Einstein OCR
As technology evolves, the use of AI is becoming increasingly notable in the business arena. In fact, the AI industry market size is expected to be worth $266.92 billion by 2027. Salesforce has moved quite a bit into the AI space, continuously making its AI products accessible and easy to use for its customers. One of the prominent examples is Einstein OCR.
What is OCR?
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, and it represents a process of electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten, or printed text into machine-encoded text. According to Wikipedia, OCR’s inception happened over 100 years ago (in 1914), and its original purpose was to create reading devices for the blind.
What is Einstein OCR?
Einstein OCR is a Salesforce-owned product that was announced in April 2019. Einstein OCR is broadly related to two categories under the Salesforce AI-powered products: Einstein Language and Einstein Vision.
Einstein Vision — is leaning towards imagery as it uses the power of AI and deep learning to recognise and organise images at scale. Users can either apply an existing AI model or train a new one. Einstein Vision can be applied in a broad array of specialised image-recognition use cases without needing a data scientist in the team.
Einstein Language — is designed to work with text. It uses the same AI capabilities to create natural language processing models to analyse the unstructured text, uncover the intent behind the text, and assort the text based on its positive, negative, or neutral undertone. Einstein Language can be helpful as a filter for companies that operate with customer support or account management through text, such as email, social media, or website inquiries.
Einstein OCR — The primary goal of the product is to gather details about customers, making everyday repetitive tasks more efficient. Customers can leverage its computer vision to analyse documents and extract relevant information, automating data collection and entry as they move through their day.
Even though it can be related to both categories, Einstein OCR falls under Einstein Vision.
Einstein OCR Use Cases
Finding the fitting use case will depend on the business need. However, the most important thing to remember is that this product is designed to save time by simplifying tasks that take up a large portion of a regular workday.
For instance, sales reps can use Einstein OCR to upload a business card from a prospect and easily classify the data captured from the image file, automatically tying it up with the corresponding Salesforce record.
Below are some examples of use cases that you might find applicable to your business:
- Scanning business cards for lead or contact capture
- Reading standardised documents such as contracts, invoices, orders, and quotes
- Track or verify IDs in Salesforce
- Track employee information (e.g. scanning driver’s licences to collect details such as location, date of birth, or expiration date)
- Scanning serial numbers on products
- Scanning vehicle license plates
- Collecting relevant data from forms
- Scanning readings on medical devices
- Reading data from price sheets
Final thoughts
Currently, Einstein OCR can be used for free up to 2000 API calls per month, and if you need more — you can level up by signing up for Einstein Vision.
Recently, Einstein OCR came out with its newest ability — reading handwriting. In case you wish to know more, watch our demo or reach out to us for a chat.
