HSBC is working towards the introduction of artificial intelligence to global trade, by applying IBM’s optical character recognition and cognitive technology to automate the processing of paper documents in trade finance transactions, GTNews reported. The solution employs several IBM tools, including optical character recognition, to identify relevant documents and read the information to find the parts required before feeding the insights back to the bank’s transaction processing systems. The technology can analyze the 100 million documents that HSBC’s global trade and receivables finance team currently processes annually to service customers, enabling staff to focus on other areas of their job instead of manually reading through invoices, packing lists and insurance documents. “The average trade transaction requires 65 data fields to be extracted from 15 different documents, with 40 pages to be reviewed,” said Natalie Blyth, HSBC’s global head of GTRF. “By digitizing this process we will make transactions quicker and safer for both buyers and suppliers.”
