FINAL WORD
The amount of information in the world is doubling every 22 months, and 90 % of the world’ s information was generated within the last three years. Statista estimates that the amount of stored data globally will reach 175 zettabytes this year, which is nearly 30 times the volume of data in 2018. For all this information to do any good, it must be accessible by the people that need it.
This is the role of Intelligent Document Processing, IDP. The journey of document management mirrors the broader evolution of business technology. When Xerox pioneered copying technology a century ago, we established a foundation for workplace efficiency that continues to this day. Partnerships in South Africa, spanning over 60 years, combine global innovation with local expertise and understanding to bring global best practice to South African workplaces.
Today’ s workplace productivity challenges extend beyond simply moving from paper to digital. Modern organisations require solutions that intelligently bridge these worlds. Paper is not disappearing; billions of pages are still printed monthly worldwide, with many regulations still requiring physical copies and signatures.
In 2025, the market for hardcopy print devices in South Africa has shown 3 % growth – though in comparison, spending on IT services has grown by 8 %. The key is to create intelligent systems that allow for seamless transitions between formats while extracting maximum value from information, regardless of how it is stored.
According to the Association for Information and Image Management, about 80 % of organisations report experiencing some form of backlog in digitising physical records, particularly in industries with high volumes of paper-based records, such as government, healthcare, and legal.
For example, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society reported that 75 % of healthcare organisations face a backlog in digitising medical records. In
The most exciting developments in workplace productivity are happening at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and human expertise.
South Africa, despite digitisation initiatives, it is estimated that 35 – 45 % of healthcare facilities still store physical records.
The good news is that through recent advances in IDP solutions, document management professionals – especially those with a proven mix of knowledge and knowhow – are well positioned to address those backlogs, streamline processes and reduce costs.
According to Gartner, IDP can deliver faster processing up to five times, enabling quicker service delivery, improved customer retention, and better employee experience. IDP can reduce operational costs by up to 90 %, errors by up to 67 %, and exceptional resolution by 40 %.
The most exciting developments in workplace productivity today are happening at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and human expertise. AI-powered tools are transforming how we extract value from unstructured data, including contracts, handwritten forms, invoices, and emails without requiring massive capital investments or complex implementations.
These solutions learn from experience, continuously improving their accuracy and capabilities. Yet human insight, oversight and understanding remain essential for understanding, analysis, handling edge cases and ensuring proper governance.
Xerox set out an agenda for AI as far back as 2017 and today offers a suite of AI-powered technologies and robotic process automation tools aimed at helping businesses automate and streamline their document-processing workflows. Xerox
Intelligent Document Processing will classify and extract information, Generative AI prompts enable precision accuracy on highly unstructured data to optimise what is extracted, and bots are used to automate processes downstream.
Another frontier is augmented reality, which is revolutionising maintenance and support services. 65 %+ of service calls into the Xerox Global Contact Centre are resolved remotely. Technicians can now troubleshoot equipment remotely with expert guidance overlaid in their field of view, dramatically reducing downtime and physical travel. This blending of physical and digital represents the next evolution in how we support mission-critical business processes.
The most successful implementations begin with understanding an organisation’ s current capabilities and building systematically around them. Digital transformation is not about the wholesale replacement of existing systems; it is about thoughtful evolution that respects an organisation’ s culture and capacity for change.
The public sector offers compelling examples of how intelligent document processing can transform service delivery. Government organisations in South Africa and other developing countries report backlogs ranging from 500,000 to five million pages per department.
Many governments have initiated e-Government initiatives, which aim to reduce backlogs over the next 5 – 10 years, but progress has been slow, particularly in rural areas. By automating routine processing while maintaining human
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