# Document AI vs OCR: what does your workflow need?
OCR makes text machine-readable. Document AI can add classification and structured extraction. Your choice depends on the documents and what must happen next.
## Separate text recognition from interpretation
Optical character recognition, or OCR, converts text in images into machine-readable text. It does not by itself establish which amount is the relevant total or whether a statement belongs to the applicant. Document AI is a broader label for systems that may classify documents, extract fields and interpret their layout or contents.
## When OCR and rules may be enough
Stable forms, predictable layouts and a small number of fields may work well with OCR followed by explicit rules. Documents that already contain usable digital text may not need OCR at all. Test this simpler route first if the source format is controlled and exceptions are easy to recognise.
## When broader document processing helps
Variable layouts, mixed document bundles and fields expressed in different ways may justify classification or model-based extraction. The benefit is reduced manual interpretation, but outputs still need validation. A generated answer can be plausible and wrong, so preserve source references and make uncertainty actionable for reviewers.
## Compare systems on your own documents
Give candidate approaches the same representative set and the same expected outputs. Compare important field errors, missed documents, source traceability, reviewer effort and processing cost. Include files the system should reject. Do not equate a vendor's published accuracy figure with performance on your application route.
## Buy the complete operating capability
Check data handling terms, deployment options, supported formats and how changes to the service are communicated. Ask how failures appear to operators and how corrected values are retained. OCR and document AI can be used together; the purchasing decision is about the complete path to dependable information, not the label on one component.
## Related reading
- [How to put document AI into an operational workflow](/solutions/guides/implementing-document-ai)
- [Document processing for lenders](/solutions/lending-document-processing)
- [Legal case intelligence](/solutions/legal-case-intelligence)
- [AI knowledge search for professional services](/solutions/professional-services-knowledge-search)
- [AI-assisted case triage and review](/solutions/ai-case-triage)
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