We’re at the point where AI is in every boardroom, every roadmap, and every vendor pitch. You can’t sit through a demo these days without hearing the words “AI-powered.”
But especially in healthcare and regulated industries, the real challenge isn’t adopting AI—it’s making it useful, responsible, and sustainable.
Let’s be real: AI has massive potential to improve how we work. It can speed things up, cut back on repetitive tasks, and support teams that are already stretched too thin. But it’s not just about dropping in a shiny new tool and calling it innovation. Long-term success comes when AI is embedded into real workflows, backed by strong governance, and actually aligned with how people do their jobs.
That’s how we think about AI at Documo. Not just in terms of what’s possible today—but what will still be working for you six months, a year, or five years from now.
Whether you’re a provider buried in paperwork or a vendor building smarter products, here’s how to think about AI in a way that actually works.
Table of Contents
The Problem Isn’t AI—It’s the Way People Expect It to Work
Let’s start with what AI won’t do.
It’s not going to replace your clinical team. It won’t magically clean up your data warehouse. It’s not going to eliminate compliance risk.
But what it can do—if you roll it out the right way—is handle repetitive, manual work that burns your team out and slows everything down.
We’ve spent a lot of time studying exactly where that friction lives. Think about:
- Referrals faxed in from different providers
- Insurance forms buried in scanned PDFs
- Intake packets that get printed, scanned, and retyped manually
This kind of low-value work doesn’t just waste time—it slows down care, increases risk, and drains your team.
That’s the problem we’re focused on solving with Intelligent Document Processing (IDP): turning messy, unstructured documents into clean, usable data that can move through your systems automatically.
But automation only works when it’s built on a strong foundation.
Step 1: Start With the Real Problem, Not the Tool
The best AI strategies start with a simple question:
What’s actually broken—and why hasn’t it been fixed yet?
“Add AI” shouldn’t be the goal. Solving the right problem should be.
Most of the time, that means goals like:
- Reducing document turnaround time
- Cutting down on manual entry errors
- Freeing up staff for higher-value work
- Speeding up referral or prior auth processing
Once you know the goal, then you figure out the right tool—not the other way around.
We’ve seen the best outcomes when organizations:
- Start with a narrow use case
- Focus on high-volume, rules-based tasks
- Pair tech rollout with smart workflow design and change management
That’s exactly how we approach IDP at Documo: grounded in real operational pain points, not AI just for AI’s sake.
Step 2: Governance Isn’t Flashy—But It’s Everything
AI governance isn’t the sexiest part of the conversation, but it’s what keeps everything running (and out of trouble).
In healthcare, insurance, legal—basically any regulated space—you can’t afford to “move fast and break things.” You have to move smart, stay compliant, and build trust at every step.
That means asking questions early:
- Who has access to what data?
- Can you explain what the model did—and why?
- What happens when the model isn’t confident?
- Can a human step in to verify or correct?
- Are you monitoring performance and drift over time?
We’ve built these guardrails directly into how IDP works. Because if you can’t trust your automation system, it’s not automation—it’s risk.
Step 3: If Your Data’s a Mess, AI Won’t Save You
Here’s the hard truth: most AI failures aren’t about the AI—they’re about the data.
If your documents are:
- Blurry scans
- Filled with inconsistent form fields
- Scribbled with handwritten notes
- Sent through five rounds of analog fax lines
No AI model can make sense of bad inputs—if the source data is a mess, the results will be too.That’s why Documo’s approach is centered on data transformation first. Our platform is built to turn unstructured documents into structured, usable information that flows directly into your downstream systems—EHRs, CRMs, case management tools, whatever you’re working with.
And we do it with scale in mind—whether you’re handling a few dozen pages a day or processing millions a month.
Step 4: Choose Platforms That Won’t Box You In
AI point solutions can be tempting—but they’re also limiting.
You want systems that:
- Work with your existing tools
- Offer open, well-documented APIs
- Build in security and compliance from the start
- Scale as your needs evolve
Documo was built as a platform, not a point solution. That means as your workflows change, your tech doesn’t have to.
Innovative teams are building smarter workflows across faxing, intake, referral handling, and document processing while layering in automation with centralized visibility and control. That’s what future-ready infrastructure looks like.
Step 5: Keep the Human Experience Front and Center
The most important thing to remember? AI doesn’t replace people. It should support them.
The best AI implementations:
- Involve end users early in the process
- Collect feedback and evolve based on real-world use
- Measure things that matter—accuracy, time saved, reduced manual errors
- Help humans make better decisions, faster
AI should make people’s jobs easier. Not more confusing. Not more opaque. Just better.
Final Thoughts: Build What Lasts
Everyone’s excited about what AI can do right now. Fewer people are thinking about what happens next.
What happens when you need to pass an audit? When your team grows? When your document volume triples? When you need to plug into a new system?
That’s the mindset we bring at Documo.
We’re focused on building AI that:
- Solves real problems
- Respects existing workflows
- Keeps your data clean and traceable
- Scales with your business
- Builds trust with your people
If you’re trying to figure out where AI fits in your document workflows, let’s talk.
We’re not chasing trends, we’re helping teams build solutions that actually stand the test of time.
