, but improve the overall workflow:  it can help track shipments by automating the extraction of tracking numbers and statuses from shipping documents, manage inventory by automatically updating inventory levels based on shipping and receiving documents, forecast demand and optimize supply chain planning by utilizing shipment and inventory data.

Judicial Documents Automation

Another field dealing with a large amount of documents is law. Court rulings, deeds, affidavits, POAs all contain plenty of data which can be used to gain insights, put together statistics, and more. AI can simplify case tracking by automating the organization and retrieval of case files, extract specific data points like party names, case numbers, dates, signatures, monetary amounts, and relevant statutes or case citations, or create a smart document repository with AI-enhanced search capabilities, stringent security with access controls, that integrate seamlessly with other legal systems for efficient document management.

Healthcare Document Processing

Health records, invoices, and lab results can all be digitized and automatically processes using modern AI. Not only does AI extract data like patient name, ages, and ID, medical histrory and diagnosis codes, it can also improve regulatory compliance by extracting necessary information for compliance reports, identify trends by analyzing extracted data to develop better treatment protocols, manage and organize appointment data to ensure that all patient visits are documented and tracked efficiently.

The Cost Of AI Development

One of the main misconceptions about AI is that due to its popularity it’s affordable and easily attainable. Artificial intelligence software, despite it being widely used in many business operations, is complex to develop and takes a lot of time and, consequently, money.

It’s crucial to calculate as precisely as possible the cost of AI development beforehand to avoid wasting time on looking for an AI development team and disappointment when the total project cost doesn’t fit your budget.

Calculating the development project is not the main step in the process of assessing the cost of AI development. In our opinion, calculating how much money it takes to complete a task you’re looking to automate now, using manual labor, is far more important. On the surface, it may seem like automating a certain task is the most sensible approach, when in reality, implementing an AI system to replace human labor is more often than not too expensive and not as effective compared to human labor.

Estimate Project Scope

Some AI systems are smaller and less complex than others, and understanding where your project lies on this spectrum is the best way to get a precise project cost estimation.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to understand the size of the project at hand:

Define The Project Goal

Define a precise goal of the AI system, whether it’s looking for a specific piece of information within a document, detecting forest fires, or facial recognition for an onboarding process. It’s better to define the goal as precisely as possible, e.g. “an AI for detecting if a document has been signed and by who” instead of “an AI for processing documents automatically”.

Define The AI Type

Object recognition and classification, OCR, natural language processing, data analysis are all different in what type of AI models are used and how complex they are. Defining what type of an AI model your project requires will help with estimating the total project complexity and, therefore, its cost.

How Much Does AI Document Processing Cost

A precise estimation of an AI document processing project cost can only be done after a consultation with a software development provider of your choice as there are too many variables when it comes to AI development, each of which have a significant effect on the project cost. For a precise price calculation, we suggest talking to a trusted AI development vendor.

Based on our experience with developing custom AI document processing systems, we can provide a general guideline for assessing a document processing project cost:

• Developing a basic IDP project with minimal functionality, such as integrating with cloud-based intelligent services like Azure Document Intelligence or AWS Textract to identify patterns in documents, typically requires at least 150 hours,
• More substantial IDP projects that involve object classification and recognition in documents generally need between 1000 and 2500 hours of development,
• Larger IDP initiatives, designed to manage complex document processing at scale, can extend over multiple years.

With the average rate of AI developers being $50, an AI document processing project costs between $5000 and $125.000+. Here's a breakdown of the AI project cost based on its complexity:

• A straightforward IDP project leveraging simple pattern detection and predictive capabilities provided by cloud-based services may start at approximately $7,500.
• A modest IDP project featuring object detection tailored to various types and formats of documents may begin around $50,000. This includes development on our bespoke IDP solution and integrations to enhance overall functionality.
• More extensive IDP projects, integrating multiple advanced functionalities for high-volume and complex document processing, typically start at $200,000.

Assess Additional Costs

While additional costs are not the main chunk of the total investment, they are important to keep in mind when assessing whether an AI system is worth it for your business.

Cloud Renting Fees

A lot of custom software runs in-cloud, meaning you need to pay a monthly or yearly fee for renting servers. These costs are usually small enough to not have a large impact on the overall cost of development, but AI systems are different in this regard. AI systems require servers with powerful GPUs to run efficiently, and those tend to be more expensive, thus increasing the cost of a monthly system upkeep.

Post-launch Support

If you’re looking to develop a complex AI system, or an AI system which will be used by dozens of employees, you need to account for tech support to guide users through the system and fix any bugs or malfunctions a system may experience.

Additional Development

Another important cost to consider is the cost of additional development. During the system operation you may develop a need for additional functionality. For example, you may need to start processing new document types. These additions can be costly, so you need to keep them in mind when calculating the total project budget.

How To Choose An AI Development Company

There are multiple steps you can take to make a well-informed decision when it comes to hiring a AI development company:

1. Take a look at platforms like Clutch, Manifest, Upwork and Goodfirms to read client reviews and testimonials to get a better idea of past company projects and overall customer satisfaction,
2. Analyze the size of the vendor as large companies are more likely to have enough resources to provide a dedicated team for your project when compared to smaller vendors,
3. It is important to have a clear understanding whether your outsourcing provider complies with local and international standards like HIPAA, ISO, PCI, and has data security protocols and solid security policy in place,
4. Ask your potential vendor the right questions to be sure that the provider is reliable. Compile a list of questions that you can ask a software development outsourcing company that will help you get all the important information about the vendor. Questions like “Has your company received any industry awards?” and “Do you have experience working with companies of our size and in our industry?” will help you understand the company’s market presence and its average client. Questions like “How do you ensure information security in the workplace?” and “Do you have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan?” will get you an understanding of the company’s facilities and the security practices,
5. Take a look at a company’s portfolio on their website, platforms like Clutch or Goodfirms, or ask the provider directly for a portfolio of successfully delivered computer vision projects,
6. Evaluate the tech stack the company works with and assess the skills of its computer vision developers:
   • 2-5 years of experience in the field of artificial intelligence development,
   • Experience with data science, cloud development, AI system development, big data,
   • Technical stack: Tesseract, Python, OpenCV, TensorFlow, Cafe, etc.,
   • Experience in the development of machine learning models as well as creating and balancing datasets,
   • History of working with object recognition, natural language processing, OCR.

Why choose Businessware Technologies as your software development company?

• Businessware Technologies is a reliable AI development vendor: it has been recognised as one of the top software development companies by Clutch and Manifest, it is a Top Rated Plus agency Upwork, and has received local awards for its excellent work,
• A team of over 70 highly skilled software engineers with extensive experience in developing complex software for both startups and Fortune 500 companies,
• Deep expertise in modern AI technologies and approaches to system development, like data science, machine learning, OpenCV, Python, Tesseract, and many more,
• Businessware Technologies is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner,
• Businessware Technologies is compliant with GDPR, ISO 9001, ISO 27001 standards,
• Businessware Technologies works with Fortune 500 companies and has had decades-long relationships with most of its clients,
• Businessware Technologies has proven to be a reliable AI outsourcing partner by having an excellent track record in AI and ML development backed by an extensive portfolio of successful projects.

If you have a computer vision project in mind and need help with implementation, contact our manager and they will be happy to help you.