A recent study conducted by Nitro found that 75-95% of the employees and executives surveyed use AI for document processing—including data extraction, PDF tasks, and contract summaries.
However, when these individuals don’t have access to the right kind of AI tools, they report turning to unapproved—or shadow IT—solutions to speed up workflows, which creates security and compliance risk.
Enterprise AI: The Reality Behind The Hype
To reinforce the importance of providing teams with the right AI tool for the right job, let’s look at the difference between chatbots and functional AI in terms of automating document workflows.
Chatbots are great for ad hoc tasks that follow a pre-programmed set of actions, but they aren’t designed to enforce consistent rules for formatting, redaction, or compliance, or to extract data hidden deep in document tables, images, or free text.
Unlike chatbots, functional AI can physically execute redaction, conversion, and data extraction tasks directly within business processes and systems, rather than simply responding to prompts.
This guide explains why scaling document workflows requires both conversational AI to answer common questions and functional AI to perform repeatable tasks on a high volume of documents with consistency, control, and predictable cost.
Chatbots vs. functional AI: What’s the difference?
Chatbot AI and functional AI play distinct roles in document workflows: AI-assisted chatbots answer questions and help users understand documents through conversation. Functional AI performs tasks directly on documents, such as redaction, data extraction, and file conversion.
What chatbots and functional AI do best:
Chatbots:
- Respond to prompts and questions
- Help summarize or generate content
- Improve individual productivity
Functional AI:
- Execute document tasks automatically
- Process files at scale
- Integrate into workflows and systems
Benefits of using functional AI to automate document workflows at scale
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Functional AI tools autonomously execute editing, redaction, conversion, and data extraction tasks within workflows, not just through user prompts. This intelligent automation provides several benefits for teams that process a high volume of documents:
Improve redaction and compliance
AI can identify and remove sensitive information across large document sets, applying consistent rules without relying on manual review.
Simplify conversion and document handling
Users can reduce friction and save time using the same tool to convert files, edit PDFs, and standardize formats within a single workflow.
Extract structured and unstructured data
Functional AI can pull key data from contracts, forms, tables, handwritten notes, and PDFs, turning static documents into usable information.
Reduce tool sprawl and shadow IT
By consolidating document tasks into a single platform, functional AI reduces the need for multiple point solutions and unapproved tools.
Perfectly provision license utilization
Universal access to core document features allows organizations to align licenses with actual usage instead of over- or under-provisioning.
Create more predictable software costs
Replacing fragmented tools that incur usage-based overages with a functional AI solution that offers a controllable pricing structure makes costs easier to forecast and control.
Nitro understands the importance of giving your team the right AI tools at the right time. So, we offer both generative AI and functional AI solutions that support and simplify document workflow automation.
Nitro’s AI assistants improve how teams interact with documents
Nitro’s AI-assisted solutions, like Document Assistant and Knowledge Assistant, reduce time spent searching for information or learning how to use our solutions.
- Document Assistant: Allows users to ask questions about a PDF, summarize content, or translate information
- Knowledge Assistant: Provides real-time help with product features and workflows
Nitro’s functional AI tools automate document tasks at scale
Nitro’s functional AI tools reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and allow teams to handle higher document volumes without increasing workload.
- Nitro Smart Redact: Identifies sensitive information in documents and flags it for removal, reducing manual review time
- Form Extract: Pulls key information from PDFs and converts it into structured data
- Table Extract: Transforms table data into clean, usable spreadsheets
- Form Create: Converts static documents into fillable forms
- Field Detection: Automatically places signature and input fields for document workflows
All Nitro AI-powered solutions include enterprise-grade security and compliance that safeguards sensitive data throughout the document lifecycle. Visit the Nitro Trust Center to learn more.
Functional AI is setting the standard for document workflow automation
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Our research is clear: When AI provides specific, measurable benefits to your document workflows, the results are high adoption, time savings, and measurable ROI.
If you want to transform and automate your document workflows, Nitro’s functional AI solutions are a top choice for high-volume document processing, consistent, rules-based automation, and reduced reliance on manual work.