Absa has deployed an artificial intelligence and optical character recognition system in its South African debt review team, reporting a 41% increase in document indexing efficiency and a one-day turnaround on all newly received documents and emails. The solution automates extraction and capture of information from standard documents, replacing manual data entry. Debt review has traditionally been document-intensive, requiring information from multiple providers to be captured by hand — a process that produced long cycle times, significant operational effort and elevated risk of human error. “The introduction of an AI/OCR solution in the debt review team has enabled us to automate manual processes and improve operational efficiency,” said Kendrick Chauke, national manager for debt review at Absa. “Rather than replacing roles, this innovation has reduced repetitive tasks and allowed the team to focus on more value-adding activities that require skilled human expertise.”