Model Mondays S2E10: Automating Document Processing with AI
1. Weekly Highlights We kicked off with the top news and updates in the Azure AI ecosystem: Agent Factory Blog Series: A new 6-part blog series on designing reliable, agentic AI—exploring multi-step, collaborative agents that reflect, plan, and adapt using tool integrations and design patterns. Text PII Preview in Azure AI Language: Now redacts PII (like date of birth, license plates) in major European languages, with better accuracy for UK bank entities. Claude Opus 4.1 in Copilot Pro & Enterprise: Public preview brings smarter summaries, tool assistant thinking, and "Ask Mode" in VS Code.Now leverages stronger computer vision algorithms for table parsing—achieving 94-97% accuracy across Latin, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean—with sub-10ms latency. Mistral Document AI in Azure Foundry: Instantly turn PDFs, contracts, and scanned docs into structured JSON with tables, headings, and LaTeX support. Serverless, multilingual, secure, and perfect for regulated industries. 2. Spotlight On: Document Intelligence with Azure & Mistral This week’s spotlight was a hands-on exploration of document processing, featuring both Microsoft and Mistral AI experts. Why Document Processing? Unstructured data—receipts, forms, handwritten notes—are everywhere. Modern document AI can extract, structure, and even annotate this data, fueling everything from search to RAG pipelines. Azure Document Intelligence: State-of-the-art OCR and table extraction with super-high accuracy and speed. Handles multi-language, complex layouts, and returns structured outputs ready for programmatic use. Mistral Document AI: Transforms PDFs and scanned docs into JSON, retaining complex formatting, tables, images, and even LaTeX. Supports custom schema extraction, image/document annotations, and returns everything in one API call. Integrates seamlessly with Azure AI Foundry and developer workflows. Demo Highlights: Extracting Receipts: OCR accurately pulls out store, date, and transaction details from photos. Handwriting Recognition: Even historical documents (like Thomas Jefferson’s letters) are parsed with surprising accuracy. Tables & Structured Data: Financial statements and reports converted into structured markdown and JSON—ready for downstream apps. Advanced Annotations: Define your own schema (via JSON Schema or Pydantic), extract custom fields, classify images, summarize documents, and even translate summaries—all in a single call. 3. Customer Story: Oracle Health Oracle Health shared how agentic AI and fine-tuned models are revolutionizing clinical workflows: Problem: Clinicians spend hours on documentation, searching records, and manual data entry—reducing time for patient care. Solution: Oracle’s clinical AI agents automate chart reviews, data extraction, and even conversational Q&A—while keeping humans in the loop for safety. Technical Highlights: Multi-agent architecture understands provider specialty and context. Orchestrator model "routes" requests to the right agent or plugin, extracting needed arguments from context. Fine-tuning was key: For low latency, Oracle used lightweight models (like GPT-4 Mini) and fine-tuned on their data—achieving sub-800ms responses, with accuracy matching larger models. Fine-tuning also allowed for nuanced tool selection, argument extraction, and rule-based orchestration—better than prompt engineering alone. Used LoRA for efficient, targeted fine-tuning without erasing base model knowledge. Live Demo: Agent summarizes patient history, retrieves lab results, filters for abnormals, and answers follow-up questions—all conversationally. Fine-tuned orchestrator chooses the right tool and context for each doctor’s workflow. Result: 1-2 hours saved per day, more time for patients, and happier doctors! 4. Key Takeaways Here are the key learnings from this episode: Document AI is Production-Ready: Azure Document Intelligence and Mistral Document AI offer fast, accurate, and customizable document parsing for real enterprise needs. Schema-Driven Extraction & Annotation: Define your own schemas and extract exactly what you want—no more one-size-fits-all. Fine-Tuning Unlocks Performance: For low latency and high accuracy, fine-tuning lightweight models beats prompt engineering in complex, rule-based agent workflows. Agentic Workflows in Action: Multi-agent systems can automate complex tasks, route requests, and keep humans in control, especially in regulated domains like healthcare. Community & Support: Join the Discord and Forum to ask questions, share use cases, and connect with the team. Sharda's Tips: How I Wrote This Blog Writing this recap is all about sharing what I learned and making it practical for the community! I start by organizing the key highlights, then walk through customer stories and demos, using simple language and real-world examples. Copilot helps me structure and clarify my notes, especially when summarizing technical sections. Here’s the prompt I used for Copilot this week: "Generate a technical blog post for Model Mondays S2E10 based on the transcript and episode details. Focus on document processing with Azure AI and Mistral, include customer demos, and highlight practical workflows and fine-tuning. Make it clear and approachable for developers and students." Every episode inspires me to try these tools myself, and I hope this blog makes it easy for you to start, too. If you have questions or want to share your own experience, I’d love to hear from you! Coming Up Next Week Next week: Text & Speech AI Playgrounds! Learn how to build and test language and speech models, with live demos and expert guests. | Register For The Livestream – Aug 25, 2025 | Register For The AMA – Aug 29, 2025 | Ask Questions & View Recaps – Discussion Forum About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series to build your Azure AI IQ with: 5-Minute Highlights: News & updates on Mondays 15-Minute Spotlight: Deep dives into new features, models, and protocols 30-Minute AMA Fridays: Live Q&A with product teams and experts Get started: Register For Livestreams Watch Past Replays Register For AMA Recap Past AMAs Join The Community Don’t build alone! Join the Azure AI Developer Community for real-time chats, events, support, and more: Join the Discord Explore the Forum About Me I'm Sharda, a Gold Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador focused on cloud and AI. Find me on GitHub, Dev.to, Tech Community, and LinkedIn. In this blog series, I share takeaways from each week’s Model Mondays livestream.
