I recently had the pleasure of presenting alongside Ralph Gammon, Senior Analyst for Infosource, to share new research on the state of intelligent document processing solutions (IDP) across industries. If you work in operations, IT, or finance and you’re wondering why your automation investments aren’t delivering the results you expected—this one’s for you.
The short version: there’s a gap between where organizations think they are on their IDP journey and where they actually are. And closing it requires more than just adding AI on top of what you already have.
What is IDP, and why does it matter now?
What is intelligent document processing? It’s the combination of information capture, AI-powered intelligence, and process automation that turns unstructured business inputs into actionable, structured data. We’re talking not just paper, but emails, PDFs, images, voice, videos, and more.
The business case is real. According to 451 Research, more than a third of employees report the lack of automation and repetitive basic tasks among their biggest obstacles to success. When people are bogged down in manual document handling, it’s harder to focus on the work that actually moves the business forward.
The Infosource IDP maturity model: where are you, really?
Ralph walked us through the Infosource Capture & IDP Market Maturity Model, which maps automation from Level 0 (fully manual) to Level V (agentic AI). Here’s the reality check:
- Most organizations with proven IDP deployments are at Level III, using trained machine learning models for document classification and extraction
- Level IV introduces GenAI for out-of-the-box extraction and summarization, as well as reduced setup time
- Level V is the agentic frontier, where reasoning-enabled LLMs automate end-to-end processes
The important thing to know: Levels IV and V aren’t shortcuts. They build on a solid foundation. If you haven’t nailed Level III, jumping straight to agentic AI will create more problems than it solves. Ralph’s advice was refreshingly practical: start with one process, prove it, then expand.
What the data says about your industry
Infosource’s vertical analysis covers 11 industries, and the picture varies significantly:
- Banking & Financial Services leads in digital maturity and is best positioned for agentic AI, but paper-based workflows are still prominent in onboarding, lending, and compliance
- Insurance is among the most mature verticals, shifting from rule-based processing toward GenAI-powered lifecycle automation across underwriting and claims
- Public Sector has the IT infrastructure but faces budget constraints and AI ethics concerns that slow adoption
- Healthcare sees clinical AI investment outpacing administrative automation, with smaller providers lagging significantly
- Manufacturing & Retail are projected as the fastest-growing IDP adopters over the next five years, driven by supply chain pressure and the shift from basic invoice processing to full purchase-to-pay automation
Across every vertical, paper-based documents remain a significant input. Digital document volumes have surpassed paper in recent years, but the message is clear: don’t count paper out yet.
What makes a strong intelligent document processing solution?
Ralph outlined four must-haves for any IDP platform you’re evaluating:
- Flexible recognition options: OCR/ICR, proprietary AI models, and LLM integrations
- Scalability and security: proven in high-volume, regulated environments
- Complex document handling: not just structured forms, but diverse, multi-document sets
- End-to-end automation: integration with ECM, BPM, RPA, and agentic platforms
How OpenText fits in
I’m proud to share that OpenText was ranked a Star in the 2025 Infosource Global Capture & IDP Vendor Matrix, the top position in the quadrant. Infosource highlighted our wide range of automation capabilities, advanced AI combined with deep content and process management expertise, native SAP and Salesforce integrations, and flexible deployment options that meet organizations wherever they are.
Our OpenText IDP and information capture solutions support the full maturity journey:
- Capture and classify documents from any channel and format
- Extract and validate data with continuous machine learning and LLMs, no templates required
- Automate processes end-to-end with workflow, BPM, and service orchestration
- Unlock insights by asking natural language questions of your captured content
And whether you’re deploying IDP and intelligent capture software on premises, running cloud document processing through the OpenText Private Cloud or a hyperscaler, or somewhere in between with a hybrid approach, we have a deployment path that fits your requirements.
Ready to find out where your organization stands?
The IDP maturity gap is real, but it’s closeable. The organizations seeing the best results aren’t necessarily the ones who deployed the most advanced AI. They’re the ones who built the right foundation first.
Watch the full webinar on demand to get the complete Infosource research findings, vertical-by-vertical breakdown, and a deeper look at how to build your IDP roadmap.
