What is IDP?
Intelligent document processing (IDP) combines OCR with machine learning and language models to classify documents, extract fields and validate them against business rules.
In more detail
OCR turns pixels into text. IDP goes further. It recognizes that a page is an invoice rather than a delivery note, finds the supplier, date, totals and line items wherever they sit, checks that the numbers add up and flags what it is unsure about. The output is structured data for your system, with a confidence score per field. Modern IDP uses layout-aware models and LLMs, which handle new formats without per-supplier templates. Test on your worst documents, not the clean samples. Skewed scans, handwriting and multi-page tables decide whether it works. Keep a review step for low-confidence fields.
Example
A logistics company receives bills of lading from 200 carriers in different layouts. IDP reads the shipper, consignee, weights and reference numbers, and sends only low-confidence documents to a clerk.