Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses operate, from automating repetitive tasks to uncovering deep insights hidden in data and providing new forms to accelerate and improve daily work.
But here’s a hard truth: AI is only as powerful as the data you feed it. And that may not be so well understood.
If your organization’s information is scattered across thousands of file types, buried in compressed archives, or hidden in metadata fields, your AI initiatives will never reach their full potential. That’s why forward-thinking companies and those looking to take advantage of this new business revolution are turning to OpenText™ File Content Extraction—a powerful data extraction solution that makes information AI-ready and fuels extract, transform, load (ETL) pipelines.
Why content extraction is critical for AI
AI thrives on structured, accessible, and high-quality data. Yet, in most organizations, the reality looks more like this:
- Files in dozens of formats: PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations, CAD drawings, emails, and many more. Information is scattered across too many different formats.
- Critical insights locked in metadata, comments, or tracked changes. Often, the most value comes from added input to the original files.
- Protected or encrypted documents that AI cannot parse, which means that information is not processed by your AI tools
- Dark data in legacy formats that systems no longer support, such as older versions or foreign, lesser-known formats from around the world. Remember WordStar?
Without proper data extraction, these files become invisible to AI models, undermining analytics, automation, content processing, and most importantly: decision-making. File content extraction bridges that gap by transforming unstructured and complex information into usable, AI-ready inputs.
Benefits of OpenText File Content Extraction in the age of AI
Whether you’re powering enterprise search, building compliance workflows, or embedding intelligence into your product, OpenText File Content Extraction gives you fast, reliable access to the whole picture—so your AI systems learn from everything, not just what’s easy to access.
Here’s how it delivers value in the AI era:
1. Maximize the value of your data
AI depends on having all relevant information available. OpenText File Content Extraction uncovers text, metadata, and hidden content from over 2,300 file formats (and the list keeps on growing), ensuring that no valuable data is left behind.
2. Turn dark data into AI insights
Legacy files and obscure formats often sit untouched, representing “dark data.” By unlocking them through automated data extraction, organizations feed AI systems with richer datasets, enabling deeper insights and more accurate predictions.
3. Ensure AI-readiness and compliance
Regulatory compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, and financial audits) and strict security guidelines across industries such as government, healthcare, and financial services require visibility into every piece of information. By extracting and normalizing content and metadata, companies can confidently train AI models without overlooking sensitive or governed data.
4. Fuel ETL pipelines and machine learning
AI and analytics systems rely on strong ETL (extract, transform, load) processes. OpenText File Content Extraction plays a critical role in this pipeline by delivering clean, structured outputs that can be transformed and loaded into AI models, search engines, or analytics platforms.
5. Accelerate digital transformation
AI initiatives often stall because organizations can’t standardize their data. With OpenText, data extraction happens at scale and speed, ensuring that information flows seamlessly into modern cloud, analytics, and AI ecosystems.
6. It can be easily embedded
This service is a software solution that can be embedded into your applications via our OEM Solutions portfolio, enabling you to add this specific solution and empower your solution with best-in-class AI-enabled technology. Best of all, it is always updated and upgraded.
Real-world use cases for data extraction
- AI-powered search: Deliver more accurate search results by making all file content indexable.
- Generative AI: Feed clean, comprehensive datasets into large language models to produce relevant, high-quality outputs.
- Risk detection: Use AI to detect sensitive data, intellectual property, or PII once hidden files are fully unlocked.
- Process automation: Streamline workflows such as invoice processing, contract analysis, or case management with AI trained on fully extracted content.
- ETL integration: Power your data pipelines with reliable content extraction, ensuring AI and BI tools receive complete and accurate inputs.
In the AI era, data is the new gold—but raw gold doesn’t reach its actual value until it’s refined. File content extraction and data extraction are the refinery that will help you find success. In other words, the hidden key to AI success is in your ability to extract content!
By leveraging OpenText File Content Extraction within their ETL workflows, organizations can unlock, standardize, and deliver high-quality data to their AI systems, transforming hidden content into actionable intelligence. The result? Smarter AI, faster decisions, stronger compliance, and a true competitive edge.
Learn more about OpenText File Content Extraction
